Page 34 of Wicked Knight 2

Boris was on a warpath. He didn’t like that I had interfered. But I couldn’t stand by and let him hurt a little boy half his size.

“I take it you heard the good news?” Belinda walked into the closet and leaned her hip on the dresser. “Big party tonight. To celebrate the newlyweds. What bullshit.” She rolled her eyes.

I laughed. I appreciated that even though she loved Maxim, she didn’t blame me for taking him away from her. Did I appreciate that she’d been sleeping with my boyfriend for the past year? Nope. But again, it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know Maxim-slash-Luca was mine.

Images of her and Maxim flitted through my mind. Fuck. I had to stop thinking about that. The idea of Luca with someone else made me want to burn this whole place down.

“Yeah, it is bullshit. And now I’m not allowed to leave the room.”

“Maxim mentioned it.” She plopped herself down on the vanity chair.

“You talked to him?” I tried not to sound like the jealous girlfriend.

“No.” She pouted. “I’m mad at him. I heard him talking to Papa in the library.”

“Eavesdropping again?” I laughed, then I realized I’d had the answers to all my questions right in front of me. Belinda had been living here since she was little. She was here the day Maxim came back from Russia. Was he already Maxim then? I pulled out a dress and showed it to her. “What do you think? Too much cleavage?”

“There’s no such thing as too much cleavage.” She winked. “Maxim will come in his pants if he sees you in that.”

“Really?” I eyed the red silky dress. Focus. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

“Sure.”

“Were you and Maxim good friends when you were kids? You two grew up in this house, right?” I asked casually while sorting through the other gowns.

“Not really. He lived in Moscow all his life.” The space between her brows furrowed. “Come to think of it, Papa never mentioned he had a nephew until Maxim showed up.”

“Oh, how long ago was that?”

“About a year ago.” She beamed. “We hit it off right away.”

Papa did something to Luca. I pursed my lips and put the hanger back on the rack. “I can’t imagine how. Maxim is so grumpy all the time.”

“He wasn’t back then.” Her features softened. “When he first came here, he seemed lost. But he was kind. Life with the Brotherhood is hard. He learned that the hard way. If you don’t toughen up, you won’t make it.”

“Does he ever talk about his time in Russia?”

“No.” Her smile faded. She swallowed then shot to her feet. “I forgot I had to help Galina with the food. Um.” She fixed her top, then took off.

“I’ll see you at the party,” I called after her.

“Yeah, bye.”

Did Belinda know about Maxim? Was she in on this insane charade? Fuck. Fuck.

CHAPTER12

No One Has Forever

Maxim

“I about shit my pants when Maxim got up and told those assholes, they either took our deal or there was no deal at all.” Ivan laughed as he told the story for the tenth time tonight.

“I need a drink.” I patted him on the back and left him to tell the group how the rest of the negotiations went.

The good thing about everyone talking about the Irish deal was that they stopped asking me how I was doing as a newlywed. So far, being married was overrated. Donata’s cold-one-minute, hot-the-next exchanges were giving me whiplash.

Not to mention that my own desires were fucking with my head. A part of me felt as if I knew her. As if our lives were intertwined somehow. The other part of me wanted her in the worst way possible. Her scent made me want to have a life that until now I hadn’t considered. I wanted a family with her. How fucked up was that?

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