He folded the scarf over his palm and continued down the stairs.
I stood there for a second, confused, before I followed.
“Did you see what you did to my neck?” I kept my voice low. “Grandma is going to think we…” I paused, “She is going to get ideas.”
He said nothing and walked with absolute serenity.
Grandma’s voice floated out from the dining room before we even reached the door. My hand moved to my neck on instinct, fingers pressing there like I could rub the evidence away in the remaining three seconds I had. Grandma was sharp. One look at me, and she would assume we had sex before joining her for breakfast.
I caught a male voice coming from the dining room as well, and I slowed. Did we have a visitor?
Dmitri walked in ahead of me, and I followed, looking toward the table where Grandma sat across from a man whose back was to me.
“Oh, you two are finally here,” Grandma said with the excitement she always carried.
The man at the table turned, and I stopped before I reached the chair Dmitri pulled out for me.
“Romeo?” The name left my mouth in pure reflex, and I stood there with my brows pulled together. Roman was the last person I expected to find sitting at this table in this house.
“Grace.” He leaned back in his chair, looking at me with the ease of someone who already knew I was coming.
“You two have met?” Grandma’s eyes moved between us.
I turned to answer her, and my gaze crossed Dmitri’s first. The look he gave me was specific. It reminded me that I just calledRoman by the nickname I gave him years ago. Back then, Roman told me his name, and I happened to be reading Romeo and Juliet, so Romeo ended up suiting him.
The explanation I had assembled dissolved somewhere between my brain and my mouth.
“She’s a good friend,” Roman said to Grandma, rescuing the moment without making it look like a rescue.
I sat down beside Dmitri.
“How so?” Grandma pressed, still curious.
“Ask her,” Roman said, and everyone looked at me. I pulled a smile and looked back at Roman. He was looking at my neck with a smirk that communicated everything he had the decency not to say out loud. My smile died. I spent the walk down worrying about Grandma noticing the marks Dmitri left, only to find out that Roman would be the problem.
Seated here, I began to think the hickeys weren’t accidental timing.
But what was Roman doing here? “What are you even doing here?” I asked him.
“What do you mean?” Grandma’s voice carried a note of mild surprise. “He is Dmitri’s brother.”
“Brother,” I repeated, reaching for my cup of coffee. The word sat normally in my mouth for exactly two seconds before my brain caught up with it. I faced Grandma. “Wait. Dmitri’s brother?”
Chapter Thirty-three
Dmitri Konstantinov
I stood by the window,holding my glass and staring out at the ocean. The drink didn’t distract my mind from replaying Inna’s voice and laughter.
Every time I decided to control myself, Inna did something the next day that made my decision seem useless. She was comfortable around Roman in a way I didn’t anticipate and probably should have. I watched her forget I was sitting beside her at that dining table. Their conversation pulled her forward, her whole body turning toward Roman. The stupid nickname slipped from her lips twice, with a familiarity that told me their history ran deeper.
Her face held that particular brightness she didn’t produce for rooms, occasions, or me. Roman knew things about her family that she didn’t know he knew, yet she smiled so warmly at him.
She didn’t notice when I stood up and left. That was an hour ago.
I cleared the glass and refilled it as I turned the thought over one more time. If fucking her would stop me from wanting to puta bullet in my own brother’s skull, then the argument against it was losing ground. I already had Iker moving in the direction I needed. She could leave after and go back to whatever her life looked like before I walked into it. This marriage would end like everything else.
The door opened, and my hand stilled as I lifted the glass. If it were Roman, I would kill him. But he wasn’t stupid enough to come to the third floor.