Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 100416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 502(@200wpm)___ 402(@250wpm)___ 335(@300wpm)
What game is he playing at now?
There had to be some reason behind it, even if he hadn’t seemed particularly cool and collected when he’d gone after her pussy like it owed him money. She shook her head. It didn’t matter what his motivation was. She’d gotten hers, and she hadn’t given anything in the process. Best to put it out of her mind because if the car was stopped, that meant they were back in Boston and she had to face her family.
What was left of it.
Her good mood evaporated. She couldn’t be in the O’Malley house without looking for the missing piece. Every time Keira walked into the library, she half expected to find Devlin holed up with a book, and every time the door to her room opened, she’d held out hope that it would be him coming in to tell her what new brilliance he’d gotten up to with his tech stuff.
She hadn’t realized how much of that pressure had disappeared in New York until she stepped out of the town car and found herself in front of her old home. God, I miss him so much.
Shut it down.
But there was no convenient haze of alcohol or drugs to keep the grief from sinking deep and taking hold. It had been three years since Devlin died, but all that meant was that he should have graduated college by now and be in the middle of his great European adventure. He wasn’t supposed to be dead, rotting six feet underground while the rest of them went on as if nothing had changed.
Nothing, and yet everything.
“Keira.”
She was pathetically grateful for Dmitri’s presence intruding on her thoughts. She turned to find him leaning against the trunk of the car. He caught sight of her expression and pushed to his feet. “Come here.”
“I’m not a dog you can summon whenever you want.” But she took his hand and let him pull her against him. His thighs bracketed her in, but for once she didn’t feel trapped. The contact grounded her the same way his spicy scent did. She inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to calm her racing heart. “I’m fine.”
“I know.” He slipped one hand along her jaw to guide her face up, and then he kissed her as if he’d done it a thousand times before. This wasn’t the claim of ownership their last had been. He brushed his lips across hers once, twice, a third time, and then traced the seam of her mouth with his tongue. Asking.
She gave herself over to the kiss, to him, parting her lips even as she tucked her arms into his jacket to wrap around his waist. What are we doing? The reason—because there was a reason for every single goddamn thing Dmitri did—didn’t matter as much as the distraction he offered. With his tongue stroking hers, she wasn’t thinking about the town house looming behind them, or the coming confrontation, or even the memories that had plagued her for years while she lived in this place.
No, there was room only for this man.
A throat cleared, and she jumped and spun, nearly clocking Dmitri on the chin. He kept her held between his legs, his hands on her hips as she turned to face… “Aiden.”
Her oldest brother and leader of their family. He looked so much like their father with his dark hair and the line of his jaw, but she couldn’t fault him for the similarities because she shared more than a few herself. However, she could fault him for the murderous expression he was aiming over her shoulder at Dmitri.
If he attacks Romanov, all this will be for nothing.
The only option was to play to her strength—being a pain in her brother’s ass. “Get that look off your face, Aiden. You were going to marry me off to him, so you don’t get to throw a bitchfit because it didn’t happen on your timeline.”
His attention fell to the massive ring on her left hand. “Come inside, Keira. We have things to talk about.”
Dmitri’s grip tightened ever so slightly on her hips, and his murmur reached her ears alone. “Remember what I said, Keira.”
She elbowed him and slipped out of his grasp without responding. She’d made her choice, and she didn’t need him threatening her to remind her of that fact. Her brother and her husband stared at each other like junkyard dogs about to attack, so she stalked past Aiden. “Let’s get this over with so I can check in on Charlie.” The last she’d heard, her brother’s fiancée had been taken by the enemy and might not survive. Obviously, Charlie was okay, but Keira wouldn’t quite believe it until she saw it for herself.
Aiden fell into step behind her as she marched through the front door and headed down the hallway to his office. In the ten seconds she was in the house, it already stood in stark contrast to the Romanov home. Voices came from the kitchen, accompanied by the clink of dishes, and somewhere upstairs it sounded like elephants were stampeding. Elephants, or Dmitri’s niece.