But we were going to ditch it in a year with a divorce and an annulment from Nicolai’s Orthodox church. That was the plan. We were only staying married for that year because some Russian dude was trying to pressure Nicolai into an arranged marriage with his daughter.
Thatpart was more alien to my daily life than the Russian Orthodox three-sacraments-in-one insta-wedding. Who even did arranged marriages these days?
And yet, Nicolai’s brother was still staring at us, judging, measuring the wide distance of the duvet between our thighs on the bed and imagining what that meant.
Were we too far apart, thus giving it away that we were actually strangers?
Or were we sitting too luridly close to each other, flaunting the dirty hetero sex that we were supposed to have done the night before?
Here we were, sitting on the bed.
The bed where we were supposed to do the dirty things.
I wanted to crawl out of my skin and fling the weird off my fingertips in a shiver-shake.
Wow, I was really nuts about this. I might need therapy or something.
Nicolai leaned back on his arms where he sat beside me, glancing from me to Kostya, and he sighed. “I was properly gazeboed last night when I left you at the Sanctuary, after Volkov and his ilk pushed the vodka shots on us.”
Konstantin rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the bedroom wall beside him. “You didn’t look that wankered.”
He shrugged. “My memories are a bit fuzzy from there on out. Lexi was performing as a living statue on the sidewalk outside the club, wearing a wedding dress and busking. I dropped to my knees and proposed on the spot. She accepted, most likely to humor the drunk at her feet who had messed up her act. I insisted we get married immediately, that night, and I demanded it be held in a Russian Orthodox church. And that’s how I married a complete stranger last night.”
CHAPTER 3
the truth hurts
LEXI
Igaped at Nico, and then I snapped my mouth shut with a clack of my teeth that echoed in my skull. “I didn’t think you were going to tell him that.”
Nicolai shrugged, wincing. “Kostya is my brother. He’s the only family I have left.”
Konstantin was staring at me.“Wait,she’s theclownwho was standing outside on the sidewalk last night?”
“I amnotaclown,”I told him. “I’m a living statue. It’sperformance art.A clown is supposed to be buffoonish. I’m more like eerie and skilled.”
His upper lip, lush just like Nicolai’s, lifted in a sneer. “Does standing still take a lot of skill?”
“Yes.And clowns don’t put greasepaint on theirarms.”
“Yeah. Whatever.” Konstantin looked between the two of us. “That’s it? That’s what happened?”
Nicolai nodded.
I followed suit, even though my nod was an awkward bob and felt so tawdry.
It was actuallyverytawdry, so I added, “When he proposed, there were a lot of people around us, andsome of them were talking about how they wanted to take advantage of the drunk guy who was flashing a big wad of cash. I scraped Nicolai up off the sidewalk and threw him in my car to get him away from them.”
“And that’s why youmarriedhim?” Konstantin demanded. “He dropped at your feet, and then you stumbled over a legally binding marriage license and accidentally fell into a church with a priest, where the pen stuck up your ass just happened to scrawl your name on the license?”
Nicolai warned, “Kostya,enough.”
Asshole.I straightened, and my hands filled with tremors.“Nicolaikept insisting on the whole wedding thing. I thought it was okay to humor him because the marriage wouldn’t be legal unless we signed the license, whichwe didn’t dountilthismorning. I wouldn’t sign it, and I kept pens away from him so he couldn’t, either. I thought we could just tear up the unsigned license, and it would mean nothing.”
Konstantin stared at me, his blue eyes like lasers, likea gun’sblue laser sights, targeting me.
Nicolai had never stared at me like that, with accusation, with malice.
