With a low growl, I push away from the wall, from her.
Squeezing my eyes shut for a moment, I pull myself together.
She played me. There was no sweet moment between us on the sofa earlier. There was no tenderness, no softness.
Maybe she played me from the beginning. Did she know who I was when she met me at the party? Did she go home with me to try and figure out what I was doing there?
Was she even a virgin, or was that part of her story? Fuck. I don’t know what to believe anymore.
My heart beats harder, pushing against my ribcage, each beat aching through me with regret.
I wanted it to be real so badly that I let my guard slip.
“As I said, make yourself comfortable, Katerina. There’s no way out, and you need rest.”
Turning away from her, I storm towards the stairs leading to my bedroom. I need space between us. My body is not on the same page as my mind. My body is screaming for her. Screaming to touch her. To feel her against me.
“Hey, there’s nowhere for me to sleep. You can’t force me to stay here, Yulian Andreev. Let me go!” she shouts after me. I stop, a bitter smile spreading over my face as I slowly turn back towards her.
“Was it all fake, Katerina? The act at the party? The pretense that you were overwhelmed and wanted to escape it all? Giving me the idea that you needed to be rescued somehow—saved from the crowd, whisked away to my home. Was that anact to figure out where I lived? Who I was? What I was doing there?” I spit the accusation at her with fire in my words.
“How dare you accuse me of being fake when you knew exactly who I was when you approached me at that party? Don’t play innocent, trying to put this all on me. I’m not the one holding you prisoner.” Her eyes are wild with rage, passion pouring through her like lava, fiery and dangerous. And fucking beautiful.
This is dangerous for me. The longer I’m around her, the more likely I am to do something stupid. If she knows she has that control over me, I’m fucked.
“Just admit one thing. You knew who I was all along,” I snap, annoyed that this is affecting me so much. I shouldn’t care. She’s nothing to me. My enemy. Not even my enemy; she’s my enemy’s sister. Anobodyin my life. I bite back the argument building in my mind. No. I won’t give her value she doesn’t deserve.
She played this game far too well. Katerina Krolik is a sinister woman with malice in her heart. How stupid I was to think a Krolik could be anything else.
“You can’t force me to admit something that isn’t true. Just because you decide on a narrative doesn’t make it real,” she bites back at me. I shake my head, snorting bitter laughter.
“Okay, Katerina. Have it your way. I’m going to bed.”
Turning my back on her seems to agitate her even more. “That’s it? That’s the end of the conversation? How mature of you to walk away without resolving anything. And where the hell am I supposed to sleep? The sofa? I’m not sharing your bed. Not a chance in hell. Let me go, Yulian. Why the fuck do you want to keep me here?” she’s shouting at me, angry, but her voice is spiked with fear and tears.
For a moment, I believe it.
But then I push the idea away and remind myself how deceptive she is.
“It’s a nice sofa. I’m sure you’ll be perfectly comfortable,” I snarl.
“Are you kidding me?” she spits.
“Not in the least. Spare blankets in the closet in the hallway. Goodnight, KaterinaKrolik.”
With that, I walk away from her. And even as I do, I feel a thread pulling me back to her. She’s the flame. I’m the moth. But all I’ll find by going back to her is destruction.
***
All night I toss and turn, angry, disappointed, annoyed.
I can’t let her go. She’ll run back to her brother, and it’ll be all the reason he needs to start a war. But we can’t stay here, either. This place is too small for two angry people to navigate each other. What the hell am I supposed to do with her?
I wish I could throw her out of my life.
That’s not true.
That’s not true at all. And as the thought spikes into my mind, I can’t even pretend it’s real. I don’twantto let her go, even if I could do it without consequences. I don’t want her to leave. Dammit.
