“Roman?” Dmitri said, noticing. “What?”
I hesitated. “I think I remember something.”
Lev’s gaze cut to mine. “What kind of something?”
“She was… laughing.” I frowned, searching for it. “She had this smile. I don’t know, like she was already two steps ahead of me. And her perfume…”
Dmitri groaned. “Christ, he’s romanticizing her.”
“She drugged you,” Lev said flatly. “You’re remembering a con, not a connection.”
“I’m remembering a feeling,” I said quietly.
Dmitri turned in his seat, eyes sharp. “Stop thinking like that. She’s not some tragic love story. She’s a threat.”
“Maybe she’s both,” I said, meeting his stare.
That shut him up, but only for a second. “If she’s being blackmailed,” Dmitri said slowly, “that makes her dangerousanddesperate. Don’t confuse sympathy with strategy.”
I smirked. “You always think the only way to win is through control.”
“And you always lose because you mistake manipulation for charm,” he shot back.
Lev, still staring out the window, said quietly, “You think she smiled at you because she liked you? She smiled because she knew you’d fall for it. She played you.”
I turned toward him. “You seem to be making this personal, little brother.”
He didn’t answer at first. Then, “I knew her once, back at boarding school. She was a mouthy little thing who thought she could outsmart everyone. Always picking fights she couldn’t win.”
I leaned back, studying him. “You sound almost fond.”
He gave me a hard look. “I sound like someone who knows better.”
“Mm. You sound jealous.”
“Of what?”
I smiled. “That she chose me instead of you.”
He shifted, his voice lowering. “Careful, brother. Now you’re confusing luck with favor. She’s not a prize; she’s a loaded gun. And she’s already aimed directly at us.”
I didn’t disagree.
But I couldn’t shake the image, her eyes meeting mine over the rim of a champagne glass, that cute little smile that dared me to want her.
There was a magnetic charisma about her, an honest part of her even in her deception. She had fooled me, yes, but it was artistry, not malice. The kind of lie you almost admire for how beautifully it’s told.
I looked back out the window, my reflection staring back at me, tired, bruised, and utterly haunted by someone who’d walked away.
Dmitri muttered something under his breath in Russian, something that sounded a lot likeidiot romantic. Lev laughed once, dark and quiet.
For the first time since Dubai, the tension between us softened. It wasn’t gone, but bent toward a common focus.
The woman who had outplayed us.
The woman that none of us were through with yet.
CHAPTER 10
