Kirill eyed me speculatively while I sipped my mimosa. I gave him the side-eye, but he disguised his smirk by taking a sip of his water too. Ugh, I hoped he'd choke on it.
The air conditioner of the tasting room was on full blast at least and chilled my fevered skin. We didn’t resume our sexually charged banter because Carol was in the room preparing the cakes.
They came in the following order: Madagascar vanilla bean cake, New York cheesecake, summer berry cake, red velvet, matcha, black forest.
Kirill was mostly neutral and barely said anything while sampling the cakes. His mind seemed to be elsewhere. Probably with Anya and her blasted will reading. He was covert in checking his phone. He did it when Carol switched plates, but I noticed.
Whatever. He was a boring cake-tasting partner. My girl cousins would have enjoyed the hell out of this event, especially Bianca. But she was weeks from giving birth, and Sandro, according to Dom, was like a feral wolf protecting his pregnant mate. I wasn’t surprised when they RSVP’d “no” to the wedding. I wasn’t even disappointed. The fewer of my family there, the less I was going to worry in case something cataclysmic happened, like a gunfight or a bomb.
There were going to be metal detectors, of course, and tight security.
The last cake was a rich chocolate ganache. I already knew from the looks of it, this was going to be one of the flavors I was choosing.
The piece was unusually big, and as I cut it with a fork, I hit something hard. “What the?”
I dragged the thing out with the tines of my fork.
It was a ring.
Chapter
Eleven
Lucy
“What’s this?”
I glanced up at Kirill. Was that why he’d been giving me one-word answers during the tasting? Maybe he was nervous.
Kirill picked it up and brushed the crumbs away to reveal a circle of white gold or platinum carved with intricate detailing. An enormous diamond sat at its center. “This was my grandmother’s engagement ring. Irina gave it to me to give to you, but if you want something else?—”
I was speechless. I didn’t know what to say. “It’s a family heirloom?”
“It is.”
“Kirill…”
“I didn’t think this through.” He grabbed the napkin, soaked it with water, and polished the ring.
“You’re wasting the chocolate. You could have licked it clean,” I chided.
He raised a brow. “It would’ve remained sticky.”
“Who cares? I’ll pop it in the jewelry cleaner later.” I extended my left hand. “I wasn’t expecting an engagement ring today, but why not?”
He smirked and slipped the ring on my finger. “I had to have it sized down. Irina’s fingers are thicker than yours.”
I giggled. “Never say that to any woman. We don’t like to be told we have thick fingers.”
“I like the shape of yours. They’re like tapered candles,” he rasped, tracing the top of my hand like it soothed him. I kept my nails rounded and short, so I had no idea how he came to that conclusion. Goose bumps tickled my skin. I was glad I was wearing the jacket of my suit and he didn’t know how he was affecting me. He was unusually riveted on the ring circling my finger.
Still, my breathing hitched. Kirill flicked his eyes from my hand to my face and it was the same feral look he shot me earlier when he said he was putting babies inside me. Now why did that sound so hot? Maybe because to make babies, it involved his cock penetrating?—
I cut off the trajectory of my thoughts even as warmth pulsed between my thighs. Oh my God. “Let’s have cake,” I croaked. Even that sounded like I was propositioning him.
We finished the cake tasting with me less annoyed at Kirill’s lack of input because he did surprise me with the engagement ring. I doubted he was the one who thought about hiding it in the cake, but I didn’t want to overthink the moment. Having the ring on my finger made this engagement appear more real, and not a business transaction.
He left it up to me to make our cake selections, and I didn’t even have to decide right there.
