Page 108 of Inked in Devotion

“How long is it going to take?”

“She said she’s verifying the documents.”

“So she found one.”

“We already knew of one. Ivan was the one who pointed it out. But even if there were none…I’m not giving you and Sebastian up.”

“Kolya,” I said. “You can’t just say things like this to me in public where I can’t …can’t⁠—”

“No,” he replied stubbornly. “It’s the perfect place. Because you don’t get to run away.”

“Oh, really? Who was the one who left me in that basement when I asked a sensitive but relevant question?”

A muscle jumped in his jaw. “I wasn’t ready to discuss it.”

“And you think now is the time to talk about this? In public, no less?”

“Can you blame me? You avoid me at the house. You use Dora as a shield. You move around me like I don’t exist.”

“You’re the one who had a don’t-talk-to-me attitude. I was walking on eggshells around you.”

His brows furrowed. “I could say the same about you. So, I decided maybe you needed a more neutral environment. I texted you about lunch, but you didn’t reply. So I showed up at the shelter and they said you went to The Grindhouse.” His eyes flashed with an accusatory gleam that excavated the guilt I was feeling earlier. Like I had cheated. “When I saw De Lucci and Hayes, De Lucci scowled at me because he had made a bet with that Hayes guy that I wasn’t going to show up.”

“They bet whether you would turn up or not?”

“Yes,” Kolya gritted. It was as though he was replaying an unpleasant experience. “Hayes patted De Lucci on the back, saying he’d seen this play out many times, it’s so predictable.”

“What’s predictable?”

“Caveman tactics. So to prove him wrong, I didn’t charge in there and tried to act cool.” Kolya glared at me. “Every time I think about how I haven’t gotten to punch Wu in the face yet, it makes me want to hunt him down.”

“Kolya,” I whisper-yelled. “We’re in public. Tone it down.”

“He’s not taking what’s mine.”

“You better dial it down there, mister,” I warned him again.

We glared at each other.

“If only we weren’t in public right now,” he growled.

“Or what?”

Chapter

Twenty-Five

Chloe

“Why is Sorcha waiting for us?”

Lucy’s housekeeper was standing in front of the cottage.

After I issued the “Or what?” statement, Kolya shut down into grunted answers.

We had spent two hours at the restaurant waiting to get the all clear from security. I was too nervous to eat dessert. It wasn’t nervousness from fear but a nervousness about Kolya being done giving me space.

Especially after we cleared the misconception that led to us avoiding each other.