Page 97 of Inked in Devotion

Her eyes narrowed. “What?”

“Kirill doesn’t know this either.”

His attention turned back to me, and I could tell he was struggling with how to tell me, but I had a feeling I already knew. Because I never accepted his explanation about our weekend. It was too much of a coincidence.

“You sought me out that weekend,” I said.

“That weekend fling?” Lucy asked.

Both Kolya and I ignored her, locked in the memories of those days.

Kolya’s throat bobbed. “Anya knew about the trust documents. She sent me there⁠—”

Tears stung my eyes. “To seduce me.” A small sob snagged in my throat. Lucy quietly handed me a box of tissues and mumbled something about giving us privacy.

“Chloe…that wasn’t my intention when I got there. I was simply checking out Anya’s fears about your threat to the bratva.” Because of the clause in the trust documents that suggested a marriage between a King and Zahkarov. Kirill hadn’t married Lucy yet, and Anya was afraid that Kirill would marry me.

“You couldn’t kill me otherwise Ivan would have your head.” I dabbed my eyes.

He clutched my shoulders, but I twisted out of his hold and stood. “Don’t touch me.”

I backed away, drawing out every ounce of contempt I could muster. But I was grasping to hold on to my anger because I’d always known Kolya being there couldn’t be a coincidence. Deep down I knew he sought me out, but my mind was protecting myself from being anointed disposable. “I was a mark.”

“I was attracted to you.”

“Bullshit. I asked you once to tell me the truth, and you continued to lie.”

“I. Was. Attracted. To. You.” He made to grab my shoulders again, but I held up my hands in warning. “Don’t touch me!” My chin tipped up mulishly. “Well, it’s a good thing, then, that it was tolerable for you to fuck me.”

Kolya scraped his face. “You get I didn’t need to confess to you, right? Everyone who knew why I was there are dead. Anya and Grigori. I didn’t need to confess this. I could have just kept you in the dark.”

“Maybe you should have.”

“Is that what you prefer?” he shot back.

Oh, he wasn’t going to put this back on me. “Why confess now?”

“Because I don’t want to lie to you!” he roared. “I want us to have a fresh start.”

“A fresh start for what?” I had a notion of what he was alluding to, but did he really think, after all that happened to us and who he was, there was a future? And it annoyed the hell out of me how he was acting as if there was.

“No lies between us. No secrets. I want us to be more, Chloshka.”

Well, that was rich. He wasn’t the one the Vozhokari wanted to annihilate.

“More? Can you even offer to be more when you’re promised to another.”

His eyes flashed. “I told you it’s not like that.”

“No, just that you have a bounty on your sperm.” I cracked up laughing. I laughed so hard that I was hysterical. The absolute clusterfuck facing my relationship with Kolya. It wasn’t enough that I carried the stigma of being a daughter from an affair. I went on to have a child with an assassin who once belonged to an organization who thought they had the right to his firstborn son.

Well, not if I had a choice.

I would embrace my King legacy and the power behind the name to protect my son.

I was bent over, trying to catch my breath when I saw Sebastian open his eyes. He must have awakened from all the raised voices.

I straightened and limped past Kolya, cursing my slightly sprained ankle, to pick Sebastian up. He giggled and clasped my cheeks. He was such a cheerful boy nowadays. He was loved.