Page 22 of Dangerous Liaisons
“No, I can fend for myself.”
“Do you plan to have company again?” Kira chuckled again at the glare she received. “I only ask as I plan to leave if nothing is needed of me.”
“For your bol’shoy medved’?”
“He is not my anything.”
“Kira...”
She let out a long sigh. “I dislike this feeling.” She cracked her knuckles and stared off into the distance. “I feel…human. It is gross.”
“Maybe because you are human, despite your protests, and while I understand, it would not be in our best interest for you to start a pissing contest. Go, enjoy yourself, but be mindful of your actions. I beg of you.” Isabella slid off her reading glasses and shut her laptop. “Eddie likes you, and he’s good to you. Would it be so bad to allow him a piece of you, no matter how small?”
“He will want more. Men always do.”
“Would that be so bad?”
“Is that what is happening with Xavier Wilson?”
“I don’t…” Isabella hesitated. “I don’t know what is happening, but I know when I’m with him, I don’t feel so lonely.”
Kira blinked in surprise at her honesty. “I will go now. Eat something.”
“I will.”
Isabella readjusted her sunglasses against her face for the twentieth time as she stood next to Kira in the driveway. The Russian next to her wore sunglasses as well, grumbling to herself, and it gave her pause.
“You came in late, loudly I might add,” she commented. She eyed her friend. “Let me look at your eyes.”
“It is too bright.”
“Let me look at your eyes,” she repeated. “Now.”
With a grunt, Kira jerked the large frames from her face and stared at Isabella. There was no mistaking that she was hungover and tired, but Isabella sucked in a breath of air at the black discoloration around her left eye.
“Who did this to you?”
“I did not take your advice.”
“Did Eddie-”
“No!” Kira interrupted her. “He did no such thing. I overstepped, and this is the cost.” She slid the sunglasses back on her face. “Ava has a mean right hook for an American.”
Isabella suddenly desired a potent drink. “Please tell me you didn’t trysomething with Hunter.”
“I would do no such a thing; you have told me many times he is off limits. He wouldn’t look twice at me; we both know this.”
“Explain to me how this happened before I leave right now and find Ava myself.”
“There is one by the name of Andy. My attempts at seducing him were frowned upon.” She perked up the Rolls Royce pulling into the driveway. “We will no longer speak of it. It was resolved.”
“I want the full story.”
“There is nothing to tell.”
“I beg to differ! You’re telling me you got into an altercation with someone, yet you still wound up with Eddie in our home, not to mention our pool! I had to pay the workers extra to come early and clean.”
The vehicle came to a stop, and the back passenger door flung open wide.