Page 148 of Kings & Queen

I straightened instinctively, rolling my shoulders back. “I haven’t even started yet.”

“Doesn’t matter. It’s in your stance. You’re more grounded than the last time we did this.”

He paused in front of me, arms crossed, a smile tugging at his mouth. “So.” He tilted his head. “Heard you made up with Ivan.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Who told you that?”

“Doesn’t matter. Is it true?”

A grin formed on my face as heat rushed forward. I stretched my arm across my chest. “Yeah, we did.” My attempt to play off my embarrassment didn’t go unnoticed.

“And now that he’s back on the roster?” He wiggled his brows. “Do I need to fear even more for my life?”

“Nope. I put in a good word for you. Not that I had to with the other guys. They seem to like you quite a bit.”

Amusement flickered in his gaze, but it softened just as quickly. “Good to know.”

We stretched in silence for a bit, and then the burning question I’d wanted to ask him poured out.

“So, how’s Hannah?”

A sharp exhale puffed past his lips as he flexed, and his expression shifted. Barely. But I saw it.

“She’s…not thrilled with me at the moment.”

“Uh-oh. What did you do? It’s not because of me, is it?”

He rubbed his palm over his face before dropping it with an exaggerated sigh. “Partially? No, that’s not fair. Truth is, Mouse, finding you again has shifted things for me. I don’t want to be on the road anymore.”

I froze mid-stretch. “Seriously?”

He nodded, circling behind me. Our eyes met in the mirror. “We both got into that new network competition show—“

“Wait, the one? The one with the crazy ratings and the live voting and a million-dollar prize. That one?”

“Yeah, that one.” His mouth tugged into a dry smile. “She’s over the moon. And I was too, at first. But now…”

He ran a hand through his hair, knocking the curl back, only for it to fall again. “I don’t want it anymore.”

I blinked. “Why?”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Truth or a lie?”

My throat tightened. “Truth, Pasha,” I said quietly, motioning between us. “That’s all we do.”

There was the smallest shift of his body, and for a moment, I wanted to scream, “No, I’lltake the lie.”

He crossed the floor slowly, each step quiet against the marble. “Truth it is, then.”

When he stopped in front of me, he didn’t touch me—just looked at me like the rest of the world had gone silent.

“I’ve told you before, but finding you has changed me,” he said, voice lower now, steadier. “I realized…and God help me here, but there’s no one else I want to share a stage with.”

A lump lodged itself in my throat, thick and unmovable.

“It’s always been you, Mouse. You and me. From the start. Even when we were kids, you kept up with me. Pushed me. You knew how to move with me before I even knew where I was going. That kind of connection…” He shook his head, eyes glinting. “You don’t find that twice in a lifetime. It seems pointless. Competing with my heart not into it.”

Something twisted in my chest, slow and sharp. I knew exactly what he meant. Because as much as I loved where I was now, who I was with, nothing compared or could even come close to the magic that coursed through me when I was in his arms.