Page 65 of Ruinous Need

I sneak up behind her and wrap my arms around her tight. She yelps with surprise.

“Did you miss me?”

Chekhov jumps up to lick my face in greeting.

“Maybe he missed me more.”

Lisette rolls her eyes. “I don’t think that’s possible. We’ve been very bored without your daddy around, haven’t we, Chekhov?”

I bend down to kiss her and it feels like jumping off the edge of a precipice. We’re so close to just being able to live like this without constant threats, without an end date.

If I can pull this damn coup off.

“You look different,” she says, running a hand over my smooth cheek and feeling my short hair. “Businesslike.”

“Oh, that. There’s a part I have to play.”

She makes a face. “You leave me here for a week and that’s your excuse? You can’t even tell me what you were doing?”

“It doesn’t concern you.”

Lisette stomps up the stairs to the house and kicks off her snow boots.

“Yes, it does.” She puts her hands on her hips and blocks the door, attitude in every movement. “Daria’s not talking to me, you’re not talking to me, what the hell am I supposed to do? Maybe I need to escape again.”

My jaw tenses. I like it when she’s defiant like this, when I can see that sea-green fire in her eyes.

“Remember what happened last time? Didn’t you learn your lesson?”

“Of course I remember. Maybe I want a repeat.” She tugs off her beanie and fluffs a hand through her blonde hair.

“That can be arranged. But it sounds like you want a reward more than a punishment... So don’t run away again.” My voice is husky and aroused, my body already responding to Lisette after being apart for a week.

I push her against the front door of the cabin. The impact brings a drift of snow down on to our heads.

Her sea-green eyes are sparkling with energy.

“You think just because you drive me crazy, it means I’m going to forget my questions?”

I don’t answer. I just kiss her and let the feeling of coming home spread through me.

She pulls back with a hand on my chest. “I am sick of it, you know.”

For a second, I think maybe I’ve been wrong. Maybe all of this was an illusion and bound to come crashing down around me.

“Sick of what?” I try to keep my face calm, but it’s an effort.

“You just shunt me around like an object, Viktor. I want to know what’s going on. Whatever it is, I know it’s about me too. Sometimes it feels like you don’t trust me.” Relief flows through me. She just wants to interrogate me some more.

“I wish you could be more involved. But right now we’re trying to build an alliance. Revealing that I’m doing all of this, risking our organization’s very existence, for a girl? It wouldn’t help.”

She pouts. “I knew you would say something like that. It’s boring, being out of the loop.”

“Oh, really?” I say. “I can think of something that might help with your boredom.”

CHAPTER 26

LISETTE