Yulian’s face sours, and I know I’ve gone too far for him. But I’m too pissed and too resentful to care.
“You married her,” he scowls. “You agreed.”
“I told him it wouldn’t work. He didn’t listen. He never did.”
“He knew what was best for us.”
“Except he didn’t,” I snap. “Clearly.”
I move towards the edge of the yacht, aware that Lev and Yulian are both watching me carefully. My thoughts are scattered tonight, caught between two fiery women who couldn’t be more different.
“I’m heading back home,” Yulian says in a strained voice a minute later. He gets to his feet. “It’s been a long-ass night. I need a drink, a blowjob, and ten hours of blackout sleep.”
I watch him saunter off the boat and down the dock, pretending like life is just fucking peachy. When I twist around, Lev is still watching me.
“You know it upsets him when you talk about your Otets that way.”
I shrug, unapologetic. “He’s put the old bastard on a pedestal. Reality is always a shock to the men who are unprepared to deal with it.”
“I remember your father,” Lev tells me. “I remember the way he was around you two.”
“No, you don’t,” I say firmly. “You remember how he was around Yulian, and you assumed that was how he treated me behind closed doors. It was not. I was his heir—I wasn’t offered choices; I was given orders. Yulian is lucky that I’m not as hard on him as our father was on me.”
“Yulian’s not your heir, though, Ant,” Lev points out. “Maybe you’d treat him differently if he was.”
I roll my eyes. “My brother is a lot of things, but a leader is not one of them.”
“I guess that means you’re having children one day, huh?”
I stiffen instantly. Some topics are off-limits, and Lev should know better than to ask. But I’m sick of yelling, sick of reprimanding. So I just sigh, “One thing at a time.”
He nods and leans back in his seat, white teeth flashing in the moonlight. “Amen to that.”
“My only concern now is quelling this storm before it breaks.”
“And what about the other little problem that disembarked a few hours ago?” Lev asks.
“That?” I scoff. “That is not a problem. That’s a little blonde distraction that I can handle.”
“I recall you saying the exact same thing about another blonde who ended up carrying your name.”
I narrow my eyes. “Sometimes, I forget that you have an elephant’s memory.”
Lev gives me a humorless laugh. “The difference is that you never looked at Marina the way you looked at that girl tonight.”
“And how did I look at her?” I ask, against my better judgment.
“Like you wanted to rip her to pieces just so you could see how she’s fit together.”
He isn’t wrong about that—I just can’t figure out why. Sure, Jessa was beautiful. Sexy. Interesting.
But I’ve come across many women who tick off the same boxes. They’re a dime a dozen in my world.
So what is it about this woman that has me so interested?
Hell if I know.
“Am I wrong?” Lev presses, as if he can sense my roving thoughts.