“Yes,” she confirmed for him. “I would.” No hesitancy.
“And you have ours. You have our trust… and our lives.” He looked at her with clarity in his eyes.
She fought a losing battle to keep the tremble from her voice that betrayed the levels of emotions swimming inside her. “I would do the same.”
“Not like he would let you, but it’s nice to know all the same, sweetness.” Roman threw her his signature wink again and it melted her heart.
“Let me, huh?”
Her skin tingled as she held his dominant gaze like he would enjoy her challenging him on the subject.
She smiled. “That brings me to another topic. Dimitris’ auction tonight.” She turned to face Sevastyan and swallowed hard, shoving a little bit more determination into her backbone. “I’m going.”
Sevastyan closed his eyes as if searching for patience. When he opened them again, they were lit with irritation as he pushed to his feet. Low, rumbling growls erupted from deep within his chest.
“Not happening, Rhia.” A string of Russian followed.He set his shoulders in a hard line and stood, towering over her.
Swallowing tight, Rhia felt the dryness of her mouth. She didn’t fear Sevastyan by any means. She reserved fear for Indigo’s thugs and Dimitris. She did, however, feel terrified of him making good on those silent promises in his eyes of locking her up and not letting her out as long as she insisted on going to the auction.
She held a finger up like it would help her drive her point home. “You don’t scare me, Russian. You can stop the huffing and puffing. I meant what I said.”
It didn’t help.
If he thought she was powerless and would cower in the corner clutching her apron, he was about to get the rudest awakening of his life.
“Not up for discussion,” Roman chimed in, joining Sevastyan. All three had their eyes on her and used their bodies as shields. Or a wall. They connected at the shoulders and moved toward her in unison.
“That’s the end of it,” Matteo added and it was an all-out three-on-one war.
“I have no desire to prance what is ours in front of a room full of dicks in every sense of the word. We barely tolerate it at Haven. Why do you think you’re always with one of us at all times? No. We will go tonight and handle all this shit with Dimitris.”
She still wasn’t clear what “all this shit” entailed. But the invisible line Sevastyan drew in the sand left little room for questions. That was okay. It was up to her if she toed it or obliterated it and did whatever the fuck she wanted to anyway. She’d lived her whole life that way.