Chapter 3
NOVA
Back downstairs, I made a beeline for my brother. This evening was ostensibly about us, and I knew our parents would be expecting us to act accordingly. “Did you see our gifts?”
He rolled his eyes. “What? The towering pile over by the north window from people we barely know? Yeah. They were a bit hard to miss.” Something caught his eye over my shoulder, and his expression turned vicious instantly. There was only one person who could put that look on his face.
“Ry, don’t. Leave him alone.”
It took me snapping my fingers in front of his face for him to return his attention to me, and when he did, he sighed. “Sorry. I don’t know why you stick up for that waste of space, though.”
I gritted my teeth. Because he’s my best friend, I screamed internally, but of course, I couldn’t say it. Our friendship had to remain a secret. “Because you can be a complete asshole sometimes,” I bit out. “What has he ever done to you? Don’t you dare start anything with him tonight. I mean it.”
Ryker stared at me, surprise flickering in his gaze for a moment before he masked it. “I’ll leave him alone tonight. For you. But he better watch his fucking back.”
When I didn’t respond, he heaved another sigh. “I’ll stay away from him if he stays away from me. Okay?”
I nodded slowly. At least I had constant assurances from both Ryker and Aleksi that they’d never taken their animosity to the point of physical altercations, so I could trust my brother’s words.
“Thank you,” I murmured. Swallowing around the sudden lump in my throat, I added, “Anyway, Alek will be gone at the end of the school year, so you won’t have to see him anymore.”
Ryker’s jaw clenched, his gaze sliding away from mine, but he nodded sharply.
A polite, completely fake smile curved over his mouth, and I found out who it was directed at a moment later when a large hand landed on the small of my back.
I stiffened as Anton Volkov pressed a kiss to my cheek, but managed to paste on my own smile as Ryker greeted him.
“Happy birthday to you both,” Anton said to the two of us.
He looked as untouchable as always, every inch the hockey god-slash-Bratva prince with his perfectly styled dark blond hair, inscrutable ice-blue eyes, and imposingly tall, muscular build.
He rummaged in his suit pocket for a moment before producing two small boxes, one wrapped in deep green paper, and the other, a midnight blue.
After handing the green box to my brother, he lifted my hand and turned my palm over. “This is for you,” he said.
My hands were shaking as I peeled off the wrapping paper and opened the box. It was a stark reminder that at some point in the near future, I’d be engaged to this man I barely knew, and all because of a business deal. Now I was eighteen, there was nothing to stop it from going ahead.
“Thank you.” I took in the sapphire teardrop earrings, nestled in black velvet. They were beautiful and clearly very expensive, but they were not me.
Ryker cleared his throat. “Yeah, thank you, Volkov. These are, uh, very generous gifts.” I glanced into his box to see a pair of white-gold cufflinks studded with tiny sparkling emeralds.
Anton inclined his head, sweeping his hand out to encompass both boxes. “A gift from my family to yours.”
“What you got there, Volksy? Bribes?” Daniel swaggered over, Jay in tow. Jay’s gaze was hard and full of disdain as it swept over mine, and I glared at him.
“I have no use for bribes,” Anton said smoothly. “These are heirlooms from my family, given as a sign of friendship between the Thorpes and the Volkovs.”
Heirlooms. “They really are beautiful,” I managed. Glancing over at Jay, I saw his lip curl into a sneer.
“Not really your style, are they?”
Daniel’s head whipped from Anton to Jay. “Not yours, either, Banks.”
“I’m not Banks.” Jay’s eyes glittered dangerously, but Daniel was undeterred.
“But you’re so good with money. It’s the perfect nickname.”
Anton rolled his eyes, steering me away from my brother and his friends with his hand still on the small of my back. “Come. Let’s toast to your adulthood with my family’s vodka.”
Helping himself to two crystal tumblers, he uncapped the vodka and carefully measured two shots into the glasses. After handing me my glass, he clinked his own against mine. “To new connections.”
“To new connections,” I repeated dully, tipping my head back and getting the vodka down my throat as quickly as I could. It burned, but I held back my grimace.
Anton watched me dispassionately, and my stomach churned. How was this my life? Promised to this man who was essentially a stranger, with no choice in the matter?
“I would like to speak with you alone for a moment,” he murmured, taking the empty glass from me and placing it on the table.
The way he said it made it clear that this wasn’t optional, and so I simply nodded, following him out of the drawing room, down the corridor, and into a small study that was rarely used.
Despite that, the cleaning staff kept up with the maintenance, so everything gleamed, including the polished mahogany desk Anton was now leaning back against.
“Wh-what do you want?” I was suddenly very aware that we were completely alone here, and Anton was a big man. I didn’t have my knife anymore, either, not to mention that if he forced himself on me and I fought back, I’d be the one punished.
A wry smile pulled at his lips as he stared down at me. “No need to look so scared. I simply wanted to wish a happy birthday to my future fiancée without an audience.”
“Oh. Um. Thank you. The earrings were lovely. Um.” He was so fucking intimidating, and I was beginning to panic.
His icy gaze bored into me. “I would like to give you one more gift. A kiss. You…” For the first time, he hesitated. “This will be your first kiss?”
I nodded slowly, cursing Jay with everything I had.
I was fully aware that everyone knew I was supposed to be saving myself for my future husband, the man who had been determined before I was even old enough to consent.
That included my first kiss, and there was no possible way I would ever admit what had happened in the woods.
“O-okay,” I managed.
As soon as the word escaped my mouth, his hand curved around the back of my neck, and his mouth descended on mine.
I froze in place. Hard. Cold. Impersonal. So very different to my kiss in the woods.
It was over as soon as it had begun. Stepping back, Anton nodded as if he were confirming something to himself.
“As I suspected. No matter. We will come to care for one another eventually.”
With those words ringing in my ears, he left me alone. I slumped back against the wall, touching my fingers to my lips.
I’d been kissed twice tonight.
One kiss, from the man I was betrothed to. I’d felt nothing.
The other kiss, from the man who hated me. And it had set me on fire.