The Agreement (Darkest Lies Trilogy Book 1) by Bethany-Kris (motivational books for men .TXT) 📕

her body. Her bra and panties were still wet, shaping and molding the dress to her curves and crevices in a way that revealed everything.

Her father didn’t pay her mind anymore—he had already lost interest. Instead, his attention went beyond her to the man who was still standing a few feet away. For some reason, she didn’t want to turn and face him.

She was already a mess.

No need to make it worse.

“So, you found her, then,” Maxim said.

Karine dared a peek over her shoulder. The man remained where he had come to stand with his legs spread wide, planted firmly on the marble path that surrounded the shape of the pool. His arms were crossed over his chest, the bulging biceps tugged at the material of the shirt that also hugged a broad, defined chest. He wasn’t looking at her, either, just like her father didn’t.

Surprise.

No one liked the sight of her.

As it appeared; the two men knew each other.

“Did you lose your way, Roman?” Maxim asked.

“It’s a big place. I may have gotten lost.”

Roman.

Hearing his name was enough to send gooseflesh prickling over her skin, everywhere it was exposed. Karine didn’t know what to do about that.

Masha continued stroking her hair with the towel, not yet convinced that she couldn’t still present Karine in a satisfactory state to her father. Neither men seemed to care that she was there now, so what was the point?

Maxim chuckled lightly at Roman’s response, waving a single hand high. “Come with me, yes? I’ll show you the rest of the place.”

Her father all but ignored her presence, focused instead on Roman. Maxim’s treatment of him was starkly different from how she witnessed him behave with other men in the bratva who worked under him. He acted like Roman was a guest in their home.

Dangerous excitement danced through her, as fleeting as it was. Did that mean he might be staying around? The hope flared through her again, especially when Roman threw her one last look before he followed after Maxim on his way out.

Karine remained there, returning his gaze while Masha worked away at her hair. It felt the same as when their eyes met the first time, in the water. That same sense of familiarity swelled in her chest, fast and furious.

He had his jaw clenched tight, square and chiseled, leaving her breathless at the thought of feeling the roughness of his beard against the smoothness of her cheek. The desire was as sudden as everything else, and just as unexplainable.

Then, just like that, he pulled his gaze away from her, and he disappeared through the pool house door.

Come back, she wanted to call out. Look at me again. See me.

Nobody had done that before.

She wanted to feel it again.

But if he was smart, then he would wipe her from his memory the moment he stepped out. And if she was lucky, she would never see him again in this life.

As it was, though, Karine had always been terribly unlucky.

• • •

Too many hours passed Karine by at a snail’s pace since she last saw the stranger from the pool house. She really wasn’t in the habit of keeping time. Someone—Masha, usually—always told her where she needed to be and when. It was the one thing she could do particularly well.

Taking orders, that was.

Tonight, however, nobody paid much attention to her. Maxim had organized a dinner party to which the cream of the bratva crop were invited to sit at the boss’s table and feel ... who the fuck knew?

Important, maybe?

Karine never cared for the details.

Things usually took the same turn by the end of the night. Music turned up impossibly loud, and alcohol passed around to keep any of them that wanted to drink their weight in an upright position.

Karine only knew all this by observation from afar. It wasn’t like she was invited to the table, or the after-party. Her father had no interest in involving her in these festivities—she served no purpose but distraction if she joined.

Not that it affected her one way or another. She had become adept at enjoying herself on nights like these. Nobody had any idea what they were drinking, or how much of it. Discarded bottles and glasses scattered all around the ground floor of her father’s wing became a game for her to find and indulge when her constant shadow’s back was turned. The other thing she was very good at was camouflaging herself in the background—never drawing attention her way because she didn’t want it. Karine managed all of this while sipping on discarded drinks.

A cocktail of mixed alcoholic beverages along with the bottle of pills she found in Masha’s bag were all she needed to start feeling good again.

A damn good night.

If she’d asked Masha for the pills, she wouldn’t have been denied but usually on nights like these, things tended to get busy—and lost—with the party. Especially Karine, and her whereabouts. It was always all-hands-on-deck in these scenarios, and Masha needed to help the other household staff members to keep the party running smoothly.

Karine used that to her advantage, helping herself to the pills and gulping them down with the half-drinks she’d found. By the time she staggered out through the back of the house to the stony patio, it was like walking on clouds.

The sky might have been dark.

Not through her eyes, though.

The wicker chairs arranged to be cozy on the patio were usually left unused. The Yazov family, or whatever was left of it, wasn’t exactly the type to lounge around all day. Certainly not together.

What even was family?

She had never known it.

Karine deposited herself in one of the chairs, sprawling out with her arms thrown wide. The night sky overhead was an inky blue with a smattering of stars like freckles on a happy child’s face. She gazed at them for what felt like years while she tried to recall the happy dream she was having that morning.

Why couldn’t she remember it anymore?

Was there a tree?

A little