The Promise (Darkest Lies Trilogy Book 2) by Bethany-Kris (fiction book recommendations .txt) 📕

He didn’t know where to properly begin that conversation with Karine, but he would have to talk to her about it. Karine had to be aware of the fact that Dima would still do everything in his power to take back his bride-to-be. She wouldn’t like it, but knowledge was power at the end of the day.

She needed all she could get.

They all did.

Then, there was the other little detail he hadn’t told her yet—something else that chased him across miles of freeway that separated them until he arrived in Vermont. Her father was likely dead. Hell, he was as good as dead. It was highly likely that the Yazov bratva, as they knew it, was finished.

Leonid and Dima had already taken over.

Who else could deliver the news? Roman was going to hate every second of it, but he would still do it ... soon.

At dinner, Masha helped Claire to lay out the food buffet-style across the massive dinner table. Michelle, the appointed men on the property, Karine, and Roman all made their way around the table, finding easy conversation about everything except whatever reason had sent him there. He was grateful for it. Claire even arranged for vodka, and Masha baked apple pie that was gone before it could completely cool for dessert.

Karine and Roman stuck together, side by side where he could keep his attention where he wanted it the most. He didn’t want to let go of his hold on her waist. She kept glancing his way with silent questions in her eyes, but they hadn’t gotten a single moment to themselves.

Dinner was loud.

Unsurprisingly.

The food was great and the liquor flowed until even he started to feel a bit lighter on his feet. Not that Roman showed it—he’d been taught a long time ago to hide any sign of intoxication in the presence of others, no matter who those people were. It was a hard habit to break. That didn’t stop him from enjoying the show of everyone else getting drunk .

Even Michelle appeared to be having fun, and couldn’t stop eyeing up one of the bulls who gave her all the attention she could barely handle. His grandfather liked to say there was something about a good-looking Russian man with a glass of vodka in his hand that no woman could ignore, and Anton’s sentiment was proving right again.

Masha went so far as to laugh with Claire as they heaped what remained on the platters to the couple in the middle for whoever wanted them. Leftovers were just as much a treat as the main course in his mother’s home—no matter where she was currently calling home.

Karine, in her long yellow dress, teasing him with thin spaghetti straps that showed off the delicate line of her shoulders and dipped deliciously in the front to give a peek at her breasts, enjoyed herself, too. Roman was sure he’d never seen her as happy and carefree, engaging in conversations and jokes with the others, as she was during the dinner. As much as it killed him not to constantly have her attention on him, he liked to watch her just as much.

He toyed with a strand of the dark hair resting prettily over her shoulders while she sipped on a drink one of the guys had made her with soda to make the liquor more palatable to her tastes. She passed him one of those demure smiles that always set his cock off, throbbing in his slacks with little effort.

How could she be shy?

With him?

In the two weeks that she’d spent at the lodge, safe away from the influences that certainly hadn’t aided in her situation, another side of her apparently emerged. A side he had figured was lurking somewhere under the surface, if only because she had dared to show him the occasional peek.

She had made friends, too.

Another bonus.

It wasn’t just Masha and her, anymore. By the way she made easy conversation with nearly everyone at the table, Karine had formed a bond with the others as well. Even her doctor. Michelle, in particular, treated her like a younger sister whose well-being she genuinely cared about if the secret, playful smiles the two women shared was any indication.

Despite the fact that she had been forced there, he hoped the doctor didn’t look at their circumstance as only that, but as an engaging challenge. With the bonus of Karine, whose magnetic soul seemed to keep dragging people in closer and closer.

It wasn’t only Michelle and his mother who’d developed a deep fondness for Karine, but the bulls, too. The handful of men had clearly become friends with her as well. He didn’t miss the friendly affection Jimmy, in particular, offered Karine when only one sweet was left on the table, and the two reached for the pastry at the same time. He let her take it with a shrug and a chuckle.

If it were other men—or maybe a different woman sitting beside him—then Roman might have felt jealous seeing the woman he was in love with getting attention from others, and reveling in it. It wasn’t like that with Karine; her ability to draw out someone’s softer, fonder side was her nature.

And the fact she beamed under the attention of everyone around her ... shit, it hurt to know she’d probably been craving moments like this her entire life.

What business did something petty like jealousy have messing with that?

Roman honesty hadn’t expected to see the progress he found in just two weeks, but he couldn’t deny the relief, either.

And there was something ...

Something about knowing she fit here—found herself a spot at a table that, before now, hadn’t even existed. With these people. His mother.

In his life.

He was also relieved that his mother had seen a different side of her. One that she’d only revealed to him before. Now, it was evident to everyone why he felt the way he did about Karine. What drew her to him. Underneath that hazy exterior she