Deceitful Vows (Marital Privileges #2)

51. Zoya

51

ZOYA

N ikita’s wedding was fast but gorgeous, though she seems to have no recollection of it.

“You let me get married!” Her high squeal whistles through my ears. “You let me get married to a man who hates me?”

“I don’t hate you.”

Her panic lowers to a manageable level from Maksim’s pledge, though not enough for me not to try to help her connect the dots she lost while sleeping. “I tried to stop you. But by the time I returned to our suite, you had already decided. You were so determined to go through with it that you organized a late-night visit from a local minister.”

“No.” One word shouldn’t take so long to deliver. “I wouldn’t do that. I went to the foyer for a room key and watched you shake your ass, and then I… I… I…” She peers at Maksim like perhaps her memories are more buried than gone before she whispers, “I married you.”

“You did,” he replies, grinning.

“Because…?” If she wants Maksim to fill in the blanks, she needs to give him a minute to speak. “Strangers don’t marry strangers unless they’re in Vegas, and they wouldn’t tie the knot with someone they don’t like. You dislike me so much you walked out when my pants were huddled around my knees and my pussy was exposed.”

“I didn’t?—”

I sling my head to the side when Maksim is interrupted by the last person I expected to see looking bright and chipper this morning. Aleena represents an angel ready to be placed at the top of a Christmas tree. It is a starkly contradicting look to the one she presented last night. “Want to miss out on a big inheritance?” I’m not the only one lost when she enters the room while saying, “When I accidentally let slip to Maksim about your excessive student loans, he mentioned an inheritance he’d never see if he didn’t wed. Putting two and two together, I realized how ideal this could be.” She gleams with excitement. “You need money, and Maksim needs a wife to get it. This”—she darts her hand between Maksim and Nikita—“fixes both dilemmas.”

Nikita sounds as confused as I feel. “Zoya just said I had already decided before either of you had returned to our suite. But now you’re saying you helped cook up a scheme that would have me believing marrying a stranger was a good idea?”

“No, that isn’t what happened,” I jump in, trying to save Aleena before she’s trampled by Nikita’s lie detector machine. “She… I…” I’ve got nothing, so I thrust a takeaway cup of coffee toward her. “I brought you coffee.”

When Nikita accepts it, she has a Janet Jackson Super Bowl moment.

“Shit. Sorry,” she apologizes.

I already knew Maksim was a good fit for Nikita, hence me colluding with Aleena to get them together, but his low growl of disapproval seals the deal.

“You loathe that too?” I backhand his chest like we’re lifelong friends. “Aleena is right. You are a perfect match.”

“Z!” Nikita shouts.

“What? Don’t act like you can’t feel the sparks. You’ve been panting like a dog in heat since we got here.”

“And you thought he was married, so you should have muzzled my mouth.”

When Maksim glares at me like it isn’t Nikita’s mouth that needs muzzling around married men, I shift his focus to the cause of Nikita’s outburst. “The blonde.”

“Slatvena?” Maksim asks, forcing heat to creep across Nikita’s cheeks from the provocative way he says her name. “She is my assistant.” He sounds more humored than frustrated while adding, “She also wasn’t forced to attend yesterday’s festivities. She was there for the same reason every other spectator was.”

“For charity,” Nikita assumes, always a goody two-shoes.

Maksim laughs before putting Nikita out of her misery. “She went to enjoy the view.”

“Oh…”

With Nikita still lost, I give the international sign for scissor sisters. Her eyes don’t veer lower than my face, but she gets the idea. “ Oh… Then why not marry her?”

Aleena jumps back into our conversation. “It needs to look authentic.” Her nose screws up like a rabbit. “If it doesn’t appear legitimate, the inheritance will be voided.” Either out of excuses or desperate to wipe the suspicion from my eyes that she appears too adapt in marriages of convenience for me to let slide, she hooks her thumb to the door. “We should probably go. This is a private matter. We don’t want to intrude.”

I almost shake my head until I see the wish for privacy spreading across Maksim’s face. I hardly know him, but I trust that he has Nikita’s best interests at heart, so I change my shake to a head bob.

When I hug Nikita, she whispers, “If you leave me now, I’ll disown you for life.”

“He won’t hurt you, Keet. He only wants to help you.”

Although I’d sell a kidney to stay and support her through this, Aleena’s quick exodus leaves me no choice but to squirm out of her hold and race out of the room, hot on Aleena’s tail.

“Leaving again so soon?” I murmur when I notice her heading for the main exit door of the suite, slowing her steps. “I thought we had plans today?”

Her shoulders rise and fall three times before she spins to face me. “We do. I just thought I should wait for you down there.”

There could be anywhere, but she doesn’t extend her reply even with my expression showing my confusion.

“Is everything okay?” I thought we made good headway in our relationship yesterday, though now it seems as if we’re back to square one. Since I think I know the cause of that, I ask, “You seemed pretty knowledgeable in arranged marriages in there.” I nudge my head to Nikita’s room. “Is that for any particular reason?”

She looks panicked and then relieved. “No. Of course not.” My squashed heart gets a moment of reprieve when she steps closer. “I was coming to collect my phone. When I overheard Nikita’s panic, I thought a little bit of spit and polish wouldn’t hurt anyone. Maksim will be good for her, so I want her to give him a chance. If that needs an occasional lie to happen, I’m okay with that.”

“He will be good for her,” I agree, “but it doesn’t explain how you knew what ruse to run with.”

She exhales deeply before gesturing for us to move our conversation to the living room. I wait for her to sit first before sitting across from her. I’m better at reading people when I can see them head-on.

It seems like forever before she speaks. “This isn’t my first engagement.”

I nod, recalling her saying last night that Bayli had asked for her hand in marriage.

I’m knocked back when she says, “I was engaged last year. The terms were similar to the ones I just stated.” Her eyes fall to her hands knotted around her skirt. “The groom called off the wedding the night before.” I want to pop my knee into the groin of every man who has ever hurt her when her voice cracks. “He had fallen in love with someone else. She was pregnant and his family would never allow him to have a child out of wedlock, so she took my place at the end of the altar.”

“Aleena, I’m sorry.”

She brushes off my sympathies as if they’re not required. “It’s okay. I’m fine with it now. It just stung a little at the time. It kind of knocks your ego being disregarded like you’re worthless.”

She is preaching to the wrong person, but since this is about her, not me, I scoot to the edge of my chair before squeezing her hand in mine. “But things are different this time, right? This isn’t an arrangement. You love Kazimir and he loves you?”

Her sob breaks my heart, so you can imagine my surprise when she acts like everything is fine. “Of course. It’s wonderful.” When my expression announces that I need a little more convincing, she says, “Last night was nerves. I was getting cold feet and petrified that Kazimir was experiencing the same. But he put my worries to bed last night.”

“He visited you last night?” I need to get a second opinion on the medication I am taking. They’re making me far too sentimental. I sound like a lovesick fool.

A flare darts through Aleena’s eyes as she nods. “Yeah. He made everything better and had me so giddy that if a certain someone hadn’t hogged the hotel event planner’s evening, she may not have been the only one shacked up and married right now.” She bumps me with her knee. “If only we were in Vegas.”

I giggle. It loosens some of the tension hanging heavily on my chest. “So we’re still on for today? You still want to hang out?”

“Yes,” she whispers. “Of course.”

“Okay.” I squeeze her hand again. “Why don’t you go grab the girls and come back here. We have a full itinerary of activities to undertake.”

I melt into her embrace when she hugs me before I shadow her walk to the door.

I stare at it for a few moments to gather my bearings. Something feels off with Aleena’s story, though I can’t quite pinpoint what it is.

It doesn’t help that my usually stealth detective skills are lagging this morning. I barely slept last night. It wasn’t solely Nikita’s abrupt nuptials keeping me awake but also the promise of a man I shouldn’t have fallen in love with but have.

I waited up for Andrik as asked.

He never arrived.

I stop staring into space when the creak of a door opening trickles into my ears. Maksim exits Nikita’s room looking more disheveled than he did last night. Her memory loss is worrying him as much as it is me.

“I have a handful of matters I need to take care of.” When I nod, he continues. “There are two guards stationed at the end of the hall, and my security personnel were briefed this morning. She is safe here, though I would appreciate if you would encourage her to stay on the hotel grounds.”

“Most of our activities today are here.”

Like all dominant men, he only hears what he wants to hear. “Most?”

“I booked us a spa day at a salon in town. No offense but the prices here are outrageous.”

He smirks, amused by my honesty, but remains firm on his orders. “I will have Slatvena cancel the appointment.”

“Every girl knows the best cure for a hangover is a spa day. If you want her memories back sooner rather than later, let the appointment stand.”

Maksim doesn’t seem the type to compromise, though I am delighted when he does. “I will organize for my team to come here.” My lips barely move before he gives them no reason to. “At the hotel’s expense.”

“That would be wonderful. Thank you.”

He eyes me for a nanosecond before muttering, “But?”

“But…” He isn’t a fan of delayed gratification. “The spa day was in preparation for a DJ gig we were planning to attend tonight. I don’t see DJ Rourke willing to do a home visit like your spa techs.”

He gives me a look as if to say, Don’t bet on it , before he pulls out his phone. “What time is the gig?”

“Nine.”

He scrolls an overloaded planner on his phone while humming before he says, “That could work. I’ll organize security.”

My mood perks up. “Great. Thanks.”

“But.” He isn’t asking a question this time. He’s about to hit me with a statement. “Nikita won’t be able to leave this room with that hanging over your head.” He nudges his head to the duffle bag I was unable to hand back last night since Andrik failed to show up. “It will be harder to maintain her safety when there are too many variables at play.”

“I understand. I just…” Again, morals break through pathetic excuses. “Andrik didn’t show up last night, and I don’t have a way to contact him.”

Maksim almost looks sympathetic.

Almost.

“My offer is still open. I am more than happy to return it to him.”

I stray my eyes to Nikita’s bedroom door for the quickest second before recognizing the cause of the commotion outside the suite’s door. Aleena and her bridesmaids are giddy with excitement about our day, and it reminds me of what this weekend is meant to be about.

“Okay. But on one condition.”

He no longer looks sympathetic.

Murderous is more suitable for his scowl.

“Can we keep this between us? I will tell Nikita when the time is right, but I don’t want Aleena finding out about it just yet.”

I can’t discourage my sister for marrying for money when it looks like I am willing to do anything to get it. I also don’t want her to know I am involved with a married man. The emotions she displayed when she confessed that she had been cheated on shows her opinion on adulteresses. I don’t want her to ever look at me like that. It will ruin the progress that has taken twelve years to initiate.

Maksim collects the duffle bag from the floor, doubling the output of my heart, before twisting to face me. “You looked out for Nikita when I couldn’t. For that alone, I will be forever in your debt.” I get misty-eyed when he murmurs, “Just don’t hurt her. Because that is not something I will ever forgive.”

He doesn’t need words to hear my promise, so he leaves without them.