Total pages in book: 126
Estimated words: 118309 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118309 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 592(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
“Because you thought it would help him.” Maksim isn’t asking a question. He is stating a fact. “Your father’s lawyer just failed to cross-examine you how he promised when he convinced you to be a witness for the DA.” When I stare at him in bewilderment, shocked he hit the nail on the head, he mutters, “You’re not the only one who can utilize Google.” He tightens his grip around my waist. “Just don’t tell Easton that. He needs his ego stroked as often as Ano does.”
“I heard that.”
Maksim’s lips curl before his eyes shoot to the door of our suite. “Good. That’s what you get for snooping.”
Ano’s chuckles trickle through the door. My disappointed groan replaces them when Maksim commences slipping out of me. “If you didn’t have somewhere you needed to be, my head would be buried back between your legs by now.” He lowers his voice to a whisper. “And perhaps I’d be claiming your virginal hole.” He takes a moment to relish my blooming cheeks before nudging his eyes to the red dress someone at the hotel unpacked while we were at the rehearsal dinner.
It is a beautiful dress, but when my head is in a lust haze, nothing but my next climax is on my mind. “We could stay in.”
“We could,” Maksim agrees, the throbbing of his cock adding to the hope in his tone. “But we won’t.” When I pout like a child, he twangs my lip before saying, “This wasn’t on the top of our list, but it is as important to you as every other item in the terms of our agreement.” His expression takes on a serious note. “And Zoya was there for you when others weren’t. For that alone, I will forever be in her debt.”
I love Zoya with all my heart, but I can’t help but joke, “I wouldn’t let her know that. You’ll be broke by the end of the week.”
Determined to stand at my friend’s side as promised, I shimmy off the bed and head to the bathroom, uncaring that I am naked head to toe and being eyeballed by my husband like there aren’t multiple used condoms in the trash can of our suite.
The padding of my feet on the thick carpet pile almost drowns out Maksim’s murmured reply when the heat of his eyes finally reaches my ass. “It’ll be worth every fucking penny.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“Hold on. Go back,” Alla demands, her eyes wide and mouth gaping. “Zoya objected to the marriage of her baby sister?”
When I nod, she couldn’t appear more shocked—until I say, “And then took her place.”
“What?!” Her voice bellows throughout the empty OR. “So she’s married? Right now? She’s shacked up with a stranger?”
I grimace, but since Zoya’s story isn’t mine to tell, I half shrug and half nod instead of shouting the yes bellowing through my head.
Alla’s reply whistles through her teeth since it comes with a massive shocked sigh. “That’s crazy.”
“Yeah, it is,” I agree, reclining back. “I’m worried for Zoya, but I also trust her intuition. She wouldn’t have objected if she didn’t think it was the right thing to do.”
“Does Aleena think the same?”
I can’t hide my grimace this time.
“Ouch.”
Ouch doesn’t come close to explaining the devastation Zoya will be feeling for hurting Aleena. She will do anything for her—anything at all—that’s why I know there is more to Zoya’s decision than she is letting on.
“Anyway, I should probably head back. If I don’t push pathology, who will?”
“Still waiting on Yulia’s latest blood workup?”
I jerk up my chin, aware Alla is under the same NDA as the rest of the hospital staff. “It is so weird because she was well enough to be discharged before I went away, and now she is back to square one.”
“You’ll work it out.” She rubs my arms supportively. “We don’t call you Dr. Genius for no reason.”
I sigh like I hate the nickname, but I much prefer it over the one that was graffitied on my locker weeks ago.
“If I don’t see you before, I’ll see you next week.”
“You will.”
After helping Alla return the chairs we borrowed from the nurses’ station, I hug her goodbye before heading back to the pediatric ward.
“Are you okay?” Dr. Lipovsky asks when she spots my entrance to the nurses’ station to gather a patient’s file. “Too much sugar?” We crossed paths in the underground parking garage. I was exiting to collect supplies for Donut Hole Thursday from Ano, and she was arriving for her shift. “They smelled delicious. Though I’m sure my thighs would have despised every burpee required to work them off.”
A laugh rumbles in my chest, but it is the fight of my life to let it escape my mouth when I notice a name missing from the patient board behind her svelte frame.
“Why has Yulia’s name been removed from the in-patient list?”