“Then maybe you should put some clothes on.”
“Are you telling me that it’s perfectly okay for you to sneak into my bathroom when I’m undressed, but it’s somehow unseemly for them to see me in a robe even though I’m fully covered?”
“I didn’t sneak, and yes,” he said firmly. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
“You are such a bully.”
“The decision is yours, Tionne,” he said in a calm and reasonable tone. “You can remain comfortably clothed, or they can stand outside. Whatever you desire.”
Tionne wasn’t a fool. It was barely a choice. “Fine. I’ll be back.”
He nodded solemnly. “As you wish.”
Irritated, she flipped Misha off, earning a scowl from him for her effort. As far as comebacks went, she knew it was a weak one, but damn, it felt good.
Chapter Two
She was keeping something from him. Misha knew that as surely as he knew the sun rose in the east and set in the west, and he didn’t like it. Not one little bit. Things had changed between them. He didn’t know when, and he didn’t know why, but they had, and it wasn’t for the better. Far from it. There was a time when she’d come to him for everything. Now he couldn’t get her to answer a simple question.
The fact that she said she wasn’t his responsibility didn’t sit well with him at all. It was utter nonsense. The debt he owed her father could never be repaid, not in this lifetime or the next. Making sure Tionne had everything she needed and everything she wanted was not only his responsibility but also his honor. And the fact that she said otherwise bothered him more than he cared to admit.
“What do you know?” Nicholi asked the second the pretty African-American woman was out of sight.
Misha held up one finger, then glanced at his bodyguards. “Gentlemen, please wait outside.” Without a single word being uttered the two men turned and filed out into the hallway. As soon as the door closed behind the last guard, Misha lowered his hand and his voice. “Not a damn thing,” Misha replied, answering his cousin’s question. “She refused to tell me what had upset her.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Get answers.” Now the only question was how. “I think I saw her phone on the floor in the bathroom.”
Nicholi nodded thoughtfully. “Good place to start.”
“Very.” Even if she hadn’t left her phone in there, they could still use her cell to get information. The plan was in his name. It would take only a few minutes to pull up her call and text history.
“But before we start snooping, let’s talk about the obvious. She doesn’t look hurt. If we take this step and invade her privacy, there’s no going back. Are you sure you want that on your conscience?”
He stared blankly at his cousin. “What conscience?”
Nicholi smiled. “Okay, good point. I’m just saying if Tionne finds out about this—and she’s a woman, so that pretty much means she will—are you going to be fine with the fallout?”
“Her anger I can handle. Doing nothing when I could have done something, I cannot.” Misha glanced in the direction Tionne had gone. “Something happened tonight, and whatever it is, she’s keeping it from me. I can feel it.”
“Don’t you think Tionne would ask for help if she needed it?”
“Before tonight I would have said yes.”
“What’s changed?”
Misha faced his cousin once more. “That is exactly what I plan to find out.”
“Okay, I’m dressed,” Tionne said as she came back in the room. She held her arms out to her side and did a one-eighty, allowing him to get a good look at the University of Alabama Crimson Tide black tank shirt and matching capri pants she was wearing. She’d left her dark hair up in a messy bun yet it nevertheless seemed sexy and stylish.
Misha wasn’t sure how she could look so innocent and young yet still so jaw-droppingly sensual all at the same time and while he was pleased she’d changed her clothing, he would be lying if he said he didn’t like the other outfit more. But that was a thought path he couldn’t go down, wouldn’t go down for the sake of them both. Instead he kept his voice steady and held his gaze directly on her face. Anything else would lead to nothing but trouble. “Better.”
“I’m so happy you appro—” Her words instantly grinded to a halt as her gaze swept the semideserted room. “Where did they go?”
“They’re waiting in the hall.”
She glowered at him. “What the hell? I went and changed.”
The exasperation in her voice amused him. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to change into something better or worse. I thought it wise to play it safe.”
“And yet”—she waved her hand in his cousin’s direction—“Nicholi is still here.”
“I would have closed my eyes really, really tight if it were worse,” his cousin deadpanned.
“Gee, thanks.”
Nicholi grinned. “Here to help.”
“Well, that makes one of you,” she said as she glared at Misha.
“What?” He feigned innocence. “I’m here to help too.”
“No, you’re here to be a…” Tionne stopped midsentence and tilted her head to the side. “Wait, why
are
you here?”
“Because you needed me. Isn’t that what you said in the tub?” Misha reminded her. They were her words, after all.
“It was the wine speaking.”
He didn’t believe that for a second. “Then have another drink.”
“You can be so freaking annoying.”
He acknowledged the truth with a nod. “Yes, I can, but the quicker you answer me, the faster I’ll leave. What happened tonight?”
“Nothing. I needed a ride. I’m sorry if I inconvenienced you.”
Misha’s brow wrinkled as he frowned.
Is that what she thinks she is to me?
It couldn’t have been further from the truth. “When have you ever been an inconvenience?”
“Tonight, obviously.”
“You weren’t. You never have been.
Ever
.” He stressed the word so she would understand the importance of it. “You worried me, though. Why did you need a ride? Did your car break down?”
Tionne shook her head. “No.”
“Then why did you need the car?”
“Long story short. I was on a date, I didn’t drive, the date took a turn for the worse, and I wanted to come home.”
He stiffened. The very idea of Tionne seeing someone didn’t sit well with him at all. “With whom did you have this date?”
“No one you know,” she said offhandedly.
It better not have been with anyone he was acquainted with. None of the men he knew were good enough for her. “Why did it take a turn for the worse?”
“Basically everything,” she replied in a dry manner.
The flippant answer only served to annoy him more. “You’re telling me nothing.”
“I’m telling you what you need to know. Which is nothing. It was just one date. It ended. I came home. What else do you want to know, Your Majesty?”
He let the dig slide and fired off a question of his own. “Was it a first date?”
“No.”
Misha arched an eyebrow. “Second?”
“No.”
“Third?” He would do this all night until she told him what he wanted to hear.
“Oh my God.” Exasperation filled her voice. “We’ve been out several times, okay?”
Several?
What the hell had he missed? They spoke all the time, had dinner together at least three times a week, and yet she hadn’t mentioned she was seeing anyone. Not once. Irritated, he took a step closer to her. “Why is it the first I’m hearing of this?”
Her expression stilled and grew serious. “Because my social life isn’t your business.”
“Everything about you is my business. Everything,” he countered in a cold but barely controlled manner.
A heavy, thick silence filled the room as Misha stared at her, daring her to refute his claim. She was his business because she was his world. And if she didn’t grasp that after all these years, then he was more than capable of showing her.
“What do you want from me?” she said after a moment.
“The truth.”
“Then let me repeat it to you.” She held up a single finger. “One more time. I had a bad date. I decided I didn’t want him to see me home. I called for a ride. The end.”
Misha narrowed his gaze. That wasn’t the end. It was only the beginning. “And that’s the entire thing?”
“Yes.”
“Nothing else I need to know?” he asked, giving her one more chance to do this the easy way.
“Not a thing. Will you leave now?”
Fine, if she wanted to play it this way, they would. “In a second. Come here.”
“Why?” Her tone was wary, her dark brown eyes untrusting.
“Because I requested you do so.”
“No, you told me to.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Tired of all the pussyfooting around, Misha crossed the room to her. Tionne’s eyes widened, and she took a step back, but it was too little, too late. Misha reached her before she could react. He grabbed her shoulders and held her still. “Listen to me carefully, because I’m only going to ask once.”
“Once.” Tionne jerked, trying to free herself. “What are you doing? Let me go, you big bully.”
“Wallace said you winced when you sat back. So before I spin you around and pull your pants down to check for myself, I’m going to ask you. Are. You. Hurt?”
“Misha.”
That was not a yes, nor was it a no. “Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. She was going to make him do this the hard way. “I’ll check myself.”
“Leave my pants alone. It’s not my butt.” She squeaked out.
Misha froze, and his heart dropped to the floor. He’d hoped that he’d been wrong, but her words proved otherwise. “Then what is it?”
“My back. He hurt my back.”
Nicholi let out a raw curse, but Misha remained expressionless and composed as he released his grip on her. At least on the outside. On the inside, he was choking on his rage. Someone dared,
dared
, to touch her, and that someone was going to pay. “What’s his name?”
Tionne glanced over at Nicholi, then back at him. “Misha, please.”
“Answer me,” he demanded.
“It was an accident; I swear to you. Just let it go.”
“Who. Is. He.” He was holding on to his rage by a very thin thread.
She crossed her arms over her breasts and stared at him silently, but on this he would not be moved.
“I have absolutely nowhere I have to be for the rest of the night, and any plans I have for this week can be changed. I can and I will stay right here until you tell me what I want to know.”
Tionne sighed and dropped her arms. “You really would, wouldn’t you?”
“Absolutely.”
“Can we at least do it in private?” Tionne shot Nicholi an apologetic look. “No offense.”
“None taken,” his cousin said. “Mind if I use your bathroom?”
“Of course not. You know where it is.”
“Thank you.” Nicholi moved passed them but paused when he was just out of Tionne’s eyesight and gave a firm nod. Misha answered in kind, knowing without words that his cousin was going for the phone, leaving Misha to get what he could out of Tionne.
THIS WAS TURNING out to be one of the worst nights of Tionne’s short life. Just when she didn’t think things could get any more shittastic, something else happened. It was almost as if the date from hell wasn’t sufficient punishment. Now she had to deal with this bullshit. It was enough to make a grown woman cry.
“He’s gone,” Misha said suddenly, drawing her attention to him. “Tell me.”
“It was an accident,” she said for what felt like the millionth time.
“The more you say that, the less I believe you.”
“You don’t want to believe me.”
“Because you don’t want to tell me what happened.” Every word was spoken louder than the one before it.
“Because the last thing I want to do is talk to you about my personal life.” Tionne purposely didn’t say sex life because she didn’t have one, unless one counted her very vivid imagination and her right hand.
“I assure you, it’s not high on my list of conversations to have either,” he said crossly. “But we’ll have it anyway.”
Frustrated, Tionne moved passed Misha and to her couch. She sat down but purposely didn’t lean back on the cushion. Her back was still tender to the touch. The Epsom salt had stung more than it had soothed, and she didn’t want to chance inflaming her back by leaning on it.
“Look at you,” he said sharply.
Startled, she jumped. “What?”
“You’re even sitting like someone who’s injured.”
Tionne cursed under her breath. Leave it to Misha to pick up on that. “It’s just a scratch. I promise.” She looked at him, and the worry on his solemn face robbed her of her anger. Yes, Misha was a pain in her ass, but he was only here because he cared. Even if it wasn’t in the way she wanted, he still cared, and she couldn’t be angry at him for that. “Mish, have I ever lied to you? Ever? About anything?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” he said carefully.
“Then why would I start now?”
He snorted. “To appease me.”
“Is it working?” she asked hopefully.
“No.” A quick smile flickered across his lips. “And nothing will, not even calling me by that dreadful nickname.”
“You love it. You know you do.”
“I know,” he drawled as he came over to her and joined her on the couch, “that you’re the only person on this earth who would dare shorten my name.”
“And that’s why I do it, because no one else calls you that.” It was their thing, just his and hers. “It makes me happy.”
“Which is why I allow you to get away with it.”
“Allow?” She rolled her eyes at his high-handed turn of phrase. “As if you could stop me.”
“Couldn’t I? It seems,” he began as he sat next to her, “you’re testing your wings more and more, moja draga. Are you ready to fly the nest and leave me?”
“Never.” She couldn’t even imagine a life without him.
“Then why are you putting up walls between us? We never had secrets before. Is he so important to you that you have to protect him from me?”
Misha couldn’t have been further from the truth. “What makes you think he’s the one I’m trying to protect?”
His eyebrows skyrocketed up. “Are you implying that I need protection?”
“Yes, from yourself. I know you. You’ll do something crazy out of some misguided sense of duty to my father.”
“I give you my word, I won’t.”
“Swear, no matter what I say, you won’t do something crazy because of some debt you think you owe my dad.”