My nipples had come out to say hello. “Where’s my bra?”
He walked out of the closet, still in boxers, and going about his business without looking at me, he uttered, “I told you. The trash.”
Lifting the black shirt to hide my lady lumps, I gaped in shock before sputtering, “It was the only one I had!”
“It was threadbare.”
“It did the job,” I returned, falling into hysteria.
Hearing my prickliness, he turned his face up to look at me then eyed my chest before raising a brow. “You don’t need a bra.”
My face flamed. I hugged my arms around myself as tight as I could without folding into myself.
Well, that was rude. He should’ve just told me my tits were tiny and one needed to pull down my pants to make sure that I was, in fact, female.
Man, this guy was doing wonders for my self-esteem.
“I need to shower,” he stated. “And you will wait right here.”
My surly response of ‘Sir, yes, sir’ was cut off as the bathroom door closed behind him.
Great. Just great.
I waited obediently on the edge of the bed and silently wondered whether putting my faith in a man I didn’t know was a terribly good idea.
Chapter Seven
Mina
Lev, freshly showered and dressed in a gunmetal grey three-piece suit over a crisp white shirt, led me out the back door of his house, down a scenic path to an even larger house.
We walked in complete silence, but as we approached the front door, he ordered quietly, “Don’t talk.”
Repositioning the giant cashmere sweater he lent me, I nodded, allowing him to take me by the hand and lead me down a near identical foyer to his own and to the right, into a large dining room. A tray of fruit sat in the center of the table with two vases full of decorative greenery on either ends. A man sat at the long table in the well-lit room, reading the newspaper, his ankle resting across his knee. He was also dressed in a suit, but, unlike Lev, he was kind of scary-looking.
I recognized him instantly. It was the man I’d stolen the wallet from the night before. This was Lev’s brother.
“Sasha,” Lev said in way of greeting as we stepped into the room. I tried to pry my hand from his, but he held it tightly. I pulled a few more times and finally, compromising, he placed my hand into the crook of his elbow.
The man, Sasha, did not look up from the newspaper. “Morning.” He picked up his cup of coffee and sipped at it. Still reading the paper, his brow furrowed. “Where did you go off to last night? And where did you find my wallet? I didn’t realize I dropped it until Anika gave it back to me.”
“You didn’t drop it,” Lev responded. “Mina stole it.”
And my heart stopped.
What the fuck, Lev?
Oh, God. I was in trouble.
“Who the fuck is Mina?” Sasha uttered as he lifted his face. Spotting me, he looked me up and down before turning to Lev. “Any reason we’re discussing this in front of…whoever that is?”
Lev clarified, “Yes, and this is Mina.”
My palms began to sweat. I almost fainted dead away, but dug my nails into Lev’s arm to anchor myself.
“Ah. I see.” Sasha sipped at his coffee again before sneering at me. “Sit. Please.”
His please did not sound like a request, more of a command, and yet, he spoke softly.
My brow felt suddenly clammy. I looked up at Lev with wide eyes and whispered, “Is this a set-up?”
Looking down at me, he patted the hand at his elbow, pulled out a chair, and helped me sit. “Relax. We’re just talking.”
Sasha folded the newspaper and set it down in front of him. “So, Mina, is stealing wallets a habit of yours?”
“No,” I answered quietly through the thickness in my throat.
Lev spoke then. “You had seven hundred dollars in your wallet.”