King of the Underworld by RJ Kane

372

Sephie

“I’m not sure, princess. This has never happened before so I don’t know how to handle it. Your hand on me helps keep me grounded,” Ivan said.

“I can do that. Adrik knows something is happening. He’ll be able to get most of this conversation when we get back to the table without me saying anything. I’m hoping he can make the meeting shorter. I don’t want to have to look at her make bedroom eyes at my future husband any longer than I have to anyway,” I said.

Andrei laughed. “She’s worse than Giana about making it obvious.”

“Right? Is there no subtlety left in this world?” I asked. Before we walked back to the table, I pulled Ivan toward me. I wrapped my arms around his neck, knowing he was struggling to keep it together. “We’ll get out of here as soon as we can. You’re doing great and I’m proud of you,” I said. He held onto me tightly for a few moments before I felt his arms relax around me.

walked slightly in front of me as we walked back to the tables. I had a hold of Ivan’s hand still. I was mostly lost in my own head, thinking about Ivan and how to help him when I felt his grip on my hand

talking to him quietly. Adrik had leaned as far away from her as he could without falling off his chair. He was forced to look at her, but would only glance at her before looking away, I said to Ivan and Andrei, “get behind me. hand on my back, I need

Ivan put your

before we were back at the table, so they moved instantly behind me and I felt Ivan’s hand on the small of my back. I crossed my arms over my chest

She finally glanced at me but didn’t make a move to get up. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, but I was so angry at her blatant disregard for my presence that I didn’t care. As she was talking to Adrik, 1 could hear the thoughts in her head. I could also feel the hatred she had for me. She was doing this

with such ill-mannered women, or you brought her special for us? If you

hand press into my back at the same time I felt his

hatred she could muster. It was very much the same feeling that I had when Sal and Armando looked at me when they took me and Ivan. I didn’t like it. I felt the panic start, but I pushed my anger to the surface as much as possible, trying to override the panic. Ivan and Andrei both caught on to what I was doing and I felt their anger feed into mine. The panic was pushed down and I was able to hold her gaze until she looked

she could hear, “try to touch him again and you will no longer have functioning

moved his chair closer to me, so I could still keep a hand on Ivan. He stretched his arm across my lap, leaning over to kiss me in front of everyone. I had to admit to feeling ecstatic when I looked at her and saw

seemed to irritate Battista, as he was much colder to her for the rest of the meeting.