Page 53 of Keeping My Enemies Closer: Pt. 2

Chapter 27

Zoya~

I watched Kasimir load the dishwasher, and guilt quickly hit me in the chest.“You know, if you cook, I should clean.Those are the rules.”

Without looking back at me, he said, “And once your fingers and ribs are no longer an issue, you can wash all the dishes that you want,lepestok.Don’t let me stand in the way of what makes you happy.”

“Ha.Ha.”I deadpanned.

Kasimir put the dishes to wash, then turned to look at me, a huge grin on his face.“Now, the housekeepers will be bored if you begin washing the dishes and whatnot, but I’m sure they’ll adjust.”

Ignoring his sarcasm, I said, “I just feel bad.I haven’t contributed in any way while I’ve been here.I’m...I’ve been just existing, and you’ve been letting me.”

Kasimir didn’t say anything at first.He kind of just considered me carefully before walking around the counter until he was standing in front of me, and it was when he was serious like this that he was at his most gorgeous.Oh, he looked sexy as sin when he was pleasuring me, but he looked stunning when he was serious.Those dual-colored eyes of his had a way of just looking through a person, but maybe it was just me.Maybe I was the only one who was affected by that concentrated stare of his, but I doubted it.I doubted it a lot.

“You say that as if existing isn’t enough,” he finally said.“You say that as if you being here doesn’t have a deeper purpose.I love you, Zoya.I love you when I never thought that I’d ever be able to love someone who wasn’t of my blood.So, while you think that you’re here, doing nothing, you’re actually giving my life a better meaning than it’d had before.”

Who was this man?

How could he say things like that to me, then turn around and pull someone’s vocal cords from their neck the next moment?How could he be so patient and open with me, but still be the same person who could torture someone on a dime?It made no sense.It made no sense that this man could be everything that I craved, yet also be everything that a normal person should abhor.

“How do you do that?”

“Do what,lepestok?”

“Say everything to make me forget who and what you really are underneath,” I answered.

“And what am I underneath?”

“A normal person would say a monster,” I said, testing the word on my tongue.“A normal person would say evil.”

Kasimir just smirked, not offended at all.“And they’d be right.However, even the devil is still an angel, whether they put the word fallen before the description or not.”

Looking up at him, I said, “I just think that...that even fifty years from now, I’ll still never really know who you are.”

“You’re wrong,” he replied evenly.“As it stands, right now, you’re theonlyperson who knows who I really am.I might keep you on your toes during our marriage, but you’ll never not know where my priorities lay.”

“I just...I don’t know,” I sighed.

Kasimir regarded me for a couple of seconds before he reached down, grabbed me by my hips, then lifted me like I weighed nothing.However, before I could grab on or wrap my legs around his waist, he was dropping me onto the kitchen counter.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m still hungry,” he answered wolfishly.