Page 27 of Knot Their Princess

She nods.

“So, you live in L.A., then?”

Another nod.

“That’s lovely.” My smile is forced, but no one would know it but me and my brothers. I’ve had far too many years of practice. “You must love that new grotto Mikhail had built at his mansion in Beverly Hills.”

A swallow. “It’s beautiful.”

There is no grotto. There’s not even a house in Beverly Hills. Petrov lives in Malibu.

“Do you and Yenna get along?”

She freezes at that question. I see that brain of hers go to work again, questions cycling through.

Who’s Yenna? Is it his mother? Does he have a child?

Yenna is his chihuahua.

I let my foot fall to the floor and lean forward in my seat, steepling my fingertips. “How long have you been engaged to Mikhail, Sin?”

“F-for…” she coughs, her gaze cast down at the floor.

I hate this. I hate myself for interrogating her this way, making her so uncomfortable. All I want is to scoop her into my arms and take her straight up to our penthouse suite and make her forget any of this ever happened. But right now, the truth is more important than fantasy.

“We’re not.”

Her words are so quiet, I nearly miss them, even when we’re all alone here, the thump of the music barely making it into the lobby through those thick doors.

I make sure my voice is gentle, my eyes imploring. “Tell me.”

She looks at me then. Really stares hard at my face, seeing something there that somehow both upsets and calms her.

And then, she speaks.

“Petrov… is a patron. At a club I work at.”

A club. The way the word falls from her lips implies shame. A stripper?

“He paid my boss to take me on this trip. To pretend we were engaged. Since it was purely transactional, I didn’t ask many questions, and neither did Ma—” she clears her throat. “Neither did my boss.”

Transactional. A club. Her boss. He’s a patron.

There’s no relationship there, not even a friendship.

I almost have more questions now than I did before. But Sin’s discomfort stops me from pressing her for more information.

We’ll get all the information we need later.

I smile at her again and check my watch. My, how the time has flown.

“Thank you, Sin, for telling me the truth.” I rise to my feet, slide my mask back on. “It’s fifteen minutes to midnight.”

She jumps slightly in her chair, like she can’t believe it, either.

“I have a little speech to give before the countdown. I hope I see you inside.”

Chapter Eleven