I laughed. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to skip telling him that. He told me he was going to steal you yesterday. I don’t want to give him any more hope that you can learn to love Colombian men.” She looked at me wide-eyed, her fingers frozen in place. “I told him I’d like to see him try,” I said, grinning at her.
“He was kidding though, right? Please tell me he was kidding,” she said. I could feel the faint shaking in her leg start as she thought about the possibility of having to worry about Trino coming for her as well.
“He was kidding, Sephie. He would never. He was laughing when he said it. He’s made it clear that he’s fascinated by you, but he has too much respect for me to try anything. And besides, you’ve seen Trino. You could snap him in two without breaking a sweat. He’s the last person you need to be worried about.” I wrapped my arms around her tighter, pulling her closer to me, trying to keep the shaking from getting worse. I felt her sigh and her body relax as I held her. I kissed her forehead. “Come, I’ll make you breakfast. You need fuel for Mike’s big day.”
I grabbed my phone as we got out of bed. I had a feeling that the guys were all awake too. They were like children on Christmas morning about this training session with Mike. I sent Viktor a text telling him to come up for breakfast.
“Who are you texting so freaking early?” she asked as she was putting her hair up into a bun on top of her head.
I grinned at her. “I told the guys to come up for breakfast too. I’m sure they’re all awake by now. They can’t wait for Mike’s big, day, either.”
“I mean, no pressure,” she said, rolling her eyes. A small smile crept across her face, though.
We barely had time to get dressed and the guys were walking into the penthouse. We had just walked into the kitchen when they all walked in. Yep, they were excited about this.
Ivan walked to Sephie, sliding his good arm around her shoulders. “Good morning, princess,” he said, squeezing her shoulders. He kissed the top of her head as she leaned into him. “I think you’re all more excited about this than I am,” she said, smiling at each of them.
“Maybe a little,” Misha said, grinning back at her.
“You’re going to be fine, spider monkey. We were trained by the best and we trained you, which means you were trained by the best too,” Andrei said, as he made her a cup of coffee. She still looked slightly unsure, but she didn’t say anything more about it. She looked up at Ivan, “we need to change your bandage again. It should be close to time to get an x-ray to see if the bone is healed enough you can take that stu pid sling off.”
“Not looking forward to that and also looking forward to that,” Ivan sald, winking at her.
“I’ll be there the whole time. I’ll make sure it’s quick,” she said, smiling broadly at him. We could see him relax as she smiled at him. There was definitely a stronger connection between those two since Ivan almost died. The rest of us could see it, but we didn’t necessarily understand it.
Adrik
Mike, Chris, and Keith were on time to the gym, which was a good sign. It was obvious that Mike didn’t think he needed to be there, however. Chris and Keith seemed happy enough to be there. Keith even more so when he caught Stephen’s eye. I couldn’t help but smile to myself as I watched those two be awkward with each other.
Viktor informed them that they needed to have their skills assessed so he could see where their training needed to start.
“I told you the training I had, Viktor. You already know this,” Mike said, a slight edge to his voice.
Sephie folded her arms across her chest, raising an eyebrow. Her hackles would go up anytime anyone was the slightest bit rude to one of us. It was, in fact, adorable.
“And I could tell you that I’m the Queen of England. Doesn’t necessarily make it true,” Sephie said. We all heard her tone of voice. We all instinctively took a step back from her.
Mike glared at her for a moment, but realized a second too late what he was doing. I stepped behind her, my gaze fixed on him. He quickly looked down.
Ivan, who was really enjoying this exchange, said, “make you a deal, Mike. If you can pass the test today, you don’t have to continue with the training. If you can’t, you get to start at the beginning.”
While Chris and Keith knew that something felt a little off about Ivan’s offer, Mike jumped at the chance. “Deal. This should be easy,” he said.
Keith looked at him, surprised. “You don’t even know what the test is yet, Mike.”
“I don’t need to. I’m sure I can pass it,” he said with as much bravado as one man can have..
Sephie looked at Stephen. I couldn’t see her expression, but he was smiling at her. They both said, “King Turd” in Russian, making each other laugh.
Viktor said, “if you can best Sephie in the ring, you can skip training, Mike. If you can’t, then I don’t want to hear another word out of you about training. Understood?” We all glanced at Viktor somewhat surprised. He rarely lost his cool, but we could hear the anger in his voice, even.
Mike laughed loudly. “You’re not serious, right? You’re really going to sacrifice your precious woman?”
Ivan looked at Mike, threateningly. “We’re sacrificing you, you du mb fu ck.”
That made Sephie laugh. She said, in Russian, “Super Squish, I kind of love you right now.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.