He put up his hand. “I’m more pissed that you let yourself get into a relationship you’re so embarrassed of that you feel like you have to hide, London.”
Ouch. He nailed that one right on the head, and he’d known about us for all of thirty seconds.
“You’re in love with him?” Maxim roared.
Every head turned toward him.
There wasn’t just anger in his eyes and the set of brow but a flash of hurt, too. “You’re in love with him?” he repeated.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“You can’t love him because he sure as fuck doesn’t love you!” He snapped.
“I’m sorry?” I shouted.
He turned that glare back on me. “You really took that little dare so seriously that you went and made her fall in love with you? Sadistic son of a—”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!” Every muscle in my body tensed, but I couldn’t lunge at him, not with London between us.
Maxim scoffed. “London, I made some jackass comment in the locker room about dating you because some rookies pissed me off, and this guy”—he pointed at me—“took it as just another way to get under my skin. He doesn’t love you. Trust me. He’s only doing this because I bet him he couldn’t!”
“That’s not true!” I was going to fucking kill Maxim. And to think, I’d just felt bad for the asshole. I’d actually stuck up for him.
“You guys had a bet on who could date my sister?” Caspian asked, more incredulous than anything. “You’re fucking kidding me, right?”
“Yes!”
“No!”
Maxim and I both shouted at the same time.
London’s hand fell away from mine, and she took two steps backward toward Caspian. Her eyes were wide as she glanced between Maxim and me. “Is it true?”
“London. No, it’s not true.” I shook my head.
“You knew I wanted her, right?” Maxim challenged.
“You what?” Caspian fired off at his best friend.
Maxim ignored him. “You knew it.”
“I knew it,” I agreed. “It wasn’t the reason. It just didn’t stop me.” I should have let Sergei rip him the hell apart.
London sucked in a breath.
“Baby,” I whispered. God, this woman was everything to me. She had to believe me. She had to know the truth.
“That first time you asked me out, was that before or after Maxim made his little comment?” she asked quietly.
Oh, fuck. Oh fuck. Oh. Fuck.
“After,” I admitted. “But it had nothing—"
“Is that what this was?” she asked softly, heartbreak lacing her tone. “Was I just some way to get the upper hand on your brother?”
“He’s not my brother!”
“He’s not my brother!”
Again, we answered at the same time.
“Wow,” she said slowly, shaking her head at both of us. “I knew you hated each other, but I never realized just how much.”
“No—” I moved forward, but she put her hands up.
“Don’t touch me.”
She didn’t believe me. She chose to believe him. She took his side just like our father had when we’d been born.
My heart fucking shattered.
16
London
I took a step away from Sterling, my eyes darting between him, Maxim, and Caz.
“Was that all it was?” I asked again, my voice so low and broken I was shocked Jansen heard me at all. “Everything between us…was to get back at Maxim? To take something he wanted?”
“No—”
“You know I didn’t even have a clue he was pursuing me?” I cut him off, glancing at Maxim, who had no apology in his eyes, just a regretful darkness. “We’re friends. He’s my brother’s best friend. I. Had. No. Idea.”
“London,” Jansen said my name on a plea.
My mind splintered, racing through each memory I had of us.
The way he’d dodged my calls for an entire month, but then—seemingly out of nowhere—he started talking to me again. Presented me with a bargain to help me with my issues—a bargain that ensured we’d see each other on the regular.
That must’ve been the day Maxim presented him with the bet.
Fuck my life.
My chest stung.
“That night in the elevator,” I whispered, the pieces coming together as I thought even farther back. “Maxim came to help me...” Tears burned the back of my eyes. Maxim had rushed toward me, going so far as to wrap an arm around my waist to steady me when I had shaky feet. And I’d been so relieved to see him—a friend. “God,” I sighed. “Is that when it started?” I snapped. “You made your own assumptions and decided to get back at him?”
Jansen’s jaw went taut, disappointment and regret churning in his eyes. “No,” he said. “You know me. You know that isn’t true.”
“Fuck that,” Caz said. “Both you should’ve come to me first—"
“She doesn’t belong to you,” Jansen snapped at Caz, his voice low and stone cold. “And neither do I.”
My heart ached with his declaration, that I belonged to myself and didn’t owe anyone anything. But was it true? Or was he simply telling me what I wanted to hear? Is that what he’d done this entire time? Just to take something that Maxim wanted…for all the times Maxim had taken things from him?