The Secret Beneath the Veil

And now that Mikolas had spelled out that sex wasn’t mandatory...

Oh, she didn’t want to think about sex with that man! He already made her feel so unlike herself she could hardly stand it. But she couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to lie with him. Something about him got to her, making her blood run like cavalry into sensual battle. Sadly, Viveka had reservations that made the idea of being intimate with him seem not just ill-advised but completely impossible.

So she tried not to think of it and video-called Trina. Her sister was both deliriously joyful and terribly worried when she picked up.

“Where are you? Papa is furious.” Her eyes were wide. “I’m scared for you, Vivi.”

“I’m okay,” she prevaricated. “What about you? You’ve obviously talked to him. Is he likely to come after you?”

“He doesn’t believe this was my decision. He blames you for all of it and it sounds—I’m not sure what’s going on at his office, but things are off the rails and he thinks it’s your fault. I’m so sorry, Vivi.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Viveka snorted, hiding how scared the news made her. “Are you and Stephanos happy? Was all of this worth it?”

“So happy! I knew he was my soul mate, but oh, Vivi!” Her sister blushed, growing even more radiant, saying in a self-conscious near-whisper, “Being married is even better than I imagined it would be.”

Lovemaking. That’s what her little sister was really talking about.

Envy, acute and painful, seared through Viveka. She had always felt left out when women traded stories about men and intimacy. Dating for her had mostly been disastrous. Now even her younger sister was ahead of her on that curve. It made Viveka even more insecure in her sexuality than she already was.

They talked a few more minutes and Viveka was wistful when she ended the call. She was glad Trina was living happily-ever-after. At one time, she’d believed in that fairy tale for herself, but had become more pragmatic over the years, first by watching the nightmare that her mother’s romance turned into, then challenged by Aunt Hildy for wanting a man to “complete” her.

She hadn’t thought of it that way, exactly. Finding a soul mate was a stretch, true, but why shouldn’t she want a companion in life? What was the alternative? Live alone and lonely, like Aunt Hildy? Engage in casual hookups like Mikolas had said he preferred?

She was not built for fair-weather frolics.

Her introspection was interrupted by a call from Hildy’s doctor. He was impressed that she was able to get her aunt into that particular clinic and wanted to make arrangements to move her the next morning. He assured Viveka she was doing the right thing.

The die was cast. Not long after, the ship docked and Viveka and Mikolas were whisked into a helicopter. It deposited them on top of his building, which was an office tower, but he had a penthouse that took up most of an upper floor.

“I have meetings this afternoon,” he told her. “A stylist will be here shortly to help you get ready.”

Viveka was typically ready to go out within thirty minutes. That included shampooing and drying her hair. She had never in her life started four hours before an appointment, not even when she had fake-married the man who calmly left her passport on a side table like bait and walked out.

Not that this world was so different from living with Grigor, Viveka thought, lifting her baleful gaze from the temptation of her passport to gaze around Mikolas’s private domain. Grigor had been a bully, but he’d lived very well. His island mansion had had all the same accoutrements she found in Mikolas’s penthouse: a guest room with a full bath, a well-stocked wine fridge and pantry, a pool on a deck overlooking a stunning view.

None of it put her at ease. She was still nervous. Expectation hung over her. Or rather, the question of what Mikolas expected.

And whether she could deliver.

Not sex, she reminded herself, trying to keep her mind off that. She turned to tormenting herself with anxiety over how well she would perform in the social arena. She wasn’t shy, but she wasn’t particularly outgoing. She wasn’t particularly pretty, either, and she had a feeling every other woman at this party would be gorgeous if Mikolas thought she needed four hours of beautification to bring her up to par.