Page 37 of The Wrong Brother

“I disagree. Especially considering your reaction right now.”

My pulse spikes harder. “You already know who I am.”

“No,” Ruslan says evenly, adjusting his watch with infuriating calmness. “I know what you allowed me to know.”

I hate that my silence probably confirms his suspicion immediately.

His eyes narrow slightly as he studies me across the room. “What exactly are you afraid I will find, Emma?”

“Nothing.” A lie. An obvious one.

I cross my arms defensively. “You don’t get to investigate my life like I’m applying for the CIA.” An acronym that’s a little too close to the one I want him to avoid. What the hell am I doing?

A dark smile curves his mouth slightly. “If you were applying to the CIA, the process would be considerably more invasive.”

“That isn’t comforting.”

“It was not intended to be.”

He reaches for his cufflinks while I stand there trying not to look at his hands. Or his chest beneath the partially open shirt. Or literally anything about him.

This house is becoming psychologically damaging.

“You’re unbelievable,” I mutter.

“So I’ve heard.”

Something else finally catches my attention then.

The watch.

The cologne.

The fact that he’s clearly getting ready to leave, to go out...

Suspicion twists unexpectedly low in my stomach. “Where are you going?”

Ruslan glances toward me briefly. “Dinner.”

“With?”

“A friend.”

Kate’s comment the day she walked into the guest bedroom comes back to me. A friend—a female friend? Amodelfriend?

Why do I care? I absolutely should not care.

Unfortunately, my body did not receive that memo.

“Oh,” I say too quickly. “Cool.”

His eyes flick back toward me with a slow smirk playing on his lips. Goddamnit.

“You are jealous again.”

“I am not jealous.”

“Mm.”