Stay With Me (A BWWM Russian Billionaire Romance Novel) (Imani's Russian Billionaire Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

something.
    “Can I have it back, please?” Thania asked with her hand out, and Daya reluctantly gave it to her.
    “So, what do you think I should do?”
    Both women looked back at her in silence.
    “Girls!” she said with a laugh. “Come on, help me out!”
    “Well, if he wants to take you somewhere, just be careful,” Asha said, worry lines between her eyebrows.
    “He does want to take her somewhere, Asha. He’s asked her to go to a gala with him!” Daya responded, annoyance clear in her voice.
    “Then just be careful when you go, Thania. I’m sure it will be fine,” Asha said, her face devoid of any of the excitement that Daya’s displayed.
    Daya snorted and turned her back on Asha. “Forget her,” she said to Thania, while Thania looked at Asha with concern. She definitely was not herself lately.
    “What do you want to do?” Daya asked.
    “I want to go, of course, but I don’t know if I should.”
    “Let me get this straight. A gorgeous gazillionaire wants to take you , Thania Walter, to an A-list gala as his date, and you aren’t sure if you should ?” Daya was so worked up that she flagged down the waiter for another basket of bread.
    “Well, that’s exactly the problem. He is gorgeous, and he is rich, and he is famous ,” Thania said, making the word ‘famous’ sound dirty.
    “So what?”
    “I don’t know if I’ll fit in at that type of event.”
    “Of course, you will,” Asha piped up, then went back to seemingly listen with just one ear.
    The two other friends paused for a moment and looked at her, but that was all she wanted to say, apparently, so they turned toward each other again.
    “You should go,” Daya said bluntly. Then she just looked at Thania while she took a small bite of a roll.
    “That’s it? I should go?”
    Thania was expecting more discussion, more dissection of every word in Vlad’s note, more…something. It was as if her friends didn’t really want to discuss it at all.
    Something was going on with Asha that had nothing to do with Thania’s dating life, this Thania knew. So, she was able to look past Asha’s seeming disinterest because she was worried about her.
    But Daya, she was acting a little envious. Not overtly so, just kind of annoyed that Thania would even think twice about whether to go to the gala with Vlad. It was as if Daya wasn’t altogether happy for her. Thania knew that Daya’s career and social life were not what she had envisioned for herself, but Thania also knew that both of those things would eventually work themselves out for Daya. She was gorgeous and kind, and those two attributes did not go together very often, so Thania was confident about Daya’s future happiness. It seemed that Daya didn’t feel that confident herself, though.
    Deciding that the topic was now dead, Thania changed the subject. She asked about her friends’ lives, getting caught up in the minutia that best friends share with each other. And if she listened with just one ear and responded enthusiastically at the right times, she couldn’t really be faulted for daydreaming about the gala that night, could she?

    L ater that afternoon , Thania spent a lot of time getting ready for the gala. She wondered how she would find Vlad when she arrived; his note had said that he would send a car for her. The thought of seeing him again, and actually speaking to him this time, made her so nervous that she needed to sit down.
    This is ridiculous. I might not even like him.
    But somehow, Thania knew that would not be the case. She took a long bath, using some outrageously expensive exfoliating cleanser and body butter that she had received as a gift. Her skin was glowing like amber in the sun when she was finished. She didn’t mess with her hair too much; she liked a natural look. She spent a lot more time on her makeup than she normally did.
    She tried to remember Len’s instructions from the photo shoot, and after a half an hour she sat back and smiled at the results.