“I’ll dress like one of them.” He pointed at Maxim and Iacob.
“You’re…rather distinctive.”
“I’m going for a walk with my fiancée tomorrow morning,” Eric declared. “Figure it out.”
Grigoris glanced at Nikolett.
She cleared her throat. “Is that an order from the fleet admiral?”
“No, it’s a threat from your fiancé who will start tossing every asshole in this room off that balcony if they don’t find a way for me to be with the woman I love while they use her as bait.”
“Eric, that’s not fair, they’re not using me. I volunteered?—”
He bared his teeth. “That’s not better.”
There was a pregnant silence. Eric knew that even if he claimed he wasn’t acting as the fleet admiral right now, hewasthe fleet admiral and most members of the society were loath to defy him.
“Counter circuit,” Raphael said after a long, awkward silence. “We discussed adding another person to the circuit moving in the opposite direction.” Raphael traced Nikolett’s planned path, but in reverse.
“A morning jog,” Regina added. “Paced fast enough we’ll loop past Nikolett and her people twice, maybe three times.”
Everyone looked at Eric. He felt it, but he was looking at Nikolett.
She studied him, then turned to Raphael. “Thank you, that’s an excellent idea. If you could please coordinate the route and other logistics with Regina?”
Nikolett rose, not letting go of Eric’s hand. He stood too, lacing his fingers with hers. “If you don’t need me anymore?” she said.
“No, Admiral.” Grigoris inclined his head. “We’ll see you at five.”
Eric felt everyone watching them, adjusting to this new reality where he and Nikolett still went head-to-head but were also openly in a relationship and planning to marry. It was probably a mistake to be so open about it when they had no idea how they were going to make it work, but he couldn’t muster the energy to care. If someone wanted to get pissed off or freak out—and he was sure someone was going to freak out—they were future Eric’s problem.
Current Eric was barely holding it together, convinced they might nothavea future because she was going to die in six hours.
He held it together until they were in the bedroom of her—no, their—suite.
Nikolett turned to face him, soft concern marking her features. “Eric, it’s?—”
He couldn’t bear to hear her say it was going to be okay. Not when life had shown him over and over again that it wouldn’t be okay.
“Go into the bathroom, Nikki.”
Her teeth clicked together as she closed her mouth before she could finish her platitude.
“Take your pajamas. If you come out wearing them, we’ll get into bed and try to sleep.”
She was breathing slow and deep now. “What’s the other option?”
“You walk out of there naked and we have sex.”
“You’ll fuck me?” Her expression gave nothing away.
“Touch you. Fuck you. Pick a verb. I need to pretend that tomorrow doesn’t exist and we’ll both live forever.”
Nikolett looked at the bathroom door then back to him. She crossed her arms. “No.”
“No?”
“No. There’s a third option.”
