He opened his mouth to tell her about Future Nikolett, about all the work he’d done with Elijah.
But she took an awkward step, and the sight of her hurt, limping, made it hard to breathe, let alone speak.
Nikolett took another step toward the door and Grigoris opened it from inside, rushing out to put a supportive arm around her. Just before she crossed into the warm, dry light of the hotel suite she looked back. “I’m not masochistic enough to let you break my heart a second time.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Eric had come for her.
Not because there was a Masters’ Admiralty crisis.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
Not because she was in danger.
“There’s still time to cancel.”
He’d come because he loved her and wanted to be with her.
And she’d said no.
“She needs to fuck a stranger now more than ever,” Nyx declared from the phone.
That snapped Nikolett out of her own head and into the present.
Grigoris had been the one to ask if she was sure she wanted to do this. He was standing in the bathroom doorway, phone held up facing her so Nyx could “supervise” Nikolett’s date prep.
Nikolett, sitting at the vanity in the palatial bathroom in her suite, reached for mascara to finish applying her makeup.
Date.
She had a date in less than an hour. She’d never been on a date, and not just because for most of her life she’d assumed she wouldn’t be the one to find or choose her spouse.
Everything she knew about dating was from TV and movies.
“No,” Nikolett said in response to Grigoris’ question. “I’m not sure I want to do this. I’m not sure about much of anything anymore.”
That was a bit too honest. She winced.
“Nik.” He straightened. “Let’s reschedule this dinner and go home. The Spaniard isn’t coming to Paris. Even if he had been tempted by the possibility of attacking you in addition to taking the corporate espionage job, after last night, he knows how well protected you are.”
That morning, Grigoris, Raphael, and Regina had a tense discussion that stopped just short of being a fight.
If Regina had given them a heads-up that the fleet admiral was coming, they wouldn’t have assumed the camera feed hack and black SUVs were a threat and reacted accordingly. Regina countered that everything she did was part of the Spartan Guard protocol, and she didn’t have to tell them anything if it might negatively affect the fleet admiral’s safety.
Nikolett had deliberately stayed out of it, though it had surprised her to hear how elaborate the Spartan Guard’s security protocols were. She wondered if Eric knew everything they did to protect him.
Eric.
The image of him standing on that balcony, his hair dark with rain, his eyes both shadowed and bright, was burned into her soul. She’d live a thousand lifetimes and never forget the way he’d looked at her when he declared their relationship dead, then said he loved her and wanted to build something new with her.
Then he’d asked her to dinner in an almost-sheepish way that made him seem young and unsure when he was neither. It was adorably and oddly sexy.
She’d still said no.
The man she’d loved for years asked her out to dinner for the first time, and for once, she’d been smart. Protected her own heart.
And now she was about to have a meal with a man who wasn’t Eric.
