The associate led me into a fitting room with too many mirrors and soft lighting designed to make even the worst decisions look like good ones.
I pulled on the dress. It slid over my skin like sin.
The associate slipped back into the room and adjusted the dress, before excusing herself and coming back with a pair of combat boots.
When she finally left once more, I stared at myself.
I still recognized the fighter. The scar on my shoulder. The hardness around my mouth. The war in my eyes.
But there was a softness there now that had nothing to do with survival and everything to do with the way three men with the same last name who treated me like I’d stumbled into the center of their universe, and they hadn’t decided what to do with me yet.
I walked back out.
All three brothers looked up at once.
Mikhail’s eyes moved slowly from my bare shoulders to the plunge of the neckline to the way the dress hugged my hips. His expression didn’t change much, but his jaw tightened.
Viktor whistled under his breath. “Yes. Absolutely yes.”
Andrei’s gaze swept over me once, quick but thorough. Then his mouth quirked.
“Not bad,” he said casually. “For someone who usually dresses like she’s about to rob a bank.”
I raised a brow. “Perhaps you’d prefer me wearing body armor then?”
“With you?” he said. “It’s probably safer.”
“For you or for me?”
He smiled. “That depends.”
The associate hovered politely, tablet in hand. “It looks excellent on you, miss.”
“It really does,” Viktor agreed. “You should get it. And the blue one. And that one with the slit that?—”
“Choose what you like, Katerina. Ignore my brothers,” Mikhail cut in smoothly.
I twisted to look in the mirror again, catching all four of us reflected there. Me, wrapped in black. Mikhail looked like a dark sentinel with his gaze fully focused in on me. Andrei had his arms crossed over his chest, his expression serious even as his eyes burned bright with mischief. Viktor lounged on the chaise like he owned the place and winked in my direction.
“I’ll take this one,” I said. “And something I can move in.”
“That means yes to the dress and yes to those boots,” Viktor translated. “You’re welcome.”
“Who asked you?” I asked.
“You did,” he said. “With your eyes,kotenok.”
I rolled mine, which only made him smirk even wider.
We left Louis Vuitton with more bags than I’d ever walked out with in my life. Chanel was next. Then a jewelry place with too much glass and no prices on display. It was surreal, walking between gleaming shelves while all three brothers trailed behind me like well-dressed wolves.
Outside one boutique, as the associate disappeared to box up a necklace Viktor insisted I needed ‘for intimidation purposes,’ he stepped just outside the doorway and lit a cigarette like he owned the air as much as the marble under his feet. He cupped the flame with his hand, took a drag, then exhaled a slow stream of smoke toward the open corridor where the air conditioning could steal it away.
“You’re going to die of that,” I muttered.
“We’re all going to die of something,kotenok,” he replied, lips quirking. “At least this one looks good.”
Andrei stepped up beside me. “You like any of this?” he asked quietly. The teasing from earlier was gone. The question felt genuine.
