I wanted to reach out, to comfort him like he had me. Something held me back. Maybe it was fear, but my worries had little to do with the events of the night before. In that moment I found myself becoming more attached to Nikolai, that’s what held my hand in place. The need to touch him only inflated my fear. I was confused but I also knew that I didn’t need to complicate things more than they already were. Not right now anyway, it wasn’t the right time.
I poured my morning coffee and kept my mouth shut. I didn’t want to interrupt Nikolai’s look of deep concentration, but I had so many questions that I wouldn’t have known where to start. “Are you okay?”
That was enough to pull his attention back around to me but not enough to lose the look of thought on his face. “You don’t look like you’re okay, Nikolai.”
“I’m fine.”
Wow.
I didn’t realize that worked for men too.
“Is there anything I can do? You can talk to me, you know.”
He huffed before draining the rest of his coffee. He got up to put his cup in the sink and I panicked, rushing to find something to say. I grabbed at his arm as he went to move past me. I pleaded, “Nikolai, please.”
I didn’t want this, this cold stoic atmosphere was not what I’d come to expect around here. All Nik had done since I’d gotten here was try to prove that he could make me happy. Call me spoiled but I’d come to enjoy that. Right now he wasn’t acting like the Nikolai that I had come to consider as a friend, this Nik was the one I met a month ago.
If only he’d open up, learn to trust me enough to let the weight off his shoulders. There must have really been something weighing on his shoulders for the tension to be showing through this much.
“I said, I’m fine. Just...drop it, Ana.”
Ugh. I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. I gasped for breath as I watched him walk away. Leaving me again. I was beginning to get fed up with him always leaving.
He was the one who wanted me. I did not ask to come here.
Maybe it was true, that I really wasn’t what he expected and that he was starting to regret it.
I had told him that from the beginning. Fuck, guys were stupid. Did they just think that women talked for the sake of it? We didn’t. I had plainly warned him and he had ignored me.
I wondered how long it would be before he kicked me out. Surely, I wouldn’t last another month here.
Fired up by the sadness that had turned to anger, I went off in search of Achilles. I needed a friend right now, and some physical exercise. It felt like years since I’d last been to the gym, it made me question how Nikolai stayed in such good shape. Because despite being an idiot and an asshole, that man was in fine shape.
Let’s face it he was a hot piece of ass. One that I wouldn’t be talking to, or touching, anytime soon. I growled, frightening Achilles as I fixed his lead to his collar.
Looking out the glass sliding doors, I decided today would finally be the day I discovered where the back path led.
Fuck Nikolai.
I was highly aware of Anastasia throughout the day. It drove me mad, to the point where I actually had to hide in my bedroom just to get away from her. I wanted to go to her, to comfort her and protect her. I knew she must’ve had questions but I wasn’t ready to hear them. It worried me that I might come across too overprotective in my answers, and that might’ve scared her even more.
The night of the attack, something in me broke. I’d never cared about something, or someone like I do Anastasia. It was an eye-opener, for that and for my oversight in security for the house.
The next morning, before Anastasia even came downstairs, I’d rang up a new private security company. I knew the owner, Jack, from years back. He’d been a good solid friend of mine, with no connections to my family, or to my world. I didn’t like that I had suspicions about my own family ties but this was the second attack in the span of a few weeks. There wouldn’t be a third.
So far, it had been money well spent. I felt at peace knowing that Anastasia would never be in such a vulnerable position again.
I got up to answer the prominent chime of the doorbell that rang throughout the house. Since I’d sent Heather home for some much-needed R and R, I had been left to field all calls and visitors. It was only a few minutes earlier that I’d been alerted by security that I had a visitor. Or, more accurately, Anastasia had a visitor.
My new security seemed to already prove their worth. With full-time guards keeping watch over the gates, the doors and the ground, plus someone stationed inside to keep their eyes on the cameras.
I had hoped the new security wouldn’t scare Anastasia into hiding, but she’d yet to move from the theater room all day. In a sense, I was glad, at least I knew where she was and that she was sure to be safe in there.
Before allowing Mr Sumner onto the property, I’d had the team run a full background on him. While they checked his credentials, I spoke to him briefly about his business here. Unfortunately, his priority was informing Ana of her Aunt Carol’s passing.
“Hi, I’m Mr. Sumner. I’m looking for Anastasia Exley. It was only by chance that I saw her name in the paper this morning.”
“Come on in Mr. Sumner. Yes, we’ve had a rough couple of days. If you don’t mind waiting in the living room, I’ll go get her. Please excuse the mess.” I let him in and pointed the way through to the living room. With all the extra security floating around, I was sure he’d be fine on his own for a few minutes.
