Silence.
Then she began to giggle.
“Did I wear the big bad Pakhan down?”
I grinned against her neck.
“I’m not done with you yet.”
Now she groaned.
Whatever was emerging between us was new and fragile.
And I didn’t want it to end.
Chapter 79
Iskra
Vadim had taken Runa downstairs this morning and it gave me time to take a leisurely soak. A luxury I hadn’t had since before Runa arrived.
The bathroom held the quiet of a room that hadn’t been disturbed—steam rising from the surface, the faint mineral scent of the bath salts I’d found in the cabinet, the distant muffled sounds of the house carrying on without me. I sank deeper until the water lapped at my shoulders and stared at the ceiling.
He had started being nice again. Two weeks on and it still puzzled me. I didn’t think it was because of the pregnancy—my stomach wasn’t showing yet, nothing to soften him that he could see. Whatever it was had started in the basement and I hadn’t been able to identify it since, which was deeply irritating for someone who made a habit of identifying things.
Then there was the hospital appointment. He had come. Sat beside me in that waiting room in his suit like a man who attended antenatal appointments between murders as a matter of routine, and said nothing about it afterward. Last time he had cherry-picked his involvement entirely. I hadn’t decided what to do with the difference yet.
Our basement afternoons were erratic but ongoing.
I never imagined a man could be so vicious and tender in the same breath. Without Runa I would never have seen this side of him. It lured me in even as everything inside me screamed don’t trust him. The two things sat side by side without resolving and I had stopped waiting for them to.
I sighed and raised my hand, blowing a stream of bubbles into the warm air. They caught the light from the window before dissolving.
Life had been remarkably simple when I was single. It was time to accept that reality had changed shape permanently. Part of that was reconciling with my family. Using Ruslan as a go-between wasn’t fair on him—he was seventeen and moving up ranks and I was using him as a courier because I was too proud to make a phone call.
I shifted back and closed my eyes, letting the heat work into my shoulders. Trying not to think.
Ignoring the ache.
My eyes flew open.
What was I thinking? I was in the bath because of him. Soaking in expensive salts in his bathroom while he managed his own daughter downstairs. I was owed this. He wasn’t even in the room and somehow he was still gaslighting me.
??????
My hair was dry and I’d added a touch of colour to my face. The bedroom was eerily silent without them and I found myself suddenly eager to go down to them.
I went to the bed to inspect what he’d laid out for me that morning.
Gold and cream underwear—nothing severe, and the bra could be moved aside to feed Runa. The deep burgundy dress had a tie at the waist, which was another practical choice. I lifted the dress and saw the tag was still on it. Something dark on the pale grey bedspread caught my eye.
Beside it lay a tube of lube.
I sighed and shook my head.
This was really the limit. I was not sticking a butt plug up my ass this morning.
I got dressed, but my eyes kept wandering back to the little red loveheart gem on the end of the plug.
