"The same someone who shot you?"
"Most likely."
Pavel clears his throat, and we both turn to look at him. I'd almost forgotten he was still here, standing awkwardly by the door with his cap in his hands.
"I should probably go," he says, but he doesn't move. Instead, his pale blue eyes dart between Sasha and me, and I notice the way his jaw works beneath his weathered skin. He's nervous about something beyond the news he just delivered.
"Actually, Maya," he says, his voice pitched a little too high, a little too forced. "Before I go, I was wondering if you'd like to have dinner in town tonight. Just the two of us. There's a new place that opened up, and I thought…"
The temperature drops about twenty degrees.
I don't need to look at Sasha to feel the shift in his energy. It's like standing next to a coiled spring, all that controlled violence suddenly focused on Pavel with laser precision.
Heat floods my cheeks, but I'm not sure if it's embarrassment or something else entirely. The caveman routine should annoy me, should make me want to accept Pavel's invitation just to prove a point.
Instead, my stomach does this stupid little flip.
"Pavel," I say quickly, stepping between them before this escalates into something ridiculous. "I appreciate the offer, but Sasha's right. We have a lot to figure out right now."
Pavel's face flushes red, and for a moment I see hurt flash across his features before he schools them into something neutral. "Right. Of course. I just thought…" He trails off, adjusting his glasses. "Never mind. I should go."
He's back in his truck before I can say anything else, the engine revving a little too hard as he pulls away. Gravel sprays from his tires, and I watch the dust cloud follow him down the mountain road.
When I turn back to Sasha, he's watching me with those gold eyes that seem to see straight through me, down to my very soul.
"That was unnecessary," I say.
"Was it?" He crosses his arms over his chest, and the movement makes his thermal shirt pull tight across his defined muscles. "Men like Pavel take politeness as encouragement."
"He's harmless."
"No man is harmless when he wants something he can't have." His hand comes up to cup my jaw, thumb stroking my cheekbone. "Especially when what he wants is mine."
Heat pools low in my belly.
"Yours?" I raise an eyebrow, trying for defiant even though my pulse is racing.
"Mine." He leans down, his mouth hovering just above mine.
He kisses me, hard and claiming, and I melt into it despite myself. When he pulls back, we're both breathing hard.
"So no more dinner invitations from Pavel. Or anyone else."
"You're impossible."
"You like impossible." He grins, and the expression transforms his face from dangerous to devastating. "You said so yourself."
"Fine," I mutter. "No dinner with Pavel."
"Good girl." The praise sends a shiver down my spine that has nothing to do with the cold.
We head back inside, and I pour fresh coffee while Sasha stares out the window like he's expecting an army to come marching through the trees.
"You know," I say carefully, "maybe having people looking for you is a good thing."
He turns, one eyebrow raised. "How do you figure?"
"Well, if they're looking for you, that means they know you're alive. Maybe they're friends. Maybe they can help you figure out who you are."
