She didn’t.
“Worse is telling you I wanted Gennady’s blood on my shoes for looking at you. Worse is telling you I sat in The Samovar Room and watched you protect your brother, and something in me decided before I gave it permission. Worse is telling you I have had women in my bed who knew the rules and wanted what I could give them, and none of them made me think of a future past morning.”
Nadia’s breathing changed.
I stopped two arm lengths away.
“Worse,” I said, lower, “is that I saw you on that stage and thought, wife.”
Her hand moved to the doorframe.
“Not virgin?” she asked.
The question cut quietly.
“No,” I said. “Not first.”
“But you thought it.”
“Yes. I’m not noble enough to lie. I thought about being the only man who would know you that way. Then I thought aboutkilling every man in the room for making that thought part of a sale.”
Her eyes searched mine.
“What happens now?” she asked.
“You sleep. I deal with Gennady. Tomorrow, you yell at me again.”
“That’s your plan?”
“My full plan has more violence.”
Her mouth twitched.
Then her gaze dropped to my mouth.
I felt it like her hand.
Heat gathered low in my body. My cock hardened against the front of my trousers, and I held still so she wouldn’t mistake arousal for action.
Nadia saw enough. Her cheeks went pink, but she didn’t look away.
“Are you waiting for me to run?” she asked.
“I’m waiting for you to choose.”
Her eyes flashed. “I chose last night. Look where that got me.”
“This choice is not signed on a tablet. No one gets paid. No one is watching. No one takes you through a locked door afterward.”
“You keep saying the right things.”
“Then distrust me while I keep saying them.”
She took one step closer.
Every muscle in my body locked.
Nadia saw that too. Her eyes narrowed, not in fear now. In curiosity edged with anger.
