Irina collected the garment bag and left us alone.
Nadia waited until the door closed. “You corrected Lev.”
I walked toward her. “You heard that?”
“I heard enough.”
“The penthouse carries sound when people are angry.”
“You weren’t shouting.”
“I don’t need to shout to be angry.”
“No,” she said. “You get quieter. It’s worse.”
I stopped in front of her and fixed the left side of her coat where it folded near her waist. “Lev works for me. My men protect what I order protected. No one gives the impression that your safety is a courtesy from anyone beneath me.”
“Possessive.”
“Yes.”
“I wasn’t complaining.” Her fingers caught my wrist. “I meant the other part. You corrected him because of me.”
“I corrected him because you’re not an object I permit into rooms.”
Her fingers tightened.
“You’re coming because you choose to come,” I said. “You’ll leave if you choose to leave. You’ll speak if you choose to speak. I will control the danger around you, not the woman inside it.”
Nadia’s lips quivered before she pressed them together.
“Don’t make me cry before I have to face Gennady,” she said.
“I’d rather make you come before you face Gennady, but timing is against us.”
Her breath caught, and color rushed into her face so beautifully I wanted to cancel the city for an hour.
“Vadim.”
“There is my name.” I bent and kissed the corner of her mouth, careful of the softness I’d left there earlier. “Hold it in your mouth when you look at him. He doesn’t have your fear anymore. I do.”
Her eyes lifted to mine.
“No,” she said. “You don’t have my fear either.”
I went still.
She pressed her palm to my chest, over the slow, heavy beat there. “You have me.”
The words hit deep enough to steal my next breath.
I covered her fingers with mine. “Then I’ll keep what you gave me.”
“You’re already trouble.”
“Yes.”
“I said keep.”
