It’s perfect. The police will look for a while, and then everyone will stop asking . . . except for maybe Christine. But my adoration for her has palled in my desire to keep Nick safe.
Does having a hit man for a fiancé mean that I will never be able to get close to anyone but him?
If so, I choose him. I always choose Nick. My Kolya.
The door to our apartment closes, and then it’s just me and Nick, alone once more. The stiff upper lip I’ve had for the last few hours crumples, and I collapse against Nick. I’m no longer crying—my eyes are red and swollen from the last few hours of crying—but all of the strength is gone from my body. I’m done, mentally and physically.
“Shhh, Daisy. I have you.” Nick grips me under my legs and swings me into his arms, taking me to bed. “You’re safe.”
I shake my head. I’m not worried about my own safety any longer. My fear at my near rape has been replaced with a hard kernel of fear for Nick, for McFadden, who I’m not sure we can trust. For Christine, who I briefly wanted to smother with a pillow this afternoon before she could endanger us. For me, because who am I becoming if I would so casually think to kill my friend?
Nick sets me on the bed, and like a doll, he undresses me, taking off my shoes and removing my torn clothing. His hands glide over my skin, and I know it’s to check and make sure for himself that I am all right. He kisses my mouth, hard. “Wait here.”
He returns a moment later, and I hear the shower running. Then, he strips off his shirt and begins to remove his own clothing. “You will feel better when you are clean, kotehok,” he tells me. “And I will not let you out of my sight ever again, so I will shower with you.”
My Nick. Always so dramatic. Instead of being irritated at this high-handed comment, my heart squeezes with love. He always puts me first, no matter how much it inconveniences him. God, I adore this man so much. I would do anything for him.
“Maybe . . . maybe we should leave,” I tell him as he pulls me to my feet. He’s now naked, and his lean, ink-covered body is bare before me, gorgeous and dangerous all at once. “Maybe we should go to Europe. Here, you stick out. But there, you might be safer . . .”
He chuckles as if things have not gone to hell this afternoon. “I think McFadden will wish for me to stay around a while longer. I know how men like him work. I do the dirty work, and he takes the credit for closing his cases. It will suit us both, kitten.”
“But he has leverage against us,” I tell him, feeling helpless and miserable. “We need to think of ourselves. We can put Christine in the apartment next to my father’s so he can watch her. And maybe we can talk McFadden into taking an apartment here, too. Then we’d have something over both their heads so if they try to use it against us, we have them—”
I don’t realize how panicky I am until Nick cups my face between his big hands and forces me to look him in the eye. “Daisy,” he murmurs. “It will be all right. I promise. Do not worry.”
“I won’t let anyone take you from me, Nick,” I say fiercely.
“No one shall.” He smiles and plants a kiss on my mouth. “Now, come, and let me wash you clean of today’s worries.”
I don’t speak again until we’re in the shower. Nick and I chose this apartment because it was the one with the biggest bathroom, and the shower is one of those tub-less ones with multiple shower heads and glass walls. It’s luxurious in an apartment that is otherwise plain. I suppose it’s our way of living a little. I’m glad for it now, though, because here, in the spray of the water, I wrap my arms around Nick and press my face against the spiderweb tattoo on his shoulder.
“I thought about killing her,” I tell him. “Suffocating her with a pillow so she couldn’t tell on us. So we’d be safe.”
“Oh, Daisy.” His hand strokes my wet hair back from my face. “You are not a killer. Leave such things to me.”
“But I would have,” I tell him, full of desperation. My nails dig into his damp skin. “I would do anything to keep you. You understand that, right?”
He smiles at me, and his hand slides down my back, fingers running along my spine. “I feel the same. Every day, it is a difficulty to let you go to class and leave my side, because I wish for nothing more than to be with you always.”
Nick’s hips shift a little, and then I feel his cock pressing up against my body, hard and insistent. I’m a little shocked by that, and my eyes go wide. I pull back to look him in the face. “Adrenaline?” I ask him.
“Your wet body,” he corrects me. “But I will ignore it. Just relax against me.” Nick’s hands drag me back against him. “You have had a bad day.”