NIKOLAI (Her Russian Protector #4) (22 page)

Nikolai shook his head. "He
actually played right into my hands."

"How?"

He debated how much to tell
her. "I wanted to stop the trafficking, but I needed something to
offer to the importer handling the shipments. Lorenzo wanted guns
so I put him together with my connection—"

"The Irishman?" she
interrupted.

Nikolai stared at her. "How do
you know about Liam?"

She shrugged. "People say
things."

"People?"

"Well…I mean, sometimes I
overhear things at Samovar…"

"Overhear?" He pinched her leg.
"You mean eavesdrop."

"Ow!" She lightly smacked his
hand. "Okay, so maybe once in a while I listened in on
conversations I shouldn't."

"Vee, that's dangerous." He
used his warning tone with her. "Listen to me. It's one thing if I
choose to tell you something. It's quite another for you to go
snooping around where you don't belong."

"Jeez!" She frowned at him.
"You don't have to be so grumpy about it."

"I'm not grumpy. I worry about
you knowing too much. Until we're married, you can be forced to
testify against me."

Her lips parted in shock. "I
didn't think about that."

"I know you didn't. Forget
about the Irishman."

"I will." She pulled her feet
off his lap and forced him to meet her questioning gaze. "Did you
offer the importer guy the gun traffic for the
cartel?"

His lips settled into a grim
line as he began to question even telling her that much. He tugged
her tiny feet back into place. "Vivian, I agreed that there would
be no secrets between us, but there are some details you simply
cannot know. Leave it alone."

She stayed quiet as he painted
the nails on her right foot. When he switched to the left, she
asked, "Do you think you'll ever find those girls who were with me
in the warehouse?"

"I don't know," he admitted
reluctantly. "I wish I could promise you that I'll find them, but
it's not that easy."

He didn't tell her that those
poor women were likely states away by now and in the hands of new
pimps or owners. If the white supremacists holding them thought
there was any chance they'd been tracked, they would kill and
dispose of the women rather than risk it. To them, those girls were
disposable and easily replaced.

"I will keep looking,
Vee."

"I know you will." She reached
out and gave his arm a squeeze. Sitting back against the arm of the
couch, she laughed softly. "This is so…normal. You and me and the
TV."

Infected by her laugh, he
smiled at her. "I like it."

"Do you think we could maybe go
on a real date sometime? Before we get married, I
mean."

She had a point. They were
going about this whole thing rather backward. Most couples kissed,
dated, made love and lived together before marrying. He'd brought
her into his home and kissed her, but they'd skipped all the other
steps.

While he recognized that many
people would assume they were rushing head first into a
life-changing event, he felt their last year of friendship had
simply been a gentler version of courting. They were like Dimitri
and Benny who shared a five-year friendship before coming together
in a night of wild passion. Without the wild night of passion, of
course.

"What would you like to do?" He
closed the purple polish and switched to the pink
bottle.

"We could have dinner and see a
movie."

He made a face. "I don't do
theaters. It's too dark. I can't see all the exits and
entrances."

"Oh."

He hated to shoot down her
idea, but he wasn't going to compromise their safety. Before she
offered any other suggestions, he carefully added, "I don't do
dancing either."

She snorted. "I'm stunned.
Really."

He ignored her little barb. "I
don't mind having a drink at Yuri's club while you dance with your
friends."

"Even my guy
friends?"

Surprised by the question, he
slowly lifted his gaze to her face. Her pouty lips were curved in
an impish, teasing smile. "I doubt many of them would be brave
enough to try."

"Kelly might
be."

Nikolai grunted at the thought
of the younger Marine. Of all the men who had ever shown interest
in Vivian, Kelly Connolly was the only one who had given him any
concern. If ever there was a man who might have succeeded in
drawing her away from him, it was Kelly.

"I'm teasing." She rubbed his
leg. "I've never been interested in Kelly in that way. We've only
ever been friends. For what it's worth, I think he's got a
complicated lust thing going on with his friend's
sister."

"If his situation is
complicated, how do you describe ours?" Nikolai took his time
applying the hot pink color to her tiny pinkie
toenail.

"I'm not sure there is one word
to describe our situation."

"Not even in the three
languages you speak?"

She smiled at him.
"Nope."

Commenting on her language
skills made him think of her schooling. "When does your final
semester start?"

"The
thirteenth."

It was the Monday before their
wedding. "And you have the next Monday off?"

She nodded. "It's a
holiday."

He felt guilty about the
quickie wedding and the lack of a honeymoon. She deserved so much
better. "In the summer, when you've graduated, we'll do a belated
honeymoon."

"I'd like
that."

He finished her nails and sat
back. "What do you think?"

She leaned forward to inspect
them. "Pretty good for your first time."

He found such happiness in her
simple compliment. "Not as good as your paintings but maybe there's
hope for me yet."

She slowly moved her feet to
the coffee table. "Maybe."

"Is everything set for the
show?"

"Gustavo called me earlier.
He's sending a truck tomorrow to the warehouse to pick up those
final paintings. Apparently, he couldn't get them when he sent the
truck the first time because it was cordoned off as a crime scene.
I told him I'd meet him there so he would know which paintings to
take. I sort of assumed you'd want to go over first and tell me
which ones are okay to show."

Nikolai cringed at the memory
of the way he'd behaved after discovering the subject of her latest
show. He reached for her hand and brought it to his mouth. He
kissed the talented fingers that created such hauntingly beautiful
pieces. "You will show them all."

She swallowed. "All of them?
Even…?"

He exhaled a steady breath.
"Even that one."

She didn't break their intense
gaze. "Thank you."

"Don't," he said, his voice
cracking. "I should never have behaved that way. I panicked when I
saw what you'd been painting and those awful, filthy things sprayed
on the warehouse wall. I thought someone was trying to send you a
message when in reality it was a setup to draw us there and make it
possible for us to be hurt. I was angry but I took it out on the
wrong person." He kissed her knuckles. "I’m sorry,
Vee."

"I know you are. That's why I'm
not going to remind you what a massive dick you were." Some of the
sting left her rebuke because she said it with that megawatt smile
of hers.

"Such a dirty word from such a
pretty mouth," he chided softly while leaning in to claim her
lips.

She put her hands on his chest,
stopping him mere inches from his final destination.
"Wait."

"For what?"

She pointed to the television.
"It's almost midnight."

He didn't want to wait, not
when her soft, sweet mouth was so close, but he did. When the
massive crystal ball began to blink and lower, he moved in closer.
As the crowd counted down each second, Nikolai scooted nearer and
nearer until he was almost on top of her. As the crowd went wild on
the television, he lost himself in her bright blue eyes. "Happy New
Year, Vee."

He didn't need to watch the
dazzling display of fireworks upon the screen. When their lips
touched, their own personal fireworks began. As their tongues
danced erotically, Nikolai decided it was going to be a very good
year indeed.

Chapter
Fourteen

"It feels weird coming back
here." I clenched my seatbelt tightly in my left hand as Nikolai
drove down the same street where we'd been brutally attacked that
awful night.

He reached across the space
between us and tugged my hand away from the belt. Interlacing our
fingers, he rubbed soothing circles against my skin with his thumb.
"It's better to face it now."

I understood what he meant but
that didn’t make it any easier. I was so glad he'd come with me to
meet Gustavo at my studio.

"Are you going to be able to
work here?" Concern radiated from him. "If this place has been
ruined for you, there are other properties I own that we could
remodel for you. If you want to continue to work outside the home,"
he added.

His remark made me frown.
"Kolya, I don't intend to stop painting or selling my art just
because we're getting married."

He shot me a strange look. "I
think we've crossed wires somewhere, Vee. I didn't mean to
insinuate that I thought you should stop painting once we're
married."

"Oh." I considered what he'd
said about working outside the home. He literally meant painting
outside of his house instead of in it.
"
Oh.
"

"What I meant was that we can
always convert that sunroom off the back of the house into a
painting space for you. If you would prefer not to drive to a
studio every day…"

"I thought you
meant—"

"Yes," he said with an amused
chuckle. His smile faded. "You will have to stop working at
Samovar."

"Why?"

"It's
unseemly."

"Unseemly?"

"That my wife should be waiting
tables," he explained.

I started to argue with him but
bit my tongue. I sensed this one of
those
issues for him. He
seemed to have very traditional ideas when it came to marriage.
While I shared some of those opinions, I wasn't simply going to
bend just because he said so.

As if sensing my discomfort,
Nikolai asked, "Have I upset you?"

"No."

"Vee?" He wasn't buying
it.

"I'm just trying to figure out
what your issue is. Do you not want me working at
all?"

"Vivian," he said with some
disbelief, "I might be what you call
old school
but I’m not that
backward. I
want
you to have a successful career as an artist.
I want you to follow your dreams—but you don't have to wait tables
to do that anymore. I'll support you while you find your
way."

Before I could say anything, he
rushed on, "If you honestly wanted to keep working at Samovar, I'm
happy to find a new position for you, but you can't wait tables. It
would be an uncomfortable working environment for
everyone."

I thought of my coworkers. It
would be strange to have the wife of the boss schlepping trays from
the kitchen to the tables and pocketing tips.

"Do you want to keep working at
the restaurant?"

Feeling a bit sheepish, I
confessed, "I'd been planning to give my notice if this upcoming
show did well enough to give me a cushion to just paint and create
for a while."

"And then what?" He pulled into
one of the parking spots near the warehouse.

"Well…I don't
know."

His mouth slanted with
amusement. "You don't know? Vee, you have to have a
plan."

I picked at the oversized
buttons of my pea coat. "I'm not like Lena and Benny. I don't do
five-year plans."

"Maybe you should think about
it." He tapped my chin in a silent bid for my gaze. When I looked
at him, my heart sped up at the love reflected in his eyes. "You
are so incredible, Vee. There is so much talent inside you, but you
have to be brave enough to take big chances and let it
out."