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Daria stirred. She pulled her hand from between them, barely awake. She made a snuffling noise in her throat, fingers resting against her face.
Nik’s heart bounded as he took in the sight of Daria awakening in his arms. It was a stolen moment, and like the lone wolf he was, he absorbed her on every level. Her cheeks were pink, tendrils of hair against her wrinkling brow as she yawned and stretched, her hips meeting his momentarily. He remained quiet, allowing her those cherished waking moments, opening his arms so that she could fully move as she desired. And when her lashes barely opened, revealing those cloudy golden eyes of hers with their exotic tilt, Nik fell helplessly into their molten depths. Her pupils were huge and black and he saw the vulnerability in them. Again, that sense of trust lingered sweetly between them. There was nothing sexual coming from her; merely a beautiful young woman awakening from a long, healing sleep, looking refreshed. And even more lovely.
“How are you feeling now?” he asked, turning onto his side, resting on one elbow, his other arm still beneath her neck. He watched her lips part, a vague smile pulling at the delicious corners of her mouth.
“Mmmm, like I died and went to heaven…”
You are heaven.The words had nearly leaped out of his mouth. Instead, Nik caressed her cheek with his fingers, pushing strands of stuck hair away here and there, watching the reaction in her opening eyes. Instead of cloudiness, there was now pleasure in them as he grazed her warm flesh gently with his knuckles, outlining the slope of her high cheekbones. Daria slid her arm across his ribs, fingers moving slowly up and down his torso. It was an intimate gesture. Nik soaked it up, starving for each touch she would bestow upon him. As if… as if in this heated exchange, she was getting to know him, getting to feel his body beneath her fingertips. How he wished they were naked.
“You slept deeply,” he said, cupping her cheek, holding her clearing gaze. Her lips remained parted and so close that he knew he could lean down and kiss them. Is that what Daria really wanted? His intuition flagged him and he anchored himself, waiting. Sensing. Right now, Daria was trustful in her just-awakening state and he wanted to do nothing to destroy this fragile connection growing between them.
“I needed it,” she admitted, turning, pressing her face into his neck, giving him a hug. As she eased back, she whispered, “Thank you, Nik. You have no idea how good it felt to just be held like that…” and Daria searched his gaze, her voice still husky and slightly hoarse from having cried so much earlier.
Nodding, he moved his hand lightly across her hair. “Did you ever cry after that op, Daria? Or did you hold it all inside?” Instantly, Nik saw pain return to her eyes. He hadn’t meant to bring it up, but the medic in him, the one who was trained to find infection and root it out, had spoken for him. The moment was broken, and he already missed it acutely.
“N-no… I cried on that ridge… holding Melissa. But she was dead.” Her lips tightened and she looked away for a moment.
“You need not go there right now. I’m sorry I brought it up.”
Shaking her head, her hand growing still on his torso, Daria moved her gaze up to his. “It’s all right. The shrink at Shield Security where I work tried to get me to let it go but I just couldn’t.”
“Do you feel it’s because of your sniper training? Being in the military?”
“Yes… in part…” She wiped her eyes with her fingers, yawning again. “You have a way of making me feel safe, Nik. I don’t know why, but you do.” She lifted her hand, skimming his stubbled cheek with the back of it. “You started to massage my leg and, all of a sudden, I felt this upwelling of grief that was so powerful that, no matter what I did, I couldn’t stop it this time.” Her mouth slashed. “I don’t cry.”
“Sometimes,” he said quietly, moving his thumb across her scrunched brow, smoothing out those furrows, “we all need someone. I just happened to be here when you were ready to release that pain and grief, is all.”
Daria shook her head, closing her eyes as his thumb skimmed her brow. “No,” she managed in a low, broken tone, “that’s not true, Nik.” As he lifted his hand away, she opened her eyes. “There’s something about you that I trust with my life. I know you meant well about massaging my leg.” She stretched it a bit. “And it feels so much better now. Usually, even after sleeping all night, it’s stiff in the morning and I have to get up and get moving around before it loosens up.” She gave him a warm look. “It’s you. It’s not about being a person at the right place and time, at all.”
“Wasn’t Alex able to help you? He was there when you came home, wasn’t he?”
“Yes, both he and Lauren took me under their wings.” Daria slowly sat up. Nik followed suit, placing several pillows behind him, then leaning back against the headboard. When he opened his arms in invitation to her, Daria came to him. Curving into him, resting across his body, feeling his arms loose around her, holding her gently, Daria laid her head on his broad shoulder, one hand across his heart.
Euphoria flowed through Nik. He couldn’t believe it, but laying with her against him, the intimacy strong and unbroken, was building even more trust between them. He pressed his lips to her mussed hair. “Alex has a way of pulling a person’s tooth and they never feel the pain at the time,” he told her in an amused tone. Nik wanted to do so much more than just hold Daria. He wanted to shower her with soft, meaningful kisses from the top of her head down to her small delicate toes. He felt her laugh, her face pressed against his shoulder, the sound muted as she nodded her head.
“You’ve got that right,” Daria murmured, turning, meeting his hooded stare. “Alex tried, but I wasn’t ready, Nik.”
“Then we will celebrate the first step in healing your heart and soul from that event,” he told her in a roughened tone. He smoothed black hair away from her cheek, tucking it across her shoulder. “Tell me about yourself. Where were you born? I’ve got hundreds of questions to ask you.” He saw her gaze turn introspective. Had he accidentally stepped into another painful part of her life? Automatically for a moment, before Nik realized what he was doing, his arms closed protectively around her, as if to shield her from any unhappy memories.
“I was adopted at six months from a Russian orphanage and taken to Lviv, Ukraine. My new family said, when I was thirteen, they felt I had the blood of ancient Scythian women warriors. Looking back on my life? I believed them, that I inherited that gene, no doubt. Even my eyes are slightly slanted and my skin is not white, but an in-between color, bringing my unknown central Asian heritage with me. The women of my adopted family have always kept records of our family history. I remember being shown a very old parchment by my adopted mother and she was telling me about her two women ancestors, on the maternal side historically speaking, who rode with Kubla Kahn. That was in 1350, and that is how far back our history goes. I was mesmerized by that history even though it wasn’t my own, and I grew up wanting to be just like them. They were fierce and brave and protected the innocent.”
“And so, you became a Marine Corps sniper.”
“For many years in the Sand Box, yes.” She frowned. “I’m glad that’s over, though. I guess I used up that gene. I’m done with my sniper career.”
“A busted op like you had is enough to make anyone think twice about going back into the trade,” he said. “I’m glad you’re out of that MOS career track.”
“I like the way you and Alex see the world,” Daria admitted softly, her fingers smoothing the coarse dry shirt fabric across his chest.
“What do you mean?”
Her hand stilled on his chest. Daria studied him in the lulling silence. “That you both see a person’s heart, their soul. I think it’s very Ukrainian to move deeply into a person, to really want to see them, who they are.” One corner of her mouth lifted a little. “Warts and all.”
His mouth curved a bit. “You have no warts, Daria.”
She snorted. “Oh, yes I do, Nik. You just haven’t seen them come out yet.”
“No, my Kitten, whatever warts you hide? They would never scare me away. You must know that.” His hand rested on her arm. “Nothing you could say or do would make me run the other way. Ever.”
