Vasya holds up his hand flippantly. “Scout’s honor.”
“That’s three fingers, idiot,” Dmitri growls as he pushes past the other man. “And you were never a Boy Scout.”
I almost call Dmitri back and say something about wanting to leave with him instead, but I bite back my words when Vasya’s gaze falls on me.
Since that day in the car, the memory of his temper has cooled whatever warmth I felt for him. I can’t explain why his anger frightens me so much more than Evgeny’s, when I’ve seen far more of the latter. But the chill it gave me hasn’t dissipated.
“Ready for shoes?” the sales associate asks, skirting Vasya with a curious look.
“Yeah, sure.”
I try to focus on the shoes and even the clutch the woman brought to go with the dress. Both are designer and worth more than the monthly mortgage payment on my family’s house.
Evgeny’s black card pays for it all. I feel sick handing it to the sales associate, and it isn’t just the morning sickness.
As a final tip, the woman steers me to a jewelry store to find earrings to match the dress. The idea of a black card and an insanely expensive jewelry boutique is an opportunity I can’t pass up.
Oddly enough, Vasya is quiet as we go to the jewelry store. No laughter, no smirks, no off-color jokes. Instead, we walk in silence as cars worth a hundred grand or more pass us in the street, the palm trees on the side of the road swaying in the wind.
“Are you okay?” I finally can’t resist asking as I browse the cases and their sparkling treasures.
“Yeah. Fine.” Short. Vasya’s eyes are on a necklace glittering with diamonds.
I finally find a pair of earrings, and the manager is boxing them up when Vasya points to the necklace he’s been staring at.
“I want to see that.”
Vasya wears a necklace himself, a small Eastern Orthodox cross with three crossed bars. But the one he’s pointing at is dainty, a star with long points and diamonds across the rays.
The manager takes the necklace from the case, and Vasya fingers the pendant before removing it from its velvet display.
“My mom had a necklace kind of like this,” he says, a small smile curling one corner of his mouth.
The manager returns to boxing the earrings I bought. With the chain slipping over Vasya’s long fingers, he moves behind me and drapes the necklace over my head before I know what’s happening.
“I want to see what it looks like on you.”
His words slither across the back of my neck, raising the hairs there, and I freeze as the cool chain settles on my warm skin.
Vasya’s blue eyes settle on my reflection, taking in the necklace before rising to meet my gaze.
“It looks good on you,” he says, and I have no idea what to say, with every word stuck in my throat.
Before I can think, Vasya’s head dips in the mirror, and I feel his lips brush the back of my neck, soft and sensuous. One kiss, then two, then a third, before I can take a breath around my wildly pounding heart and tight throat.
The breath knocks me out of my shock, and I step away, reaching up to unclasp the necklace. What the hell was he doing?
“I’m ready to go home,” I tell him, holding the necklace out.
Vasya stares at me for a few more breaths, his expression unreadable, the blue in his eyes icy, before he takes it from me.
Nausea roils in the silence of the car on the way back to the estate. My heart is still pounding, making my fingertips tingle. I have no idea what to think or say, and I only give short answers when Vasya starts joking around with me as if nothing at all happened in the jewelry store.
I flee to the safety of my room when we return home, make some excuse about a headache, and throw up for the first time since the morning sickness started.
But it’s less about the baby and more about whatever happened with Vasya, about the chill I feel when I think of him and the disturbing emotions I saw in his eyes when he was staring at me.
I know I can’t tell Evgeny. The last thing he needs right now is me telling him his oldest friend made a move on me. I can’t cause trouble or a rift when Evgeny needs Vasya more than ever to help him deal with Tsepov. No.I have to keep it to myself for now.
