I just let out a growl.
“Don’t pretend you’re not the type to kiss and tell, Leks.”
For some reason, I don’t want to admit to Yuri that there’s nothing to tell.If the rumor spreads around the docks that Natalia and I aren’t fucking, that’s gonna create problems for both of us.
The fact that people are talking about us — that other men are wondering what it would be like to take Natalia Bryusova’s virginity — sends an unexplainable tension through my blood.
If I don’t do something about this, it’s going to boil over into rage.
Rage is bad for business.
That’s when I tell Yuri that I’m gonna need him to step in as a sparring partner, making up some bullshit excuse about losing the last fight night.
I’ve never lost at a fight night.
I already know as a certainty that nothing is gonna take my mind off this girl other than blood, sweat, and pain.
8
NATALIA
Istare out the window at the lights shifting over the different areas of the port. The place is constantly bathed in an amber glow, even in the dead of night. I’m not a good sleeper at the best of times, and the constant activity only makes it worse.Tonight I’ve given up on sleep altogether, curled up with Dasha in the living room while a history program plays on the TV.
Dasha seems to like her new life here, where there are a ton of seabirds to watch out the window. I’m pretty sure there’s a rat infestation keeping her entertained too, but I’m trying not to dwell on it.
“Returning to your roots as a street cat, right Dasha?” She purrs contentedly as I stroke her ears.Aleksandr said I could buy one cat jungle for her, so I’ve ordered the biggest one I could find.
I rescued her after she wandered into our gardens as akitten. I secretly looked after her in my room for a month until she started going hunting, leaving dead birds on the doorstep. My parents found out, but by then we were too attached for them to separate us without breaking my heart.
At first, when a woman appears on the fire escape, I think I’ve fallen into a strange dream.
She’s breathtakingly strange, with a ring through her nose, spider-web tattoos visible through her mesh top, and a metallic red miniskirt that matches her pointed nails. Someone who’s decided who she is and will live her life accordingly.
She taps at the window and gives me a surprisingly warm smile.
I push open the window, still wondering if I’m dreaming, and she ducks through the window effortlessly, then pulls me into a thickly-perfumed hug. She’s rail thin, but wiry, like she has an intense work out routine.
“Natalia, right?”
I nod, unsure what she wants. She yanks open the fridge, grabs out a bottle of beer, and pops the cap off using the edge of the counter. Then she hops up to sit facing me, swinging her platform boots against the cabinets.
“I’m Vera. I didn’t wake you, right?”
I shake my head. “No, I was already up.”
“At three a.m.? Just like Leks.”
She calls my husband by a nickname and knows his sleeping schedule. I look her up and down and realize that maybe this is the kind of girl Aleksandr is into.She is sexual in a way that I don’t know how to be.
I can see why he would prefer a woman like her. Vera would survive him, become better for it, while I could only be consumed by his darkness and bitterness.
He probably likes women who can match him in darkness.
Not a boring, sheltered princess like me.
“I’ve been hearing a lot about you. Was kinda curious to see you for myself.”
I feel like a piece of meat on display at an auction as Vera rakes her gaze over my outfit, the fluffy pink slippers and frilly nightgown that I now regret choosing. I sit on the edge of the seat, my posture tense and upright.
