Nikolai nodded.“Workmen are there now.Repairs first.Reinforcement second.”
“And after?”
Nikolai’s mouth curved slightly.“After, it becomes a fortress.No blind spots.No soft entries.Nothing touches that place without my permission.”
Dominic raised a brow.“Mines in the water?”
Kol didn’t smile.“That’s what I’m thinking.”
Mateo shook his head and muttered something about crazy is as crazy does.
Eliza listened to all of it, absorbing the weight of what these men did, how they planned for futures that assumed attack rather than peace—and how careful they were about the people they let close.
Nikolai’s hand brushed her knee under the table.Not possessive.Not claiming.Just there.
Eliza stood a moment later, the decision already made in her body before her mind caught up.
She turned to him and held out her hand.
“Come with me.”
He didn’t hesitate.
They didn’t go anywhere else.
The bedroom door closed softly behind them, the noise of the house fading until there was only the quiet hum of the heater and the low rush of their breathing.Eliza stood near the foot of the bed, suddenly aware of the space, of how much this moment mattered.Two days of closeness.Two nights of shared breath and careful distance.Trust built one quiet hour at a time.
She turned to him.
Nikolai didn’t move closer.Didn’t assume.His hands rested loosely at his sides, his posture open but contained, like a man waiting for instruction he would follow exactly.
“What do you want?”he asked quietly.
The question didn’t frighten her.
That was how she knew she was ready.
She took a breath, steadying herself, and met his eyes.“Before anything happens,” she said softly.“I need you to hear me.I need to know I can stop at any point.That this ...that I’m choosing it.This is happening not because you want it, but because I do.”
“I hear you,” he said at once.“You set the pace.You set the rules.I don’t move unless you ask me to.”
Something in her chest loosened.
“I want you here with me,” she said.“I want this to be slow.I want to feel safe the whole time.”
“You will,” he said, steady as stone.“At your speed.However long it takes.”
She smiled, a little unsteady, a little grateful.“Thank you ...for always putting what I need first.”
His gaze didn’t leave her as he reached for her—careful, deliberate.“Tell me if this is okay,” he said, even as his fingers brushed the hem of her shirt.
“It is,” she whispered.
He moved exactly as he promised—slow, eyes never breaking from hers as he helped her out of her clothes piece by piece, each movement a question, each pause an invitation for her to change her mind.She felt seen in a way that had nothing to do with her body and everything to do with choice.
When she stood before him, bare and unguarded, he swallowed once—then, only then, did he step back and strip himself with a swift economy that made her breath catch.He stopped in front of her, close but not touching.
“You set the rules,” he said quietly.“At your speed.Whatever you want, I follow.”
