Page 25 of The Breath Before Forever

He arched a brow and tilted his head her way in some semblance of a nod like he was non-verbally agreeing with her statement.

Vera shrugged. “And let me say, silence is the best way to make a person feel wanted. Can’t forget that, right?”

Her sarcasm practically oozed, but she didn’t tamper it for a second. She needed something—literally anything else—from this man except his silence. Maybe then it would make her apology easier.

Even if she didn’t deserve easy.

Ahead of them, the light remained bright, and red.

Vaslav glanced her way. “Is that how you’ve felt all week?”

“What?”

“Is that what you thought—that my silence means I don’t want you? You didn’t feel wanted?”

She wasn’t expecting his question, and she had to drop his gaze to consider how she wanted to respond. He didn’t miss her blatant avoidance if the way his hands tightened on the leather steering wheel was any indication. A vehicle he wasn’t supposed to drive outside of Dubna’s limits if at all possible to keep it untraceable and private.

Apparently, after today, the Rolls wouldn’t return to the estate. At least, not looking the way it currently did. Vaslav hadn’t offered more information in that regard, and Vera wasn’t that attached to the car to prod for more details.

“Well?” he asked, sharper that time. “Is that how it made you feel?”

She didn’t answer him.

History taught her not to.

Vera wasn’t a sucker for punishment, but Vaslav was the type of man who didn’t mind delivering it if warranted. She didn’t need him to point out how pitiful or weak it might make her to say his continued silent treatment had done nothing but make her spend nights alone with a tear-stained pillow as her bed companion.

Just because it was true didn’t mean he needed to say it. It wouldn’t change what it meant, either. Or that sometimes, that love still growing between them, well, it hurt.

“Vera.”

She kept her eyes locked on the streetlight that changed to green when he murmured her name a second time. “You’ve got to go—it’s green.”

“Fuck the light. Look at me.”

She still didn’t.

The truck behind their car blew the horn, which only prompted Vaslav to lay on his in response. His hand flew out the six-inch crack where he’d rolled his window down during the drive to wave the middle finger while he let out a string of Russian expletives at the driver behind them. Perhaps the older, rusted vehicle behind them wasn’t willing to get into a tussle with someone driving a vehicle like theirs because the truck was quick to pull around their vehicle and blow through the light when the oncoming traffic wasn’t in the way.

“Suka—bitch,” he said under his breath as the truck moved into the intersection.

Other vehicles who came up behind them at the light did the same thing. Only one or two blew their horns as they passed the Rolls.

Vera tried not to look like something wounded and sad when she turned to finally meet Vaslav’s stare when he muttered, “We’re not moving one goddamn inch until you look at me, kisska.”

“I know it’s silly and stu—”

“I didn’t mean to make you feel like that,” Vaslav interrupted, taking her off guard with the way his tone softened. The breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding came out of her chest with a hard woosh. The same man who had once mocked her for admitting that dancing made her sometimes cry now scowled beside her with his unhappiness at the thought of her not feeling wanted by him. That was a wave of emotional whiplash that she really wasn’t ready to ride.

“Come here.”

The light was still green.

Vera just blinked.

Dumbly.

“Now,” Vaslav uttered as he reached for her. He must have kept one foot heavy on the break because their car didn’t roll an inch as he closed the distance between them over the center console separating their seats. All over again, her lungs burned with a need to breathe, but it wasn’t because she was holding the air in this time. His arms wrapped under the white fox fur coat that he’d produced for her before they left the house earlier.