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Chancing a glance at Nikolai, the disgust was clear as day on his features. He shook his head, hands in his pockets as he walked. “I’m certainly glad you didn’t allow it. If it makes you feel any better, I didn’t know about the arrangement until the day I ran into you again at the hotel.”
With a half-hearted chuckle, I gazed at him fully, meeting his eye. “I wonder if running into each other was good or bad luck.”
When Nikolai didn’t pull away from our eye contact, something came to life within my chest, but I forced it down again. It was exhausting to find him so gorgeous at the most inconvenient times.
Nikolai cleared his throat and pushed forward, following Kat. “It’s just a small world, I guess.”
Unable to help myself at the sound of that familiar joke, I laughed quietly. It seemed he would never let that go. “I was onto something without knowing how far that would go.”
“I want you to know something, Mila. I won’t ever give up my life or my family, but I will always keep them safe. That includes you and Kat now,” Nikolai said, somewhat frosty with his tone. “Now tell me, why were you upset the morning after I had already told you that?”
Feeling the weight of his question, almost accusatory in nature, I returned my incredulous stare to him. “I was upset because you left me high and dry, with no idea where Kat was. You didn’t even leave a note.”
Nikolai seemed to disconnect himself from the exchange as many thoughts moved across his eyes. It looked like he was fighting a mental battle with himself, surely contemplating my point.
Surprised by his sudden grip on my arms, I froze in place and blinked back at him. His blue eyes stared down at me, face completely serious and unshakeable.
“You must trust me, Mila. You’re mine now, and what I say goes.”
My heart leaped at the proclamation. It wasn’t news to either of us, but it was still shocking to hear from his mouth.
Before I could turn to complete mush in front of him, I shrugged him off and kept moving. He didn’t force me to look at him again, and rather, Nikolai followed.
“If you want any kind of peace, you could at least spare me a few words of warning about what you’re doing,” I muttered, trying my best to ignore the blaze of confusing want for him.
Everything about us was confusing, and the line between hate and admiration was blurring. But I wasn’t won over too easily.
As if it spoke for itself, Nikolai held up his bruised and battered knuckles, then he pointed at his split lip that began to heal with a hardened layer of skin. His brows lifted. I had to resist the urge to reach out and caress his knuckles, with the hope of soothing them.
“Do you really want to know?” He snarled as if trying to make himself seem more intimidating.
I knew exactly what he was doing. If he played the big, tough man living the brutal life of a mobster and showed me his wounds, then maybe I’d let it go and get off his back out of fear of knowing.
“I’ve seen worse,” I muttered, resolving to forget it in the meantime.
Carrying on through the enclosures and exhibits, I crossed my arms over my chest and didn’t say another word to him.
Nikolai may have been one of the most attractive men I’ve ever seen, and there was an obvious passion between us, but I didn’t know him at all. He was some stranger I was forced to marry, and one I’d spent a few good nights with.
Other than that, I didn’t know what Nikolai was capable of. For all I knew, he could be as ruthless as my father, and I knew how far that got me.
I may have been used to seeing worse, fully aware of what happened in the world our families were wrapped up in, but I didn’t want to push my luck. For Kat’s sake, as well as my own, I didn’t want to pry too deeply into Nikolai’s world.
When Nikolai caught on to my silent treatment, he moved ahead and kneeled beside Kat, pointing at the giant polar bear as it swam by the glass.
A small, flicker of a smile took over my lips before it fell again.
Was Nikolai capable of faking how nice he was to Kat? I wasn’t so sure.
He could’ve ignored Kat completely since finding out she was his child, but something always came over him whenever she was near. Nikolai would melt and soften like she was the cure to his short fuse and sharp tongue.
From what I could tell, Nikolai was willing to do anything for her. My father wouldn’t have spent the whole day with me like that.
It brought a funny stir inside my chest, but I wasn’t willing to get my hopes up. Nikolai may have been willing to play the father role with Kat, but he was only the disgruntled husband with me.
“Where are the dolphins?” Kat asked after some time, lifting her stuffed one in the air.
“Right over here,” Nikolai murmured with a chuckle, and he took her much smaller hand in his to guide her over. Kat bounded with him happily while I followed a few steps behind, not wanting to impede their time together.
