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His expression softens, and he reaches across the table, taking my hand. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Dream. You’re safe with me.”
His touch sends a jolt up my arm, and I stare at our hands, so different in size yet they fit together like they were made to. There’s a sincerity in his eyes that makes it hard for me not to believe him.
I pull my hand away, more from fear of my own feelings than anything else. “Let’s just eat and go to the market. I’ll feel better once I’m wearing something clean again.”
He nods, leaning back and looking at me with a thoughtful expression.
Our breakfast arrives, and we eat in relative silence. The food is delicious and filling, and I find myself picking things off of Nikolai’s plate after scraping mine clean. He lets me do it. That’s how I know he has a soft spot for me.
Soon, we find ourselves walking down the dusty road again, the sun high and burning even hotter than before. The market Nikolai takes us to is bustling with a surprising number of people.
The city is no longer abandoned. It’s brimming with life.
I weave through the stalls, feeling somewhat out of place because of my obvious American appearance. Nikolai follows closely, his eyes scanning the crowd as if expecting trouble at any moment.
“Relax,” I tell him, stopping to look at a rack of dresses. “We’re just shopping.”
He grins, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly. “I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be out shopping for clothes with a beautiful woman. Jasha would be calling me a pussy right about now.”
“And he’s not here, so you can drop the macho act and help me pick something out. I thought you said there would be jeans and stuff here,” I say, looking at table after table of colorful dresses. They’re cute, but I just know they’re going to get me in trouble.
“I’m sure you could find jeans in a different store, but you would probably be cooler in a dress,” he says.
I shrug. Maybe he’s right.
Nikolai moves closer to me, his eyes scanning the table in front of us until he settles on something so short that I’m pretty sure it’s not even a dress. It must be a shirt or something, but he points to it and nods his head. “That’s a nice dress, don’t you think?”
I take it, holding it up to my body to show him how impossibly short it would be. I don’t say anything, instead waiting for him to see what’s wrong and apologize.
Apparently, that’s far too much to ask of a man like Nikolai.
“Wow, beautiful,” he says, rubbing his chin. “I really like that color on you. Blue brings out the brightness of your eyes.”
I can’t help but smile at his words. “Yeah, but you see what’s wrong with it, though?”
He pouts a bit, studying the dress for a moment longer. “No, it looks fine to me.”
“Nikolai, it’s way too short,” I finally say, pulling it away from my body and setting it back down on the table. “Let’s find something a bit more modest.”
To my surprise, he agrees with me, but not for the reason I was expecting. “You’re right,” he says. “I wouldn’t want other men to stare at you. I’d have to beat them up, and that would end up being more trouble than it’s worth.”
Is that the possessiveness he spoke about yesterday? If so, I could get used to that. Nobody else has ever cared what I wore, and that included past boyfriends. They barely even acknowledged that we were dating at all.
I’m not even dating Nikolai, and he’s acting like I’m his girlfriend. I know I shouldn’t even pretend that we’re official, but when we’re out here without anyone from my hometown to see or judge me, it feels like we could be a real couple.
And if only for these next few days, I wouldn’t mind playing pretend with him.
We continue to browse the dresses, and I manage to find a few that meet both my and Nikolai’s approval. As we head back to our temporary home, bags in hand, I can’t help but feel a renewed sense of hope.
Maybe, with Nikolai by my side, I can save Eddy and get my life back. And then, one day in the far future, I’ll look back at this and see it as nothing more than a wild adventure with a few fiery kisses in the dark.
12
Nikolai
We stay in the hotel for the rest of the day, and I’m forced to watch Dream go from smiling and excited to huffy and irritable again. I know she hates being locked up inside all day, but there’s nothing good that will come from hanging around outside all day. Someone is bound to notice that we’re not locals, and if the Cartel catches a whiff of what’s really going on, they’re going to slit Eddy’s throat and call the whole thing off.
And that’s only if they don’t come here and kill us both first. They still want their drugs, and I’d have to be crazy to believe they wouldn’t come and take them by force if they had to.
