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After the bridal appointment, we do a little other shopping—shoes for the wedding, and some new clothes, since I’d lost weight after the kidnapping and my usual wardrobe doesn’t fit me as well right now. “He might want to take you on a honeymoon,” Lilliana suggests. “You should have some new clothes just in case.”
I know what she’s doing—she knows very well that I like to shop and always find it to be a good distraction. I appreciate it, too, even if it’s not as effective as it usually is. We get lunch, and as we come out with the last of our bags and wait for the driver to come around, I stop in my tracks.
We always have a security entourage with us—I did even before the kidnapping, and Nikolai has been even more strict about it since. I saw the guards who came with us today, although they typically try to blend into the shadows, and when we come out of the restaurant, the detail has changed.
One of them is Adrik.
“Shit,” I mumble under my breath, and Lilliana looks at me curiously.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, and I nod as surreptitiously as I can toward where Adrik is standing, talking to one of the other men.
“Oh,” she whispers. “Is he—”
I nod, and she presses her lips together, clearly trying to hold back some amusement.
“Well, you certainly could have done worse,” she says, a tinge of laughter in her words. “He’s gorgeous.”
“I know,” I whisper back before I can stop myself. Heisgorgeous—and I feel a faint, sudden ache at the idea of what I’m going to have to tell him.
“Do you want me to handle it?” Lilliana asks, seeing that I’m frozen in place. “I can say something to him—ask him to go back to the house—”
“No.” I shake my head. “It’s okay—I can’t avoid him forever. I’ll go talk to him.”
Adrik sees me as I walk towards them, and I motion to him, trying to look as much as possible as if I need to talk to him about something in the capacity of an employer—or at least as the sister of his employer—keeping as serious of an expression on my face as I can. He says something in a low voice to the man he’s talking to, and then nods at me, walking over to the spot I’d crossed to a little ways away from both Lilliana and the other security, on the other side of the shop windows.
“Marika.” His voice is low and urgent the moment he’s close enough to speak to me. I give him a warning look not to come too close, glancing sideways toward Lilliana and the others.
He glances in the same direction and gives me a surreptitious nod, picking up on what I’m trying to tell him. He keeps an arm’s length away from me, but I can tell it’s difficult for him—that he wants to come closer. To tell the truth, I want him closer. I’ve missed him—over the past few days, I’ve managed to pretend well enough that I didn’t, while I was alone. Now that he’s here, standing in front of me, it’s so much harder. “What is it?” he asks, still in that same low tone. “I haven’t seen you in three days. I heard you were sick. Are you alright?”
There’s an urgency to his voice that’s touching. I don’t have so many people in my life concerned for my welfare that it doesn’t mean something for there to be another—especially when it’shim…the man I’d given something important to and shared a bed with for over a month, off and on.
“I’ve been better,” I say softly, feeling my stomach clench with nervousness. “I—” I swallow hard. “Adrik—can we talk later? When I’m home, and Lilliana is gone—”
His face changes in an instant, and I can see the struggle to keep his expression as impassive as possible. “Marika—can you just tell me? I’m going to wonder—are you sick? Really sick? Something from what happened at the compound—”
I can see the wheels turning in his head, the ideas of permanent injuries and long-term effects from the abuse I’d suffered occurring to him, and I feel even worse, because I hadn’t meant to make this harder than it already was. “It’s nothing like that,” I tell him quickly, wondering if what I actually need to say will be somehow worse. “Please—I don’t want to say this on the sidewalk in the middle of the street, and—”
He sucks in a slow breath, and I can feel the tension escalating. “Why did you bring me over here, then?”
“You would have asked me where I’d been—”
“Because I care about you! I asked to be on your rotation today because I wanted to make sure you were alright, to see for myself—if you’re not sick, and you’re not hurt—”
“I’m getting married.” The words come out before I can stop them, all the emotion and frustration of the past days welling up. “I wanted you to hear it from me before you heard it from someone else, but I wasn’t going to tell you like this—”
I see the instant his face drops, the moment where he struggles between wanting to think I’m playing some horrible joke on him, and the fact that he knows me well enough, even now, to know I wouldn’t do that.
“You’re getting married?” His voice raises a little, and I can’t help but glare at him. “To who? This soon after—how could Nikolai—”
“Keep your voice down!” I hiss sharply. “You know what would happen if—” I swallow hard, looking over at Lilliana, who is making small talk with one of the other guards—presumably to keep them from noticing that Adrik and I are still talking. “No one can find out about us. You know what Nikolai would do to you.”
“Marika.” He’s still staring at me as if I’ve grown another head. “Who are you marrying?”
I’m not sure, exactly, why that’s the first thing he’s latched onto, the who of it—unless he’s debating how easily he could remove my future husband from existence. I know the truth isn’t going to improve matters—but I can’t lie to him. He’d find out eventually, anyway.
“Theo McNeil,” I whisper, and his eyes widen.
“Nikolai is marrying you to the fucking leader of the goddamn Irish Kings? What the fuck is he thinking—”
