And then she started putting food on her plate. I continued to watch her movements, staring at the delicate way her wrist moved as she scooped things out of the plates. Her bone structure was fragile, delicate like that of a baby bird’s. I had yet to get myself anything to eat, because all I wanted to do was sit here and watch her, see it as she ate, feeling pride fill me as she was no longer hungry, since I was the one making her full.
God, that last part sounded so damn sexual that I actually did groan involuntarily.
She glanced up at me, her eyebrows rising slightly. I gave her a tight smile and shifted on the seat, my cock already semi-hard. It would be a massive erection if I wasn’t forcing myself to keep everything under control. The last thing she needed was to see me have a raging hard-on.
She looked at her plate and then started eating, and when she took a bite of eggs, I heard the distinct sound of something crunching. Nadja took two fingers and put them to her mouth, and a second later pulled out an eggshell. She looked at the small white piece between her fingers for a second then lifted her eyes to me. A moment passed where we didn’t move or speak. And then she burst out laughing, leaning back in the chair and holding her stomach as amusement came from her and filled the entire kitchen.
Hell, I wasn’t even embarrassed over the fact that I’d really fucked up breakfast, because hearing her laugh was the greatest sound I’d ever heard in my whole goddamn life.
“That bad, huh?” I didn’t know why I phrased it like a question, because the truth of it all was right in front of me. I ran a hand over the back of my head and exhaled, but I felt my lips curl into a smile as she continued to laugh.
She was gorgeous when she was smiling.
“It’s perfect, actually,” she finally said and lifted her hand to rub a finger under her eye, as if wiping away a tear. But as the seconds moved by, I saw the way her amusement faded. She grew somber, and that changed the entire atmosphere in the room. “There are things I haven’t told you, things that complicate the situation.”
Everything in me got serious at hearing her words. We stared into each other’s eyes, and I waited until she spoke again. I wasn’t going to rush this or her.
“There are things that make the situation worse, and it’s probably best I leave, because I can’t risk you getting hurt.”
My heart stopped painfully in my chest at that. She wasn’t going anywhere.
She told me about Marina.
About the burner phone.
Nadja told me about the late call last night.
She told me about Maximillian going rogue and disappearing, and how the bratva was searching for him. The rumor was he was in the US. She admitted he was obsessed with her and that he would either come for her to finish what he started with her father and the other men in the organization that he slaughtered… or he’d come for her to make her his.
Not. Ever. Going. To. Fucking. Happen.
Nadja was mine.
“And the thought of you getting hurt because of me, Frankie—” She swallowed audibly and shook her head slowly. “—I can’t bear it. That’s why I let my father take me away. That’s why I agreed to go without a fight.” Her voice caught on that last word. “I loved you too much to see anything happen to you.” She looked down at her lap, and all I wanted to do was go to her, pull her in close, and hold her. “I love you too much.”
“You’re not going anywhere.” I said that a little too forcefully, too harshly. I saw the way she reacted, how she looked up at me, how her eyes widened marginally from my tone. There was no denying the declaration in those words.
I wasn’t letting her walk away. She just came back into my life, and that’s where she was staying. I’d talk to my brothers, see what the options were. I wasn’t a quitter, didn’t run and hide, but this was a psychopath and the fucking Russian mob. If taking Nadja and leaving meant she survived, I had no fucking problem being called a coward.
Because at the end of the day, I’d slaughter anything or anyone who tried to take her from me again.
22
Frankie
“I mean, we aren’t the good guys, Frankie, but we are nowhere equipped to go up against an organization like the fucking Russian mob.” Cullen’s voice was hard, his expression matching that.
Although I agreed with him and would have backed away on any other circumstance, there was no fucking way I was going to walk away from Nadja or let anyone take her from me.