Til Death Do Us Part (Kornilov Bratva Duet #2) - Nicole Fox Page 0,60
nods. “Yes, but not to show you always get your way. It’s to show them you have me wrapped around your finger.”
I’m not convinced Seamus and Niamh will use the state of our toothpaste as a direct metaphor for our relationship, but my stomach still flips when he speaks.
This is exactly why it’s hard for me to leave. Why I’m torn on what to do.
Because Viktor makes me feel alive. His presence is like a bolt of electricity through me, shocking me back to life. Before him, I muddled through. I had moments of joy playing with Theo, but beyond that, my life was gray. With Viktor, I’ve experienced every shade of the rainbow. Every emotion and fear and feeling. Some terrible, some amazing. And I’m not sure the terrible outweighs the amazing.
In fact, the more time I spend with Viktor, the more the amazing times start to outweigh everything else. Even the danger.
Viktor loosens his grip on me enough that I twist away and go into the bedroom. There, we have even more to decide.
“I’ve been sleeping on the right side of the bed, but I prefer the left,” Viktor says.
I shake my head. “Tough luck. I’m not sleeping closest to the door.”
He frowns. “Why not?”
“Murderers,” I say, like it is obvious. That has been my reason for not sleeping close to the door my entire life and it has always sounded absurd. Now, however, it is a real possibility that murderers will pour into our bedroom. But if they do, I’m not sure being two feet further from the door will do much to spare me.
Still, Viktor holds up his hands in defeat. “Fine. I’ll sacrifice myself first in the event that someone comes into our room to murder us. You just have to promise that if they do, you’ll try to run. I don’t want to die for nothing.”
“Promise,” I say, trying to keep my tone light as I move to the closet. “The other problem is there is no room for your clothes in here.”
He comes to stand next to me, his hands on his hips. “How do you have this many clothes?”
“You bought them for me! Don’t blame me. You gave me more than I could ever wear.”
He sighs and begins riffling through the closet and pulling things out. Quickly, I realize he is pulling out all of my sweaters, T-shirts, and sweatpants and laying them on the bed, leaving behind my dresses, low-cut tops, and jeans.
“What are you doing?”
“Get rid of everything on the bed and keep what’s in the closet,” he says.
I grab his arm as he threatens to throw my favorite pair of pajama pants over his shoulder. “You’re taking all my comfortable clothes and leaving me the skimpy stuff.”
He wags his eyebrows mischievously. “Like you said, I bought it all. Shouldn’t I be the one to decide what stays and what goes?”
I scoop up the stuff on the bed and begin hanging it back up. “Absolutely not. It all stays. Even these.”
I hold up a pair of fuzzy pajama pants with cartoon frogs all over them—the only thing I actually bought myself. Viktor wrinkles his nose. “We can throw away the cap to the toothpaste if you get rid of those.”
“Never!” I scream, laughing maniacally.
Viktor walks away, shaking his head, but I see his shoulders shaking with laughter.
Over the next hour, we reorganize some of the furniture to better suit a life together—pushing two armchairs close together, setting out two mugs next to the coffee pot, and putting Viktor’s home weights next to my elliptical machine. By the time we are done, it looks like a well-lived in house, and I’m sweaty.
“I need to clean up before they get here. I’m sticky,” I say, wiping my arm across my forehead.
When I look over, Viktor is watching me, his eyes more focused than they were just a moment ago. His gaze slips down my body, and I know what he is thinking.
I wasn’t thinking it, but I am now.
“Are you going to shower, too?” I ask innocently.
He nods slowly. “I should.”
We stare at one another for a long time, and I can feel the unspoken question in the tilt of Viktor’s head as he watches me.
Is it too soon? Too soon to want this after what happened today? Are you ready? Are we okay?
Honestly, the right answer might be that it is far too soon. That I’m too raw to make a good decision or think clearly. But right now, I don’t