Fractured Ties by Bethany-Kris Page 0,18
of his thumb stroke her pulse point, too, but it was done quicker than it had even begun, and Kolya pushed away to start walking along the building once more.
She was left there with her back against the wall, staring at the black backdrop of an inky sky, and feeling a little too breathless. It was like he hadn’t been there at all.
Except … he had been.
Every part of her knew it. Like the way her heart raced, and her palms ached from being clenched into tight little balls to keep from reaching out to touch him. Or like the way her skin felt warm to the touch, and a little numb where his hand and fingers had been.
Oh, yeah.
She knew he’d been there.
“Are you trying to get left behind?” she heard him call.
He never even looked over his shoulder or anything. He was still walking away. Maybe, had Maya been a smarter woman, she might have taken the chance right then and there to turn her back on that strangely fascinating—and confusing—Russian, and run as fast as she could in the opposite direction.
Something told her that he would let her go.
And yet, she didn’t.
She raced to catch up.
Maya swore she saw a ghost of a smile on Kolya’s face as she moved into step beside him again. He said nothing, but his warm palm came to rest on her lower back again like it hadn’t moved from the spot in the first place. She realized in those seconds that maybe she liked it there a little more than she should, all things considered.
“Watch your step,” Kolya murmured.
She didn’t get a chance to look for what he was talking about because his hands simply slipped around her waist, grabbed tight to lift her from the ground, and then quickly set her back down two steps later. Glancing over her shoulder, she found a slight divot in the ground that didn’t look like much but probably would have rolled her ankle something awful, considering she hadn’t seen it in the first place.
“Spasibo,” Maya said.
“Never thank me—I’m not the type of man who deserves it, no?”
Maya peered up at him.
She doubted that.
Very much so.
They had just rounded the front of the building when the barking started. It was only then that Maya realized the front doors of the warehouse had been opened, and propped to stay that way with cinderblocks that had once been along the eastern wall.
The barking, though?
It was coming from inside the place.
And then came the dogs.
Bounding as fast as their legs could take them and terrified. Shaking, with ears pinned back, and growls that came out sharp like warnings for the animal that might get too close. Some of the dogs nipped and snapped at the animal to their left and right as they fought to get out of the doorway first. They stumbled and yelped in their effort.
“You’re releasing them?” Maya asked.
Her heart swelled a bit.
“Well, they are,” Kolya said, “but it’s for the best, either way. Come, get in the truck before one of those dogs takes a bite out of you. It’s not like there’s very much for them to chew on.”
His gaze darkened a bit as it traveled over her.
Maya felt that familiar heat creep into her cheeks. “Enough for you to look at, apparently.”
Kolya did smirk that time.
Almost a smile, too.
He didn’t look the least bit ashamed.
“You lose that sometimes,” he told her. “That bark of yours, Maya. Or maybe you hide it. I wish you wouldn’t. I think I like it.”
He didn’t give her time to ponder his words because he picked her up like she weighed nothing more than a bag of feathers, and tossed her over his shoulder like she was worth about as much, too. He navigated the fighting and running dogs as though they didn’t bother him in the least. She didn’t realize what was happening until a beep echoed, and then a door was opened.
Maya was placed carefully into the front passenger seat of a Hummer.
She glanced down.
It was high.
“How do normal people get in here?”
Kolya chuckled, as dry as it was. “Normal people don’t get to drive in my vehicles.”
Maya’s brow furrowed. “So, what does that make me?”
“I’ll let you know when I figure it out.”
Special, then.
She heard what he didn’t say.
“Is that why we didn’t go out the front?” she asked when she noticed the last few dogs trotting out of the front doors. “Because they were letting the dogs out?”
“No. Because I didn’t think