Fractured Ties by Bethany-Kris Page 0,25
just found me anyway? Looked for me until you did?”
Truthfully, she hadn’t once thought about running from the time she woke up. It had never even been a blip on her radar.
Kolya didn’t reply.
Maya did turn to glance at him, then, if only to see why he hadn’t responded. She found a happy looking Sumerki in his arms; the dog licked at his forearm and then nibbled on the same spot. Kolya didn’t look bothered by the teething pup in the slightest.
Still, she could tell by the look on his face—in the shadows as he frowned, and in the darkness of his eyes when they met hers—that yes, absolutely yes, he would have looked for her until he found her, had she run on him.
Maya forgot about the pancake cooking on the griddle as Kolya inched a little closer to her. Enough to take away any personal space she might have had, which only caused her mind to blank when all she could see was him looking at her.
She liked the way he looked at her.
Even impassive and cold.
Something still burned.
Something still warmed her.
He still wasn’t wearing a shirt, either. And she could finally see the tattooed phrase beneath his eight-pointed stars.
Momento mori.
“Is that Latin?” she asked.
Kolya seemed to know exactly what she was talking about without asking. “It is.”
“What does it mean?”
“Something unpleasant, but not untrue.”
“Would you tell me?”
“Would you look at me?”
She did.
Curiosity stared back at her.
“What?” Maya managed to ask.
“It means remember you will die.”
“You’re right—it’s unpleasant.”
“But also not untrue.”
Maybe so.
She wondered why he had gotten something like that tattooed on his body, but didn’t get the chance to ask.
Kolya’s brow dipped, and he glanced down at the pup as he said, “If Sumerki got away, I would go after him, too. I like him—I want to keep him around.”
Maya blinked.
She thought she understood what he was not saying.
“Like me, too?”
Kolya shrugged.
Maya frowned. “You just compared me to a dog, Kolya.”
Unflinchingly, he replied, “That’s better than what I compare everyone else to.”
He inched closer still—the tilt of the corner of his mouth drawing her gaze to the shape of his lips and the small scar that slit through the cleft in his chin. It was their lack of distance from each other that made it hard for her to think or breathe.
And yet, she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted him to move, either.
Something was wrong with her, clearly.
He’d taken her. Without care, or concern. Just took her like he had every right. And now, she wasn’t even sure what was going to become of her life.
Except here she was, enjoying his closeness a little too much, and what it might mean.
Kolya’s head tipped down a bit, and Maya peered up. There was maybe an inch between their lips, but she didn’t dare to close the distance.
His smirk deepened into something more sinful when he asked, “Would you want me to find you?”
She didn’t speak.
Couldn’t speak, really.
Kolya grinned like he didn’t need her to, and in a blink, stepped back altogether. Suddenly, there was distance between them again, and her mind was clear.
Holy shit.
“Flip your pancake before it burns, dushka.”
Maya hesitated.
“You shouldn’t call me that—dushka, I mean.”
Kolya arched a brow. “Do you not want me to?”
She hadn’t said that.
But she also knew what it meant.
His soul.
An endearment meant for a person’s soul.
She wasn’t that at all.
“I will call you what I like unless you ask for something different,” Kolya said.
“Didn’t I just do that—ask, I mean?”
Kolya chuckled. “No, you said shouldn’t. And that’s a huge step away from can’t. Finish your breakfast, and then we can go.”
Go?
He must have seen her silent question.
“Sumerki needs a vet visit and you need things.”
“Oh,” Maya said.
Kolya’s gaze drifted over her from head to toe—a lingering, heated stare that made the best kind of chill work its way up Maya’s spine.
She didn’t know what to do with this man.
With herself.
With them.
He looked hungry.
A little wild, too.
Jesus.
“I don’t like doing anything,” Kolya said, “but especially shopping.”
“I can be quick.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think I’ll mind very much with you.”
5.
KOLYA FOUND over his lifetime that the world tended to treat him better when he didn’t engage society like most people did. Normal people enjoyed going out, being seen, and doing things. He was not that kind of person.
Hell, he could have everything and anything ordered in should he need something, and the only time he did go out was to work, to handle a problem, or if his tailor wanted an update