Fractured Ties by Bethany-Kris Page 0,62

up at Kolya’s oncoming form, he was already there. One hand reaching around her waist and the other one landing firmly on the back of her neck, right over those newly tattooed stars.

She might have flinched any other time.

Except it didn’t hurt.

It just … grounded her.

Every towering six feet, six inches of Kolya pulled her in close, and then swept away the fear coloring her mind with a soft kiss against her forehead, and then a searing brush of his lips along the seam of her own.

“It’s fine,” he said.

She didn’t think it was.

It was better with him, though.

“It’s probably not,” she whispered.

Kolya’s hold on her became impossibly tighter. “We don’t know that.”

“Well, it sounds to me like two men—but if we add in your father, that makes three—want to either get ahold of me or get rid of me.”

“Four,” Kolya muttered. “I’m the fourth, but I have you. And besides, let’s look at it like this. It makes for an interesting woman when she keeps things entertaining like this. That’s all.”

Maya couldn’t help but laugh, and even felt Kolya’s smile curve against her forehead. His shitty attempt at dry humor was really the last thing they needed, but it did make her concentrate on something else for the moment. Like the fact he’d even tried to be funny.

“Cute.”

In the background, Konstantin chuckled. “Oh, he has jokes. When do you ever have fucking jokes?”

Maya found Konstantin’s stare as she peeked around the side of Kolya’s form even as he ignored his brother.

When he’s with me, she thought. He jokes with me.

Konstantin tipped his head to the side as though he were studying her and then he nodded.

“It’s fine,” Kolya said again.

She still didn’t think it was.

• • •

“You’re being unusually quiet,” Kolya said from the driver’s seat.

Maya peered over at him, and though he pretended like his attention was only on the road ahead of him, she knew better. It seemed like this man always had at least one eye on her … or a portion of his attention in one way or another. Like now. Sure, he was focused on driving, but every so often, his gaze slid in her direction like he just wanted to check on her or something.

“Am I?”

“Hmm?”

“Being unusually quiet,” she said.

Kolya nodded, and his grip on the steering wheel tightened. “I think so, yes.”

“And that bothers you?”

“A lot of things bother me, dushka.”

“Yes, but this, too, right? This bothers you—thinking I am upset.”

Kolya’s tongue snaked out to sweep across his lower lip, but he nodded. “I don’t like it when you’re upset, no? That bothers me.”

So she was coming to learn.

Maya was a hot button for Kolya. Her mood or reactions seemed to easily influence his as well. Even when it seemed like he wasn’t feeling or thinking a single thing, he still searched her out in a room to gage her emotions at any given time. Then, he reacted accordingly.

Like at the Compound.

Maybe that was why Maya decided to be … as he put it … unusually quiet. She was still scared; still too fucking anxious to breathe or think right. Except those feelings weren’t going to do anything good for her, but for upsetting Kolya or sending him into a fit. Not that he meant any harm, but when nothing could be done, why bother getting him worked up?

So, no … she forced herself to be calm.

Quiet.

Collected.

Even if inside, she was anything but those things.

“I don’t think it’s unusual for me to be quiet,” Maya said.

Kolya’s gaze drifted to her before going back to the road ahead of them. The edge of his mouth curved upward with the most sinful smirk before he let out a dark scoff. “Oh, yes it is.”

“Not really.”

“Maya, if you started vomiting rainbows and glitter, it wouldn’t even be a surprise. You’re loud even when you think you’re being quiet. Do you know you hum when you eat? Hum a fucking song, girl. And when you brush your teeth, you do these little dances. They’re cute; still, you do them. You walk about like there are clouds under your feet. Are you a fairy, yeah? Because you move like it. You smile all the time—rarely ever frown. And you find good things in everything. It’s fucking odd. So yes, when you are quiet, it is unusual.”

Maya blinked, silenced.

Something warm and hot and cloyingly sweet clenched around her heart and took away her words. With it went her breath and any lingering doubts that may have been buried