Chapter 21
KYLE
Icleared my throat, trying not to visibly tremble under the bed covers that I held up to my neck. There was just something so daunting about Nadia that it unsettled me to my core.
Those cold eyes, so different from Nattie’s, made me want to shiver all over.
“Mind if I get dressed first?” I managed to squeak out.
“I do, actually,” she answered as she stalked a little closer, her hands clasped behind her back. “I like to keep a man…off-balance. Being half-undressed has a way of doing that.”
Mission accomplished. If I had any balance at all, she’d taken it with that frosty demeanor and those pointed glances.
“Right,” I answered, keeping the sheet high. “Where is Nattie?”
She narrowed her eyes. “Not your concern.”
I licked my lips, trying to find a response, but I couldn’t. She wasn’t wrong. Nattie wasn’t exactly mine despite all those lovely kisses we’d shared.
Had she even admitted to her sister that we had something beyond friendship?
“Oh, well, I just…wanted to say good morning.”
“You’re really an odd duck, aren’t you, doctor?”
A discerning assessment of my character, yet surprisingly rude from a woman I assumed was a princess. “I could argue the same. You’re not exactly what someone would expect from a princess.”
That comment seemed to amuse her. She tugged one corner of her lips back into a half-smile.
“Seriously, the leather outfit really doesn’t scream princess.”
“Yet I am,” she answered. “Not that it matters. We are here to discuss you.”
“All right, so I’m a little strange. I’ll admit it.”
She flicked her eyebrows up, crossing her arms. The leather of her jacket creaked as she settled into the pose. “I’d say more than a little. Who shows up ready to ruin their father merely because he didn’t know about them?”
I raised a finger in the air, ready to rebut that. “Well, actually, at the time, I thought he did know about me and tried to abandon me–or get rid of me.”
“I see. So, would you say you’re a man of action then? If a problem needs solving, you’ll…do anything you have to do settle it?”
“That’s an odd question.” What was she getting at? Was she testing me to see if I had the decorum to behave properly if I was seeing her sister?
“And you refuse to answer it. Which makes me nervous, doctor.”
“I’m not refusing to answer it, I’m just…really, could I just put a shirt on?”
She arched an eyebrow as she stalked to my bag, rummaging through it before she pulled my med school t-shirt from within. She tossed it at me, and I caught it mid-air, slipping it on before I threw back the covers.
“Now,” she said as she hovered right in front of me when I swung my legs over the bed, “are you capable of answering the question?”
I ran a shaky hand through my hair. “Uhh, I…would like to think I’m a man of appropriate action. I mean, I’m a surgeon. I’ve worked the emergency room for a few years. I know how to quickly assess things and devise a course of action.”
“Appropriate action,” she repeated with a bob of her head. “So, you would never say…do something illegal or…unethical?”
I swallowed hard. Was this some sort of test? I hadn’t exactly been squeaky clean in the past. If I answered yes, would she call me out on my past behavior? But if I answered no, would that stop me from any sort of relationship with Nattie?
This was a no-win situation.
“How do you expect me to answer that?” I retorted, a little annoyed by the position she was putting me in.
“Honestly,” she answered. “I want honesty, doctor. I need to know what I’m dealing with here.”
I rose, pushing past her as I crossed to the other side of the room.
“Look, I get it, okay? I’m not exactly royal material.
You don’t want your sister with some commoner who has a colorful past. I can’t change that, though, so if that’s what you’re here to say, then just say it.
Stop asking me these cryptic questions.”
I wagged a finger at her. “Although, I will warn you that I plan to fight for her.”
She arched an eyebrow, a smirk playing on her lips. “Well, right to point. I like that.”
I set my hands on my hips, trying to look imposing, though I was certain I was failing. The leather-clad woman across the room with the gun strapped to her thigh was way more commanding than I was.
“And I’m not here to vet your qualifications to court my sister.”
I narrowed my eyes, shrugging. “Then what’s with all the questions?”
She stalked closer, invading my personal space. I tried to back away, but she backed me right into the wall, barring my escape when she slammed a hand against the wall. “I am here to protect my sister from any threats. Threats like the one coming from my illustrious brother, Nikolai.”
She leaned a little closer, her breath hot against my cheek. “So, I have but one more question, and I demand a direct answer. Are you in league with my brother?”
My head hurt as I pressed it hard against the wall, trying to carve out a tiny space for myself. “No.”
She squinted at me before she suddenly stepped back. My stiff muscles relaxed a little.
“I would swear on a bible if you needed me to. She told me he was trying to kill her, but I’d never do anything to hurt Nattie,” I followed up, trying to make my case. “I’d do anything to keep her safe.”
Nadia crossed to my door, her fingers lingering on the doorknob as she shot me a glance over her shoulder. “That had better be true, doctor.”
With that, she swung the door open and disappeared through it.
I collapsed against the wall, sliding my eyes closed as I allowed myself to breathe a sigh of relief.
Whatever was going on here was intense. And while I was certain I could handle it, I wasn’t certain I could handle losing Nattie or even knowing that there was a question that we couldn’t be together because of some stuffy rule or protocol.
I wondered if I’d passed the background check. Would I get any additional information from Nattie?
My eyes slid open, shifting to the panel she’d disappeared through yesterday. Could I find the trigger and make my way to wherever she’d come from?
I winced, what I ended up in the middle of the dining room or some other place where there were people I didn’t want to see?
As I wrestled with the question, the door popped open, startling me. I pressed a hand to my chest, gasping until I realized it was Ava.
I let out a breath, relaxing. “Ava, thank goodness.”
“Was that Nadia I saw leaving our suite a few minutes ago?”
I bobbed my head as I pulled myself from the wall and crossed to her. “Yeah. Here for any early morning interrogation.”
Ava arched an eyebrow. “Interrogation? That sounds intense. Did she say anything about the background checks?”
“She didn’t.” I shook my head. “She did grill me about being involved with her brother, though.”
We stepped into the sitting room, and I found Alex pouring coffee from an ornate coffee pot that sat on the sideboard.
“Hey,” he said with a grin, “you’re still standing. I heard you had a visit from the ice queen herself.”
I nodded as I poured myself a cup of coffee, suddenly wondering if it was poisoned. “Yeah. First thing this morning.”
“I didn’t even hear a knock. I’m surprised you did,” Ava said.
I sipped my coffee. “Oh, there was no knock. I woke up to find her perched on the edge of my bed.”
Alex’s eyes widened. “Whoa. That’s super aggressive. What did she want?”
“To know if we were working for her brother.” I furrowed my brow. “Nikolai is the brother, right?”
Ava nodded. “That’s what we gathered from our search of the royals. Looks like he was actually the first born. Then Natasha and Nadia.”
I narrowed my eyes as I paused mid-sip. “Wait, why isn’t he inheriting the throne, then?”
“I’m not one hundred percent sure, but apparently, there was a bitter divorce between Mom and Dad.
Mom took Nikolai to live in upstate New York, Dad kept both of the girls.
I’m assuming there was a falling out between father and son, and he disinherited him?
” Alex shrugged as he made the suggestion.
“Doesn’t seem like Nikolai is too happy about that,” I murmured. That must have been why he was after Nattie.
“No, it doesn’t seem like he is. Hey, Doc, I know this is a really weird situation,” Ava said, “but I think we may be way in over our heads.”
I eased into the armchair, the words washing over me and twisting my stomach into a tight knot. We’d been in tight spots before, but the situation here seemed like a powder keg waiting to blow.
“She needs me,” I muttered, almost to myself.
It wasn’t just that she needed help—she needed me, and somehow, I knew I needed her just as much.
That connection we’d shared wasn’t just in my head; it was real, tangible, like gravity pulling me closer no matter the odds.
I didn’t know what kind of life I could offer her, but the thought of walking away left an ache in my chest that felt unbearable.
I’d fought my whole life to feel like I belonged somewhere.
Maybe, just maybe, that somewhere was with her.
Ava perched on the edge of the couch, her features consoling as she leaned toward me. “We just don’t want you getting hurt. Physically or emotionally.”
I hung my head, my lips puckering. “Yeah, I get that, Ava, but I’m involved now. It’s too late for that.”
“It’s not too late,” Alex chimed in. “We could fire up the jet and leave.”
I leapt from my seat, the suggestion like a slap on the cheek. “No. I’m not leaving her.”
“Okay,” Ava said tentatively.
I twisted to face them. “Look, I get it. This seems dangerous, but…I’m not leaving. If you guys want to go, I’d totally understand. But I’m not leaving her. No way.”
Alex and Ava exchanged a glance. “We’re not leaving you, Doc. We’re a team. If you stay, we stay. I just…want to be sure you’re doing this for the right reasons.”
The right reasons? What did that mean?
“You know, I don’t want you to stay because you think it’ll look bad if you go, or like you’re a coward or…
whatever. I don’t know what you guys think or what goes through your heads,” Ava said with a wave of her hand in the air.
“I just want you to know that if you want to bail, that’s totally fine. ”
“I’m not leaving her. And it’s not some misguided sense of duty or need to prove my masculinity. It’s this connection that we have. It’s deep. And I need to see where that goes.”
“That’s all we needed to hear–not that you need to explain anything to us,” Ava answered. “But I want you to be happy. Not to be doing this because you feel like you should.”
Was I happy? Not fully because I still wasn’t certain that I’d end up with Nattie. There were too many unanswered questions, too much of a chance that she could be ripped away from me.
I didn’t even have a way to contact her, and we were supposedly living under the same roof at the moment. Outside of a mysterious secret passage with an unknown point of exit, I had no idea where to find her and all of my texts had gone unanswered.
But she had come for me. She had reiterated her interest and that our connection was real. I had to take this chance. I had to see if this woman was the one for me.
Everything in my heart said she was. But could we get over the hurdles?
A knock sounded at the door, drawing my attention from my rumination. My heart skipped a beat as I opened it to find Nattie standing there, a long black cape hanging around her shoulders. An entourage of men stood behind her, Stefan included.
Her gaze flicked behind me toward Alex and Ava before she returned her focus to me, her dark eyes a mix of uncertainty and determination.
“Nattie,” I said, my voice breathless.
Her lips parted as though she wanted to speak, but for a moment, she hesitated. “Good morning,” she finally said, her voice unsteady. “We need to talk.”
My stomach clenched, twisting into a tight knot. Those four words felt like the opening scene of every bad breakup I’d ever had. Was she here to tell me she’d made a mistake? That this connection I’d felt so strongly was one-sided?
My heart wanted to believe she was here to pull me closer, but my head told me not to hope. Not yet. “We need to talk” rarely led to good things, and it felt like I was bracing for an emotional hurricane.