Chapter 7 Cartier
CARTIER
I arrive at the shelter later than I’d planned to. I feel like a tornado crashed through my world and dropped me in the land of Oz where the colors are more vibrant, and everyone can see right through me.
Even the familiar building looks different when I drop my bag onto the desk in the office and release a huge sigh.
Mika blinks, scanning my face and body for the telltale signs of what happened the night before. Finally, her glossy red lips stretch into a wide smile. “Please tell me there’s a third brother.”
I can’t help smiling at that. “Is it that obvious?”
“Aside from the fact that you’re still wearing yesterday’s clothes and you didn’t come home last night? Hell, yeah! What did he do to you? I want all the details, and believe me, I’ll know if you’re lying.”
“I don’t think I could repeat any of it out loud.” I cross the room and fill a mug with steaming black liquid from the coffee machine. Then I turn around to face Mika and lean against the counter.
“If you can do it, you can tell your best friend in the whole wide world about it.” Her eyebrows dance independently – it’s her party trick apparently. “You’ve been at it all night, haven’t you?”
I scrunch up my face and chew my bottom lip. “Ye-es? I think. We might’ve dozed off at some point, but I can’t be sure.”
I feel dizzy from lack of sleep, and my eyes feel raw. But I also feel alive and invigorated, like I drank more cans of Red Bull on the way here than is recommended for human consumption on a regular basis.
“Let me guess, he’s hung like a stallion, baby. I knew it the moment I set eyes on him that he could keep it up all night.”
“Mika!” I don’t know why my face is growing hot. Mika has never had a filter when it comes to talking about men and sex.
“How many positions did he fuck you in? Did he give you mind-blowing orgasms that made you scream? Did he touch you in places he shouldn’t?” She lowers her voice to a conspiratorial whisper with the last question.
I sip my coffee and wait for the caffeine to hit. The buzz might be enough to keep me smiling, but our first residents are arriving today, and I need more than a mental image of Andrej licking me in front of his apartment window to keep me focused.
“I’m not answering those questions.”
“You’re such a spoilsport, do you know that? I would tell you everything if I’d been fucked in every hole by that bad boy.”
I splutter coffee onto the floor, my cheeks on fire.
“I knew it.” Mika’s laugh is throaty, like she witnessed it all through high-resolution binoculars. “You dark horse. And all this time I thought that you were waiting for an angelic knight in shining armor to come along and impress you with his mighty lance.”
“This is why you should read more romance novels.”
“Nah, I couldn’t handle the disappointment when I realize that the perfect man doesn’t exist in real life.” She pauses. “So, when are you seeing him again?”
“We didn’t discuss a second date.”
Should we have? When Andrej dropped me outside the refuge in his chauffeur-driven car, I was still riding high on the thrill of feeling him inside me.
I wasn’t thinking beyond this conversation with Mika and grabbing breakfast before starting work.
I guess I kinda believed him when he said that he would never let me go.
Tell me that you’re mine.
I refuse to believe that it merely was his way of getting inside my panties. He could’ve had me anyway. I was hooked from the moment he walked into Gianna’s hospital room.
“Date?” Mika grins. “Is that what you call an all-night shag-fest these days?”
I giggle despite the tiny doubt niggling inside my skull that he might not want to see me again. “We went out. He took me to places I’d never have found without him.”
“Like the moon, you mean?”
“No, like a library converted into a bar.”
I tell her about our personalized cocktails and the art exhibition, skidding to a halt when I recall Andrej’s reaction to the artist in the final scene.
I’d brushed it aside with everything else that followed, but now the reality of it hits me in the face like a wet fish.
He went from zero to sixty in a fraction of a second, without considering the consequences.
I’ll protect what’s mine with my life.
It’s a classic line from a romance novel. It’s what every fictional heroine wants: a man with a chiseled jawline, a bad-boy scar and a six-pack, to take control and treat them like a princess.
But is it what I really want?
“Okay, stop right there.” Mika slides her seat away from the desk and comes to join me. “You’re overthinking it already. Why? What are you not telling me?”
I swallow. Then I talk her through what happened at the art exhibition.
“So?” She shrugs. “He’s protective. It runs in the family, and I don’t need to remind you how happy Gianna is.”
It’s more than that though. He and Leonid might have the same features, but that’s where the resemblance ends.
There’s something way darker lurking beneath Andrej’s skin, something that I haven’t quite figured out yet.
Maybe I should ask Gianna if Leonid promised never to let her go on their first date.
“Protective or possessive?”
“Both. But the look on your face tells me that he gave you exactly what you wanted.”
“Yeah but—”
Mika places a finger on my lips. “Don’t do this, Car. Don’t talk yourself out of what might just be the best thing that ever happened to you. Enjoy it. Milk it every way you can. You’ve waited long enough for it.”
I take a deep breath. “Okay. If I hear from him again—”
“If you hear from him again?” Mika squeals. “Did he or did he not fuck you all night?”
“Yes but—”
“Are you standing over here hoping I won’t notice that it hurts when you sit down?”
I clamp my lips shut to smother my laughter.
“Did he give you multiple orgasms?” She doesn’t wait for a response. “The man would be a lunatic not to want to see you again. I mean, have you looked in a mirror recently?”
I lower my eyes to my coffee.
“Holy crap. He didn’t make you watch while he fucked you in front of a mirror?” Her eyes are wide.
“Not a mirror.” I wince. “The window?”
She tips her head back and laughs again. “I rest my case.”
We spend the rest of the day welcoming and settling in the first residents to the shelter. The two women were both admitted to a hospital with the kind of injuries that you only read about on the news channels, in both cases, inflicted by their partner.
I shove all thoughts of Andrej aside while I concentrate on the women, reading through their medical records, learning about their families, kids, careers.
Mika and I show them around, find out their interests, and spend time just sitting with them in the garden as the weather is fine, and the October sunshine is warmer than expected.
Most women understandably find talking about what happened to them triggering, and Audrey and Nora are no exception. It will come in time. To begin with, it’s important for the women to accept that they are safe. They are protected. They can heal and grow in peace and at their own pace.
Once that happens, they can learn to let go of the past and start looking forward to a brighter future.
Eventually, they’ll leave us and spread their wings back out in the real world, and that is our biggest reward.
We’re like custodians, watching over them until they’re ready to fly. No timelines. No rules. No hurry.
It turns out that Nora can cook. Although born and raised in Chicago, she is of Italian descent, and the passion for food didn’t pass her by.
She helps Olive, our cook, prepare meatballs and pasta for the evening meal, followed by a classic Italian cheesecake made with mascarpone and ricotta and drizzled with cherry jam.
We sit around a table in the dining room, chatting about food and family recipes and locally sourced ingredients. The meal is superb. We’re all full by the time we clear the dishes that had served fat wedges of cheesecake.
I’m so caught up in the peaceful moment filled with smiles and camaraderie and hope, that I jump when I carry the dishes through to the kitchen and find Andrej leaning against the counter.
My pulse quickens. He is even more beautiful than my memories of last night, or perhaps he’s still glowing from what happened between us too.
He came back!
I set the tray of dishes down on the work surface and go to him, my legs already turning to jelly.
He pulls me against him, rests his arms on my shoulders, and kisses me on the lips. “I bought you something.”
My heart skips like a child on Christmas morning. “What is it?”
“You’ll have to come with me to find out.”
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
My stomach clenches when I think about Nora and Audrey.
“I can’t stay out all night.” Not that Andrej suggested taking me back to his apartment.
I was assuming that, as he’s here, tonight would be a repeat performance, and the thought makes my pulse race.
“It’s our residents’ first night. Mika and I both agreed to take the first overnight shift. ”
The door opens behind me, and I smell Mika’s perfume before she bounds into the kitchen. “Go. I’ll stay tonight, but you owe me one.”
I whirl around and out of Andrej’s embrace, missing his warmth the instant we’re apart. “I can’t, it isn’t fair.”
Mika rolls her eyes. “What isn’t fair is being forced to share a room with you when you could’ve been on a hot date.”
The corners of Andrej’s mouth twitch into a smile.
“Are you sure?” I ask.
“Jeez, woman, go.” She steps behind me and shoves me towards the door. “And don’t come back until you’re prepared to give me the goss.”
She and Andrej exchange amused glances over my shoulder.
“Oh, and you might want to go home and pick up some clean clothes.”
“Mika!”
But Andrej is already guiding me through the house with his hand resting against the small of my back. His touch is like fire burning through my skin and igniting my core.