Chapter 11 #2
He continued to read his phone for a moment and then switched gears. “Things are really chaotic at work, so I’m going to be working a lot. That means you’ll be left on your own.”
I wasn’t sure where he was going with this. “Okay.”
“We’ll be staying at the hotel until we take possession. I put my number into your phone, along with Maksim’s number. If you can’t get a hold of me, Maksim should know how to find me.”
I tried to imagine being completely away from the watchful eyes of guards, Sergei, my controlling aunt, guns and violence. The thought of no one monitoring me felt like a dream come true, even if it did scare me a bit. “I’m okay with that.”
He stood outside my hotel door. “Do you need anything?”
“I’m good.”
He didn’t look like he believed me. “I’ll be next door.”
“I know,” I told him.
Once inside my room, I took a shower and got ready for bed. I was wrapped in a robe with my hair in a towel, and I was about to step into my hotel slippers when I saw a large spider run across the carpet.
My involuntary scream pierced the air for a sharp second.
I covered my mouth with both my hands and watched as the spider scuttled underneath my bed.
I heard a door slam, and with wide eyes, I froze and listened.
A moment later, he was banging on my door.
“Mila, open up now.” Axel’s voice belonged to the man from the cornfield. Lethal and terrifying.
I flew to the door and swung it open, feeling my towel turban fall awkwardly down the side of my head.
He filled the entire doorway. I took in gray sweatpants hanging low on his hips, a bare chest and bare feet before he pushed the door open and stepped past me into my room.
“It was a spider.” I trailed after him, pulling the towel from my hair.
He was already at the doorway of the bathroom, and that was the moment I saw the large silver weapon in his hands.
“Is that a gun?” I stammered, as he checked under the bed and then in the closet.
Only when he’d cleared the room of everything but spiders did he turn to me. He looked both irritated and tightly reined in, like it took effort to keep himself under control.
“It was a spider,” I repeated.
“I heard you.” His tone was clipped.
I could hear the apology in my tone. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
His eyes narrowed at me. “I wasn’t scared.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Get your stuff.”
Annoyance radiated off him hot enough that I didn’t question him. I disappeared into the bathroom to start collecting my toiletries. Why was he making me pack? Were we leaving the hotel? I shoved everything into my cosmetic case and then opened the bathroom door.
Axel was leaning against the desk with his arms crossed over his bare, muscular chest. He had lifted my open suitcase onto the end of the bed.
“Keep packing.”
I wanted to ask him where we were going, but he didn’t look like he was in the mood for questions. I hastily shoved everything in my suitcase and zipped it shut with a lot of effort, but when he stepped forward to lift it off the bed, I realized I was still in my robe.
“I forgot to get dressed,” I exclaimed.
“We’re just walking to my room.” He pulled the suitcase off the bed and didn’t give me a chance to reply as he wheeled my bag to the door. I scrambled to pick up my dad’s trumpet and my phone charger.
He held open the door for me.
I stalled at the entryway. “We’re going to your room?”
“It’s not up for negotiation.” His voice was flat.
“It was just a spider.”
“When you scream from a different room, I don’t know if it’s a spider or someone else, do I?”
“I can’t help it if I scream involuntarily,” I complained, following him down the hallway in my robe and slippers, trumpet in hand.
“I know,” he said as he unlocked his door and held it open for me. “But if you’re in the same room and you scream, I can assess the threat without having to go through two doors.”
He wheeled my suitcase to the far side of the room and lifted it onto a luggage rack.
I looked around the room. It was identical to mine, except this one had two queen beds instead of a king bed.
His suitcase was neatly set to the side, and I assumed his stuff was hanging in the closet.
His phone was charging on the nightstand, and there was an economics magazine tossed on his bed, like he had been reading it when my scream interrupted his peace.
There was something uncomfortably intimate about coming into his personal space. It would be impossible to relax around him.
“What if I promise not to scream again?” I bargained.
He moved to his nightstand and put his gun in the drawer. “You just told me your screams were involuntary.”
“I think we should talk about this a bit,” I countered.
Gray eyes locked with mine. “Fine. Tonight I realized I can’t protect you if you’re in a different room, so this move is nonnegotiable.”
“You’re not even open to discussing it?”
“That’s what nonnegotiable means.”
I stood on one side of his bed, and he stood on the other side. I still clutched the trumpet, feeling like if I put it down I was signaling defeat. “That’s not fair.”
His jaw was set but his voice sounded even. “Fairness is irrelevant when safety is involved.”
He wasn’t trying to be cruel or authoritarian, nor did he appear particularly apologetic. He was protecting me and that didn’t come from a place of emotion, but rather a sense of responsibility.
I had been around guards often enough to understand that the matter was settled and this was my new reality.
But later that night, with the lights out and the knowledge that he was sleeping in the bed beside mine, I realized that for the first time since I had landed in Vancouver, I didn’t feel alone.
The morning we took possession of Axel’s house, the air was heavy with early summer heat. Axel went to the gym while I showered and packed.
I sat on the end of my bed, flipping through channels, waiting for him to shower. Then I heard the water stop.
I was looking forward to moving into the house for one specific reason. Sharing a hotel room with Axel unsettled me. For the last month, he had been a cordial, if not distant, roommate. In fact, he was barely there.
But when he was, it was a different story.
He came out of the bathroom, wearing only a pair of shorts, while he put on his watch. He crouched in front of his suitcase.
I studied the expanse of his shoulders, the warm bronze of his back and the sharp taper of his hips.
His muscles pulled tight across his abdomen when he reached forward, and I couldn’t seem to stop myself from soaking up each detail.
The thickness of his wrists, the smoothness of his chest, the size of his arms. His body was so different from mine, so decidedly male, and I didn’t know how I felt about that, but I couldn’t seem to stop looking.
I hastily focused on the televised weather channel when he glanced over his shoulder at me.
Our eyes clashed, and I gave him a stiff smile, while awkwardly trying to keep my eyes from trailing below his neck.
I couldn’t wait until we were in the house and had more space.
On the drive over to the new house, Axel spent the entire time talking to someone about shipping containers, docks and schedules. When we pulled into the driveway, he handed me a set of keys and mouthed, “Go ahead.”
Didn’t he want to do this with me? I looked at him in confusion and then reluctantly took the keys. He didn’t follow.
The day we had viewed the house, I had been jet lagged, emotional and not really mentally available. I hadn’t paid much attention.
Today was different. I was actually excited to look around the place.
I unlocked the front door and walked quickly through the main level, reminding myself of the layout and taking in all the details I had missed the first time.
I loved the open floor plan, the giant family room off the huge kitchen and the glass shelves that separated part of the kitchen nook from the formal dining and living room.
I raced up the stairs to the second floor and looked at all the bedrooms that were available to me. Each had its charms, but the room farthest from the master bedroom had its own little balcony that overlooked the pool below. And, surprisingly, it had one of the biggest closets.
When I came downstairs, Axel was standing at the island in the kitchen.
“Our beds are being delivered late this afternoon,” he told me.
“Okay.” Two weeks ago, Axel had sent me a link to an expensive bed store and asked me to pick out a bedroom set for my room. That had been the last I’d heard about beds.
“I’ll bring our suitcases in and then are you ready to go?” He looked expectantly at me.
“Where are we going?”
He looked around the room once, like he was mentally inventorying what was missing. “We need to buy towels, dishes, blankets.”
“And you want me to come?” Surprised colored my voice.
His gaze narrowed on me. “I’m not going alone.”
His bossy tone sent a rush of awareness through me. It wasn’t what he said, but the way he said it. Authoritative, but also calm and expectant. My gaze tripped on the soft fabric of his tee that stretched over his broad, muscular shoulders.
His beautiful gray eyes pinned me in place, cool and unwavering.
“No problem.” I forced my voice steady even though I suddenly felt nervous around him. “I can help.”