Chapter 16
Nora
H anging out with Nadya is exactly what I needed.
We drink cheap wine while she tells me all about how her latest dating conquest ended in disaster and share some pizza, which she eats the lion’s share of.
Thankfully, she doesn’t notice; I can’t handle another lecture about me not eating properly.
It turned out her new man was married. In true Nadya fashion, she kicked him out into the street half-naked, yelling at the top of her lungs that he was lucky she didn’t tell his wife.
When we eventually stop laughing at her hilarious retelling of the story and vivid description of his shocked, embarrassed face, I finally build up the courage to tell her about the break-in at my apartment and Mike’s subsequent attack followed by Max’s overzealous rescue.
“Oh my fucking god, Nora, here I am telling you all about my shitty dating experience while you’re over here having gone through an actual trauma.
Why did you let me keep rambling on? This is way more important.
Are you okay?” Nadya says, her words coming out in a rush.
“I’ll fucking kill that loser if he even dares to come near you again,” she adds venomously, her eyes narrowed.
To my surprise and mortification, tears spring to my eyes. Nadya might be my best friend, but I don’t cry in front of people, not even her. “I’m okay,” I gasp, though my tears say otherwise.
“Oh, hon.” Nadya’s face crumples with sympathy.
Nadya knows I’m not keen on being touched, though I don’t mind it from women so much.
She pulls me into a warm embrace, and I’m grateful for it.
I don’t try to stop the tears that flow onto her shoulder, wetting the soft sweatshirt she’s wearing.
She smells of vanilla and cigarettes, a not wholly bad fragrance since it’s so comfortingly Nadya.
I feel an overwhelming rush of love and gratitude for my best friend.
She doesn’t say anything for a moment, simply letting me cry it out. When my tears have finally subsided, I apologize.
“Sorry, I don’t know what got into me,” I mumble, feeling a little embarrassed.
“Hey, you have nothing to be sorry for,” Nadya insists, cupping my face in her hands and forcing me to look at her.
I nod in glum agreement.
“Thank god for your hot neighbor,” she says, brushing my hair back off my forehead in a maternal gesture.
“I know, he’s an amazing guy…” I reply.
“But?” Nadya says, picking up on my hesitation.
“I don’t know. He almost seems too good to be true, and his reaction to Mike… I thought he was going to kill him,” I admit. Not wishing to tell her the real reason I’m holding back.
“He should have!” Nadya hisses.
“I guess it wasn’t a totally inappropriate response. But I just don’t get why he’s so interested. I shouldn’t lead him on. Not when I can’t… you know,” I say awkwardly.
“Maybe it will be different with him. You said you feel more desire and attraction to him than you have with any other guy. That you’ve been tempted to try. What’s stopped you?” Nadya asks gently.
“I don’t know,” I reply truthfully. “I guess I’m just worried about how he would react if I try and then I freak out and push him away. I like Max, and I’d rather have him in my life as a friend than risk ruining things by trying and failing to become something more.”
I also don’t admit that, despite my attraction to Max, I feel more aroused and alive under the intense gaze of my watcher. The thought of doing things with him excites me even more than thinking about doing them with Max.
Nadya would probably send me straight to the mental hospital if I admitted it. That I’m having more sexual fantasies about my stalker than I do with my incredibly handsome, charming, sexy neighbor who I have amazing chemistry with and has made it perfectly clear he wants to be with me.
There’s also the not-so-small matter of my break-in. While logic tells me it wasn’t my stalker, I can’t rule it out. In a way I’d almost prefer it if it was him, because the other option—that my father’s caught up with me—is far worse.
Yep, I’m officially fucked.
“Maybe you should try something small, like a kiss?” Nadya suggests gently.
It takes me a moment to pull myself back to the conversation and remind myself she isn’t suggesting I kiss my watcher.
“Though after what happened last night, I honestly can’t say I’d blame you if you want to write off men altogether,” she adds, disgust dripping from every syllable.
“My life would certainly be a lot simpler if men weren’t in it.”
“Amen to that,” Nadya replies with a grin, filling up our glasses.
We continue to chat and drink into the night, with Nadya doing most of the drinking.
When she eventually passes out on the sofa, I contemplate going to sleep in her bedroom but decide against it.
I try to tell myself that it’s simply because I want to sleep in my own bed and Josef needs me.
It has nothing to do with my strange desire to see my watcher again.
He’s been suspiciously absent recently and I almost feel bereft without his presence.
Also irrationally, I want to know if seeing me with Max has somehow upset him.
I book myself a rideshare using the app on my phone, then scribble a note for Nadya to see when she wakes up so she doesn’t worry about me. Within ten minutes, I’m headed home.
It’s only when I get to my apartment and see the shiny new door that I realize my mistake. With the new door, there are new locks.
I’m locked out.
Max is no doubt fast asleep by now. Nadya’s apartment is self-locking, and I don’t have a key, plus, she wouldn’t wake up even if a bomb went off outside, so I can’t go back there.
It’s one in the morning and I’m locked out. There are most likely several men who are watching me and wish me harm. Men who have already broken into my apartment on my father’s orders. Mike is also still out there and knows where I live, so he could come back to finish what he started.
And, of course, there’s my watcher. Have I finally given him the perfect opportunity to do what he wants with me? Is he some deranged serial killer who was just biding his time?
The odds aren’t exactly in my favor for me to make it safely through the night outside by myself. I decide my only option is to wake up Max. I bang my fist rapidly on his door as hard as I can and I almost fall over in surprise when almost immediately it opens just as I’m yelling, “Max!”
“Nora, are you okay?” Max says, concerned.
“Shit sorry, I…” I trail off, embarrassed, searching for a way to explain my actions without sounding like a crazy person.
I also notice that Max is only wearing a pair of sweatpants and nothing else. I take in the sight of him, temporarily losing my train of thought until I realize he’s still waiting for an answer, looking at me in bemusement.
“Sorry, I thought you’d be asleep. I’m locked out of my apartment. You didn’t give me a new key for the new door,” I explain.
“Yeah, I know, that’s why I was waiting up for you to get home,” Max replies with one of his slow, knowing smiles.
“Shit, sorry,” I say, my cheeks reddening.
“You said that already,” he points out with a smile. “It’s fine, I’m just glad there isn’t a zombie outbreak or something as world-ending as your knocking suggested,” he says with a smirk.
“I’m such an idiot,” I mumble as he moves to grab the keys for me. I can’t help but stare appreciatively at the way his muscles flex with the movement.
“Keys,” he says proudly. “Lemme show you which ones go with which locks.”
“Keys? As in more than one?” As I say this, I notice there are three keys on the ring.
“Yep. It was no wonder the place was so easy to break into, you just had one weak lock and a flimsy door. Now the door is solid wood, with a regular lock, deadlock, and a third lock near the top for extra safety. No one’s getting in here now,” he says proudly as he unlocks the door.
“Including me, I’ll be forever forgetting which key goes in which,” I grumble, though I shouldn’t complain he’s made my home safer for me.
As the door swings open, my eye is immediately drawn to a camera pointing at the door and a complex-looking security system beneath it.
“What the hell is that, Max?” I ask, stupefied.
He has the grace to look a little sheepish. “I took the liberty of installing a security system too. You can operate it from your phone using an app.”
“Isn’t this a bit overkill?” I ask skeptically.
“Not if it means keeping you safe. I couldn’t bear it if something happened to you,” he says, looking pained.
No one has ever cared this much for me.
My mother was killed when I was fourteen, leaving me and my twin brother.
My father favored my brother and treated me like an asset, a commodity, keeping me protected to serve only his purposes.
He didn’t care if I was safe and happy, only that he owned me and that I would serve him.
He should have provided me with a safe, loving environment, but instead he was the person who hurt me the most. Cillian, my brother, would frequently fight with my father and eventually at fifteen he ran away, and I never saw him again.
It was like he was dead to us and my father never mentioned his name. A year later I finally made my escape.
Max walks me through my apartment, showing me where the cameras are placed and explaining how the system works. I watch him with a new level of appreciation.
Not only is this man unbelievably sexy, but he somehow manages to make me feel safe.
I’m hit by the overwhelming urge to kiss him, and before I can second guess or tell myself all the reasons this is a bad idea, I move closer, placing my hand on his shoulder, the contact with his bare skin sending shockwaves through my body, giving me the courage I need to follow through.
He turns to look at me, his face changing from curiosity to arousal as he senses the need in me, sees the desire in my gaze.
“Nora,” he says, his voice low and rumbling.