Lev
I drove home without feeling my hands. Overexertion did that sometimes. I was numb, and as I pulled up to my house, I looked out from my car window, unsure of whether or not I wanted to enter my own home.
I was anxious. I didn’t like that.
Licking my dry lips, I stepped out of my car and made my way up to the front door. I opened it, listening out for any signs of life.
I heard nothing.
My heart skipped a beat.
The lights were turned off. The only room that had illumination was the kitchen. I headed straight for it, and found Nas sitting at the kitchen table, a mug of coffee in her hands. She sat there, eyes closed, a frown etched on her pretty face, obviously not hearing my entrance. I cleared my throat.
Her eyes snapped open and she spun around.
She smiled sadly. “How did it go? Is he still alive?”
I sighed, flexing my sore fingers. “Alive enough to feel my hands on him for a long time to come.”
Her brows rose. “You stopped?” She huffed out a breath. “I didn’t think you’d be able to.”
“I almost didn’t,” I confessed quietly.
Her brow furrowed. “Why did you?”
“Mina.”
My sisters brow softened, a warm look taking over. “She’s something, huh?”
“She’s a disaster,” I told her. “Trouble follows her everywhere. She corners me when I don’t wish to speak. She smiles and laughs at things that aren’t funny. She steals food right out of my hand.” I shook my head. “All of which makes her perfect.” Nastasia looked as if she wanted to cry. I cleared my throat and asked, “Is Pox still here?”
She blinked rapidly, swallowing hard. “Uh, no. He says it looks like Jeremiah didn’t use much of whatever he gave her, probably because she was so drunk. He said she’d sleep through the night and maybe some of tomorrow. You’ll need to wake up every hour and check on her.” She lowered her eyes. “Make sure she’s breathing.”
“What?” I didn’t think it would be that serious.
Nas shrugged and cleared her throat, her voice cracking. “Pox wasn’t sure if Jeremiah gave her what he said he did. Without knowing exactly what he gave her, it’s hard to tell what the side effects could be. Because she’s so tiny, you know? We’re lucky that all she’s got are hickeys.” Her face crumbled and she dipped her chin to hide her tears. “It’s my fault,” she whispered, and her shoulders shook. “I should’ve been keeping an eye on her.”
It had been years since I saw my sister cry, and it hurt to watch as much today as it had back then.
I made my way over to her, grabbed her by the upper arm, and pulled her out of her chair. She didn’t need coaxing. She fell into me, pushing her head into my chest and sobbing quietly. I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and used the other to stroke her hair. “It’s okay.”
She shook her head.
I kissed her head. “She’ll be okay. She’s survived for so long without us. Mina is strong.”
Nas nodded in agreement then lifted her tear-streaked face and muttered, “I just feel responsible.”
“No,” I uttered, and squeezed her to reiterate my point. “You didn’t do this. This was not your fault.”
She rolled her eyes but smiled. “Don’t lie to me, Lev.”
“I don’t lie,” I vowed.
She nodded and responded quietly, “I know.” We separated and she picked up her bag. “She’s sleeping on the sofa in the living room.” When I raised a brow, she gave me a look of boldness. “Hey, I’m strong and all, but not strong enough to lug her up those stairs without breaking both our necks.”
I raised my hands and gave her a look that said I didn’t say a word.
I walked her out, hugged her once more, and closed the door behind her. I made my way into the living room, stopping to turn on the hall light so I could see what I was doing. I stood in front of the sofa, looking down at the small woman.
Even in her unconscious state, she was beautiful.
Leaning down, I scooped her up without effort, and walked us both up the stairs, down the hall, and into my room. I switched the light on and stilled.
Anika was sitting on the edge of my bed, waiting for me.
She looked up at me then down at Mina. Her brow furrowed in confusion. She looked around the room, blinking, and started to notice Mina’s things around the place. She stood. “I don’t get it,” she began.
“What don’t you get, Ani?”
“She can stay in your room, a person you’ve known for a whole second, and me, a person you’ve known your whole life, is sent to sleep in the guestroom?” She sounded hurt.
I shifted Mina in my arms then moved around Anika to pull back the covers on the other side of the bed and laid her down gently. “I need to keep an eye on her,” is all I said.
I didn’t hear Anika leave. I was busy fussing over Mina, removing her clothes, leaving her in her top and underwear. I pulled the covers up to her chin. Her forehead was warm to the touch, but she was shivering.
Making my way over to the door, I locked it from the inside, jiggling the handle to make sure no one would enter, and then turned off the light. When I was satisfied, I took off my clothes, pulled out the sofa, and lay down, a sheet draped over me.
In the darkness, I heard her teeth chatter.
My jaw steeled.
It wasn’t a good idea. I shouldn’t have done it. But I did.
Pulling the sheet off, I walked over to the bed, pulled back the covers, and lay down, reaching for Mina. Once her small frame was in my arms, I pulled her close, holding her tight. Perhaps too tightly. But soon enough, her teeth stopped chattering and she settled into me, burying her nose into the crook between my neck and shoulder.
She slept in that position all night.
I slept too. Better than I had in years.
***
Mina
Oh, God.
My head was pounding like a mofo.
Hell in a hand basket.
Every time I moved to lift it off the pillow, curse words ensued.
Never again. Never again.
But then the pillow moved and flexed right underneath my head. Forcing my eyes open, I peeped out, blinking away sleep, a frown on my face, and met warm whiskey eyes.
I tried to speak, but all that came out was a long groan.
Arms tightened around me and pulled me close. I went willingly. My body was sore all over, and I suddenly had my very own hot water bottle in the shape of Lev.
Who was I to complain?
“How are you feeling?” he grumbled sleepily.
My nose in his throat, I muttered, “I’m never drinking again. I have a hangover.”
“You probably do, but it’s more than that, Mina,” he explained gently. “We need to talk about what happened last night.”
I pushed my nose deeper into him. “Will this explain why we’re in bed together?”
“Yes.”
I nodded slowly. “Okay. Talk. But do it softly.”
His strong arm cinched around me, holding me tight, and I didn’t want to think about how nice that felt. I should’ve been too distracted by my headache to notice. The other arm slid from my hip, slowly trailed my back, up to the base of my neck, where he cradled me.
“The club was busy. I took my eyes off you a while then noticed I hadn’t seen you for a long time. I went to the bar, where Nas told me you’d been drinking and were sleeping it off.” The hand at my neck grasped me lightly, as if he was worried about my reaction, worried about me fleeing. “That was when I also realized I hadn’t seen Jeremiah for a long while.”
I blinked.
Jeremiah? What did this have to do with him?
He turned his face and his lips went to my temple. “He drugged you, Mina.” He added, “I’m sorry. I should’ve been watching you.”
I pulled back to look up at him and whispered, “What did he do?”
Lev searched my face. “Nothing, I think. Nas noticed the hickey on your neck right away, but I’m sure we interrupted before he could do any real damage. Now that you’re awake, maybe you can tell me if you’re sore.”
“I’m sore everywhere. My body aches.”
He shook his head. “No, Mina. Can you tell me if you’re sore anywhere you shouldn’t be?” He gave me a pointed look. “Intimate areas.”
I was too shocked to blush. I was still stuck on Jeremiah’s attempt to use me as a real life sex doll.
Focusing on the area he’d mentioned, I shook my head. “No, I don’t think so.” Then I got angry. “Where is the asshole? Where is Jeremiah?”
He lifted his hand and brushed back the hair that had fallen over my forehead. “He’s not going to hurt anyone anymore. Trust me.”
I did trust him. I trusted him with every piece of my broken soul.
If there were anyone looking out for me, I’d want it to be Lev. I trusted him to protect me and keep me safe, and to be honest with me.
Then I looked down between us, and my brows rose. “Who undressed me?”
No hesitation. “I did.”
“I see,” I murmured, and quickly realized that perhaps I’d been hanging out with Lev too long when I gave answers like that. My eyes passed over his tented boxers and my brow rose higher. “Want to explain that?”
He frowned and squirmed. “I thought it was self-explanatory.” Then I did flush. “You were pressed up against me all night. I was told to check on you every hour and I did. I only did what the doctor ordered.”
My ego shrank ten whole sizes. “So you were only doing your duty.”
His brow furrowed, and he sent me a curt nod. And the remainder of my ego popped like a balloon and went whizzing through the air before it flew out the window.
Then he sighed as if he needed to get something off his chest. “It’s difficult to hold a beautiful woman all night and not be affected. I’m sorry if that offends you, but I don’t always have control of my body and its reactions.”
My ego flew backwards through the window and whizzed around the air before it came back to me, inflating six more sizes.
It was time to say something, preferably something clever. “I need to pee.”
Lev seemed frustrated. “Mina, I just told you that you were assaulted by a man who probably would’ve raped you, and you have yet to react.”
I looked Lev in the eye and told him honestly, “It wouldn’t be the first time.” I didn’t wait for his reaction. I slipped out of bed, held my pounding head, and shuffled to the bathroom, closing the door behind me, making an effort to lock it as loudly as possible.
The tears got to me in the shower. It seemed like an appropriate place to let them fall.
Sure, I acted like it didn’t bother me, but when I undressed and saw the hickeys covering my breasts, my pride fell fast and it hit me how serious the situation could have been.
I lifted my hands to run them over the deep red marks and hissed as my fingers brushed my tender nipples. His mouth had been there, and it had been harsh. I didn’t like that. And what was worse was that I couldn’t remember any of it.
It wasn’t a blur. It wasn’t a fuzzy memory. It just wasn’t there. And that didn’t feel good. It was confusing, and appalling, and it made me feel dirty, regardless of whether or not I was a willing participant.
I showered in silence and reasoned with myself. No one would see the other hickeys. I would enlist Nas to help me cover the one on my neck as best as we could. It would all be forgotten soon enough, an incident I would push aside and soldier on past. Just as I did with the other bad things in my life.
When I was done, I dressed in my yellow pajamas, as I intended on going back to bed, and walked back out into the bedroom. The curtains had been drawn open, sending sunlight flooding in. My eyes burned, but I was too busy focusing on the furious man, pacing by the bed.
I took a step closer. “Lev?”
He continued to pace.
Another single step closer. “Lev? What’s wrong?”
He turned to face me, his eyes blazing. “Who hurt you?”
My brow bunched and I shrugged lightly, indicating that I didn’t know what he was talking about.
He paraphrased, “‘It wouldn’t be the first time.’” His bare stomach clenched as he gritted his teeth and growled, “Who hurt you? Tell me. Tell me and I’ll kill them.”
Was it wrong to be turned on by this scene?
Something told me it was highly inappropriate. Somehow, that didn’t stop the flow of warmth sailing through me, or the feeling akin to winning something big, like the lottery.
And Lev was a fine lottery to be won.
But then I looked closer, and that feeling receded. He was distressed. He also looked as though he didn’t know how to deal with that. I could feel the anger and frustration pulsing off him.
Knowing that anger wasn’t directed at me had me by his side in a second flat. I took his hand and led him to the sofa, sitting and pulling him down next to me. I placed his hand in my lap and covered it with mine. “I was on the street for a long time, Lev.” I tilted my head and gave him a regretful look. “Shit happens.”
“No,” he uttered, shaking his head. “No, it doesn’t. People cause those things to happen, and they need to be punished. They need to suffer the consequences.” He declared, “There is always a price to pay.”
“You want to search the streets to find a group of young thugs who tried to force sex on me years ago? Does that sound like a normal thing to do?”
Lev lowered his head and revealed, “I’m not normal.”
I wasn’t about to lie to him. “No, you’re not.” Then I admitted quietly, “But sometimes I think you’re better than the normal person. Extraordinary. Unique. Elite. Gallant.” He didn’t look up at me. I didn’t like when he tried to hide from me. I squeezed his hand. “Hey. They didn’t succeed, you know. That knife you took from me when I first got here…it did its job.”
When I ran my thumb over his fingers, he winced. My brow drew taut as I lifted his hand to examine it.
My heart stopped.
The middle finger on his left hand was swollen, purple, and very obviously bent in a direction that it shouldn’t have been going in. “Lev, sweetie,” I spoke calmly. “I think your finger is broken.”
He nodded as if that wasn’t news to him. “It’ll be fine.”
“Jeremiah?” I asked.
He grunted affirmatively.
I sighed. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that it doesn’t hurt.”
“No.” He shook his head lightly. “It hurts very much.” He turned to me, looking me in the eye. “But the reason behind it was worth every ache.”
I am falling in love with you, Lev Leokov.
This time, the sudden thought didn’t surprise me. I think I’d known it a while now.