The night was cool as Alexei led Evie out of the diner. He glanced around as they left, trying to see any hint of whatever, or whoever, had disturbed her earlier, but there was only the dark, empty streets surrounding them.

Alexei didn’t say much, but he slowed his stride to match her shorter ones as they made their way back to the dingy apartment building where they lived.

“The weather has been nice lately.”

He grunted in agreement.

“This is my favourite time of year, when the days are warm, but the nights are crisp. It makes it hard to decide what to wear, but it’s nice to have the contrast.”

Alexei glanced her way. She stared up at the clear night sky, a soft look on her face. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. This time he didn’t think it was a nervous gesture, but just a natural reaction to the chill in the air. Without thinking, Alexei shrugged off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. She stiffened for a second, then exhaled and relaxed when she figured out what he was doing.

She turned to him, a smile on her face and warm appreciation in her eyes. “Thank you,” she murmured, low and intimate. The expression, the moment, was like a kick to his chest.

He wanted to kiss her, while her eyes were unguarded. She almost looked like she wanted him to; wanted him to bend down, cup her face gently with his large palm, and press his lips against hers. A knot of anticipation formed in his gut, and electricity sparked over his skin.

But something of what he thought must have shown in his face, and her eyes dimmed. Alexei dropped his hands quickly from where they still rested near her shoulders and shuffled to increase the space between them. He didn’t speed up the pace of his stride, so she’d know he wasn’t awkward or resentful about what had just happened. Neither did she, so Alexei figured whatever had gone through her mind and prevented the kiss, it wasn’t because she wanted to get away from him in a hurry.

Footsteps sounded behind them, and they both glanced over their shoulders at the noise. Evie drew in a quick breath, which Alexei knew was from fear. A young man, head bowed, headphones over his ears, and a cigarette dangling from his mouth, dodged around them and continued up the sidewalk without glancing their way.

Evie let out a huffing laugh, a release of her nervous tension. “Sorry, I guess I’m a little jumpy tonight.”

“No problem.”

They made it back to the apartment without any more incidents. Alexei lagged as he escorted her up the stairs, not sure he wanted the evening to end. But then she let out a yawn and guilt twisted his stomach at his own selfishness.

He quickened his pace, and led the way past his own apartment to stand next to her door, Evie close behind.

She eyed him oddly. “Thanks for walking me home.”

He hesitated. “What time do you finish tomorrow?”

She tilted her head. “Same time. Why?”

“I’ll be there,” is all he said, then slipped past her to his own door.

 

 

Alexei walking her home became a regular thing between them. He’d show up before the end of her shift. Sometimes he ate, or had coffee. Other times he just waited until she was ready to leave. He didn’t seem to mind staying there until the early hours in the morning, though from what he said, his only job was to fight on Saturday nights, and he trained late in the evenings anyway.

At first, she wasn’t sure about this new development. Considering Jimmy’s insistence on escorting her everywhere, she hadn’t been sure about letting Alexei do the same. But Alexei wasn’t being proprietary. He wasn’t checking her texts, or interrogating her about who she saw, or counting her tips. He just loomed beside her as she walked home as a deterrent to anyone who might want to take advantage of her.

She didn’t know if she was imagining Jimmy lurking in the shadows of her life. His presence was always there, pressing on her, but she couldn’t be sure that wasn’t her own paranoia. She could no longer trust her instincts after what she’d been through. She’d rather be safe than sorry, though.

Alexei didn’t talk much on those walks home, but she managed to coax a few stories out of him. About his life in Russia, about his first year in the states, about his fights. He seemed reluctant to tell her anything about himself, but listened attentively every time she spoke. She didn’t know whether this was a natural reticence on his part, or whether there was something he was hiding. And, again, she didn’t know whether to trust her instincts when Alexei neatly avoided talking about anything personal.

To fill the silence, Evie talked, a lot. She told him about her early life in a small rural town, and how she moved for college. She spoke briefly about how she met Jimmy, but glossed over all the details of their relationship—Alexei could infer it all, anyway.

“I don’t tell my mother much,” she told him one night. “I don’t want to worry her. She didn’t want me to come to the big city in the first place.”

She glanced at Alexei with a wry grin on her face. He watched her intently, as always, and a frisson of awareness passed through her as their eyes met. She cleared her throat and ignored the sensation. Not ready for it, not ready for what it might lead to. If Alexei noticed the moment between them, he stayed silent.

“Anyway,” she continued on hurriedly, eyes focused ahead. Her skin still buzzed with latent attraction, and she was powerfully aware of Alexei beside her, radiating heat and strength. “She’s a single mother. I’m her only child. I tried to shield her from what was happening with Jimmy, but I’m not sure I succeeded.”

Evie had made a pact with herself that she wouldn’t treat her experience as a shameful secret. That would give Jimmy more power over her. But so far, Alexei was the only one she talked to about it other than Chelsea, even though she did so in the vaguest of terms. Perhaps it was his silence, as if she was really talking to a wall, or the lack of judgement in his eyes.

“She’ll be coming out for my graduation in a few months.” Evie couldn’t help a grin at the thought. She’d missed her mother. They’d once been so close, and now they’d barely seen each other for the last six years. She was sure her mother had felt the loss as keenly as she had, and looked forward to seeing her again. It had just never seemed like the right time for a visit when Evie was with Jimmy. Evie hadn’t wanted her mother to meet Jimmy, for obvious reasons, and Jimmy had never wanted her to travel without him.

“Do you talk to your parents much?” she asked hesitantly, shaking away the memories of her bad relationship and focusing on the good things ahead, like her mother’s visit.

A flash of anger entered Alexei’s gaze. “No,” he said shortly, his voice a low growl.

Evie swallowed and inched away from him, nerves hitching at the fury he radiated. He must have noticed her manoeuvre because he deliberately smoothed his face and attempted a smile. “My mother died a long time ago. I don’t talk to my father.”

It was meant as a conciliatory gesture, she knew. A rare sharing of personal information to apologise for his reaction to the question.

“I’m sorry about your mother,” she said, knowing instinctively that talk of his father would be off-limits.

“Me, too. And I’m pleased you didn’t end up like her.”

Evie gasped at the admission. Pieces of the puzzle that made up Alexei clicked into place.

“Your mother was a… endured domestic violence?” She’d been about to say ‘a survivor of domestic violence’ as she’d been taught to say, as she’d had to learn to think of herself. Not a victim, but a survivor. But if she was right, then Alexei’s mother hadn’t survived her brush with it.

Alexei nodded shortly, his face hard. And suddenly so much about him made sense. How careful he was with her, how aware he was of his size, his lack of offence when she shied away from him. Knowing what his mother had gone through had shown Alexei first-hand what it was like to be a woman like her, and he didn’t begrudge her or look down on her for it.

It unknotted something deep in her chest. Whether fair or not, her estimation of Alexei grew, and her trust in him increased in kind.

“And that’s why you don’t speak to your father?” she asked carefully.

Alexei nodded again. They fell silent for a long moment as Evie digested this new information. It gave her the courage to ask something of Alexei she hadn’t dared before. Something that would take a lot of trust on her part, but would, hopefully, help her in the long run.

“Have you ever taught anyone…skills?” she asked, miming boxing the air in front of her. She glanced at him hopefully, her heart in her throat.

Alexei frowned at her, then shook his head.

“Would you consider it?” she asked softly, dropping her hands to her side.

Alexei’s eyes widened in shock and a slight hint of horror. “You?” he asked, his voice gravelly.

Evie almost cowed beneath his disapproval, but instead straightened her spine. “Yes.”

He stumbled to a stop right there on the street, across the road from their apartment building. Evie followed suit, pausing beside him and waiting. He stared down at her for a long moment, eyes assessing her face.

“I would hurt you,” he said eventually.

It was Evie’s turn to frown. “No, you won’t.”

“You are so small.”

She planted her hands on her hips and scowled at him. “I’m actually above average height for a woman. You’re just a giant.”

The corner of his mouth tweaked up in a smile and some of the starch left his spine as he exhaled. “I only train with other fighters. I wouldn’t know how to teach a beginner.”

Evie tilted her head, assessing him. “I don’t need to know how to fight, not really. I just need a few moves to defend myself. In case, you know.” She waved her hand, indicating Jimmy, and her life in general.

“I can’t be gentle.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You’ve been plenty gentle so far.”

“It’s different,” he protested. “I hit hard, sometimes harder than I mean to.”

“I don’t believe you’d hit me. Not after what happened to your mother.” Evie didn’t know where all this determination came from. She was placing way more trust and faith in this man than even he had in himself. It was probably unwise, and maybe another example of her skewed instincts. But something told her he wouldn’t hurt her, not on purpose. And given how jumpy she’d been lately, learning to fight might give her the confidence she needed to truly move on. To stop looking over her shoulder for Jimmy on every dark street corner.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t terrified. She was. For all she’d knew, she’d freeze up at the first sign of aggression from Alexei. That she’d stand there, shaking and trembling if a fist came anywhere near her. But she had to overcome her fear. She had to learn to defend herself, because Alexei wouldn’t always be there to do it for her.

She wanted to be strong, like him. To reclaim herself, her confidence. And this was the only way she knew how to do it.

“I’d probably have to touch you,” he said, a panicked look in his eyes. He looked like a caged rabbit, eyes darting this way and that, and Evie got a strange pleasure from knowing she scared him. At the words ‘touch you’, heat lanced through Evie. Some part of her wanted that—the primal part of her. But her heart and mind knew she wasn’t ready, might never be ready to let another man so close.

Learning to defend herself would be the first step. She didn’t want to be locked away in a tower forever, to become a hermit. She didn’t want to forgo her dreams of marriage and children because of Jimmy. But she didn’t know if she’d ever be normal, ever fully heal.

She had to try.

“Please,” she murmured. “I know we can make this work. I just…I don’t want to be afraid forever.”

His eyes grew soft at those words, aching with sympathy—or maybe even empathy. What had he endured as his father’s son? Had this huge beast of a man ever felt powerless and afraid? She suspected he had.

He sighed, and capitulation showed in his eyes an instant before he spoke. “Okay. We try one session. Then see.”

Evie lit up, anticipation racing through her. She bounced on her feet with the sudden spurt of energy, and without thinking she wrapped her arms around Alexei in a tight hug. He was warm, even without his jacket on the cold night. And he was hard, like granite, without an inch of fat on his muscles. He smelled good, too. Like musky leather and sweat. She could almost taste him on her tongue.

He stood frozen at her touch, and his ice-sculpture impression made her freeze, too, as she noticed it. She was suddenly acutely aware of the awkwardness of the scenario.

She loosened her arms, intending to step back, but he shifted, resting his huge hand on the small of her back. She settled there for just a moment, allowing herself to bask in his strength. It was like being cocooned by a mountain. Strong and unyielding.

But she couldn’t stay there forever. Particularly because she was determined they keep their friendship platonic. She wasn’t ready for anything more, and if she tried too soon to get back on the proverbial horse she’d end up ruining their friendship, quite apart from what it might do to her, how far it could set her back.

She stepped back reluctantly. Alexei’s hand slid around her waist as she moved away, as if he couldn’t stop himself from touching her until the last possible moment. He dropped it as soon as she was out of reach, and his eyes stayed downcast to where she’d been moments before. His breathing was slightly faster than normal as he flexed his hand—the one that had been resting on her back moments before.

He tightened his hand into a fist and glanced up at her, his face deliberately bland. What had run through his head? She had no idea, not really. And even if she did, she wasn’t ready to think about it, let alone mention it aloud.

Evie took a deep breath. “Thank you,” she murmured.

He nodded with a slight smile, then turned towards their apartment building. He escorted her to her door and waited until she’d slipped inside. Seconds later she heard him moving around his own apartment, surprisingly light on his feet for such a big man.

That night, while she made every determination not to think about the moment below on the street, she knew she and Alexei were moving into very dangerous territory. And she almost didn’t want to stop.