Ewan hadn’t grown up with money, and neither had Nina. Somehow it had never occurred to him that wealth affected men and women differently. Or at least it affected the expectations made of men and women in different ways. He had a single closet of clothes and never thought much about what he was going to wear, not even before a big meeting or a fundraising party.

Nina, on the other hand . . .

“I have no idea where we’re going to put all this stuff.” Nina kicked at a box full of clothes and accessories Katrinka had sent over that morning. There’d been at least half a dozen similar boxes.

Ewan studied the piles of fabric and boxes of coordinating jewelry and footwear. “Look over what you want and send the rest back.”

“I don’t think I want any of this.” Nina lifted a flowy kind of tunic-thing patterned in bold stripes. She held it up against her, then shook her head. “Not my style.”

Ewan took her in his arms and kissed her lightly. “Send it all back. We’ll go shopping . . .”

“Ugh.” She shook her head.

He kissed her again. “You can do it all online, if you want.”

“She sent me a list of required outfits,” Nina said against his mouth. Her body molded to his. At the moment, she wore a pair of sleek leggings and matching shirt, and while he always preferred her naked, this was the next best thing.

Ewan let his hands rest on the swell of her hips. “Wear what you want.”

“Of course, I will. But I do realize that what Katrinka said was true. If I want to get any of them to change their minds, I’ll need to get them to want it. I’m aware I can be intimidating . . .” She broke off with a laugh at his expression and kissed him on the mouth with a smack. “Hush, you. You’re supposed to tell me I’m charming.”

Seriously, he pulled away so he could study her face. “You are beyond charming. But Nina, if this isn’t something you want to do . . .”

“I don’t have a choice.”

Ewan shook his head. “Of course you have a choice.”

“Not if I want this to happen. How could I stay silent or in the background when this is so important to me? How could I expect anyone to speak on my own behalf if I’m not willing to get up there in front of all of them and share my truth?” Nina stepped away from him to kick again at the box of clothes on the floor. “If dressing up and going to parties is going to make a difference, I’ll do it. If marching in the streets works, I’ll that, too. But I think we both know which is going to work better.”

Ewan eyed a few items from the box, then bent down to hold up a particularly sheer-looking . . . dress? “How about this? I bet this would look fantastic on.”

“On fire, maybe,” Nina said and snagged it from him. “Also, you’re holding it upside down and backward.”

“I could turn it inside out, maybe that would help?”

She held it up to herself, feeling the fabric. She closed her eyes for a second, and he half-thought she was going to explode into another volcanic display, but she only sighed. “We should talk about what happened. What I did to the kid.”

“You don’t need to—”

She held up a finger to shush him. “I do. Because it wasn’t a normal reaction, Ewan.”

“Nina, baby, none of your reactions are normal. That’s kind of the thing about you.”

She laughed, faintly.

Ewan inched closer and put his hands on her upper arms. “I’ve watched you take down a man twice your size. I’ve seen you fight. What you did to the kid . . .”

“It was not professional. It was out of control.”

That sobered him.

“Since the cabin, since my ability to feel came back, it hasn’t been right. It’s been all over the place. Too much. Too strong. At first, I thought it was because it had been so long, I was just reveling in the fact I could do it at all. But last night, that kid . . . he barely even pushed me, Ewan. I should have been able to deal with him, without almost putting him in the hospital.” She drew in a slow breath. “I think it’s related to the glitches.”

He didn’t say anything at first. “I’ll help you pack this all up and ship it back to her. We’ll find you something you like. You’re not in this by yourself, Nina. I’m with you, every step. Fancy parties or marches, whatever it takes. I’m with you, baby.”

Ewan’s kiss tickled and sent a shiver through her. Nina let herself melt into his embrace, grateful for it. The dress he’d tossed her crumpled between them.

“I know you are. I think part of what’s so annoying about all this is the idea that Katrinka thinks I can’t dress myself.”

“I’m annoyed with the idea you have to be dressed at all,” Ewan said, voice serious but eyes twinkling.

“Oh, really?” She wiggled against him, grateful that he’d defused the tension with that simple bit of flirting. “You think I should just go naked? Is that it?”

He nodded, expression solemn but mouth quirking the tiniest bit in the corners. “Yep. Definitely.”

“What if I caught a chill?” she demanded, turning them both so she could walk him back toward the bed. They had to navigate the maze of boxes, so by the time they got there, Ewan had already started tugging at the hem of his shirt to lift it over his head.

“I’ll nurse you back to health.”

She pushed him, gently but with intent, and he fell back onto her bed. “Let me guess. You have a special . . . injection.”

“Oh, yeah. It’ll fix you right up,” Ewan said with the grin she loved so much. His hands skimmed up her body and tugged her closer.

She let him, putting a knee on the bed between his legs. She didn’t let him pull her down on top of him, though. She took the time to stare at him, drinking in the sight. “I love you, you know.”

“I know.” Ewan propped himself up on one elbow, his other hand still linked with hers. “I love you, too.”

Nina sat on the edge of the bed, holding his hand. The other went to his thigh, feeling the warmth and the muscles bunching as he also sat up. She drew in a breath. She opened her mouth to tell him how happy she was.

Brief but all-encompassing blackness spread over her vision for a split second before fading, leaving a haze of red in the edges of her view. Nina blinked, trying to force it away. She would not panic, she thought, even as she heard herself making a series of low, gasping sighs. As though from far away, she heard Ewan saying her name, but her mouth had gone so dry she couldn’t answer.

She hadn’t gone blind and yet focusing on him had become so difficult that she closed her eyes. She drew in breath after breath, feeling his calming hands on her. Ewan murmured her name. His hand stroked over her hair as he pulled her against him so they could face each other on the bed, their limbs entangled. Nina pressed her face to his so that she could feel his breath against her skin.

The minutes passed, and at last she dared to open her eyes. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, although Ewan’s shocked expression told her before she even sat up to go look in the mirror over the dresser that something was amiss. Her left eye was completely threaded with crimson. Shaking, Nina put both hands flat on the dresser. From behind her, Ewan put his arms around her.

“Let me call the doc,” he said. “Please.”

She nodded after a moment, knowing in her gut that it wasn’t going to make a difference. She looked at the floor of her bedroom. The boxes, overflowing with clothes, shoes, hats, gloves, jewelry.

“What is this?” she asked, confused for a second or so before a pinprick of a memory returned to her. She couldn’t recall receiving the boxes or opening them, although surely she must have. She did, however, remember that Katrinka had sent them. “I mean . . . let’s get rid of this.”

“Later,” Ewan urged. “Let’s take it easy right now.”

She didn’t want to take it easy. She wanted to kick the boxes, punch them, she wanted to burn all the clothes. But none of that would help her or make a difference in what was going on inside her head. Nothing much could do that.

But at least she had Ewan, Nina thought as he turned her around for a soft kiss. At least there was that.