by Lucy Leroux
His eyes softened, meeting hers with a beseeching plea. “Nina, I made a mistake,” he whispered, glancing over her shoulder at the main hall doors.
Aghast, she drew back. “You better be joking asshole.”
“I’m not! I’m so sorry about the mess I made, but this was a huge mistake. Can we go somewhere and talk, please?”
“Hell, no.” Nina couldn’t believe it. “You just married my baby sister.”
“She’s not who I thought she was. But I don’t need to tell you that. She’s a spoil—”
Despite what Kate had done, her protective instincts rose just as hot and as fierce as they had during their childhood. She held up a finger, wagging it in his face. “You finish that sentence and you lose a testicle.”
She was the only one who got to criticize her sister, period.
“Nina, she seduced me. I’m sorry I let her, but she started it. How can you defend her? And who the hell is that guy you are with? I know he’s not really your fiancé like everyone is saying. Did…did you hire him, so you wouldn’t have to come here alone? Because if you did, I totally understand.”
Wow. “You are unbelievable. Fucking unbelievable.”
Matt was half a foot taller than her, and outweighed her by at least forty pounds, but she was seconds from wringing his bloody neck.
“Nina-bear, don’t swear,” he chided, still casting furtive glances over her shoulder.
Someone was there, but a quick glance confirmed it wasn’t Kate or her parents. It was Edward, Matt’s father. He scowled at her as if she’d ambushed his son. “What’s all this?” he asked.
Nina ignored him, turning back to Matt and leaning in. “You have made your bed,” she hissed. “If you don’t lie in it and make my baby sister the happiest woman in the world, I will end you.”
She pivoted on her heel, storming past a glowering Edward to find her sister.
When she did, she found Kate with Dmitri, the two standing in the corner away from the dancing crowd. His gaze was focused in her direction, but his face was hard, almost angry.
She paused in her tracks, but realized his attention wasn’t on her. His gaze was trained just over her head. Puzzled, Nina checked behind her, but the only person there was Edward. His second wife, Constance, floated to his side and Nina turned away.
Kate watched her approach, her lower lip tightening petulantly. But her sister didn’t turn her back this time.
She joined them with a nod, ducking under the arm Dmitri held out for her.
“There you are, love,” he said brightly, but bent to whisper in her ear. “Any longer and I was going to start hunting you down.”
Suddenly, his expression darkened. He took a deep sniff before his face cleared and he grinned. “I was just wishing your sister a traditional Russian blessing for a happy and fruitful marriage.”
“That’s nice,” she said, watching her sister with a tight expression.
Every eye on the room was on them, but Nina didn’t care. She also wasn’t mad anymore. Just tired.
Kate was beautiful, as always. Her fine features were made up perfectly and her gorgeous hair was loose, showing off its curl and shine.
“You look lovely,” Nina said. “I’m sorry I was late to the service.”
“I understand. Your new boyfriend explained. I hope your head feels better. Thanks for driving so far to make it,” Kate said softly, eyeing the big man suspiciously, but she reached for Nina’s hands, gripping them tightly.
It was the first time they’d spoken since the big blow up all those months ago.
“I wouldn’t have missed your wedding,” Nina said, blinking a little too fast. Impulsively, she hugged her sister.
“Did you take your pill this morning?” she asked in a low voice as Kate returned her hug.
“Of course.” Kate sighed, a tinge of exasperation in her tone. One minute and they were back to their normal roles. “And my regular appointment with Dr. Gandhi is the day after we get back from the honeymoon.”
“Good.” Nina leaned back, placing a hand on Kate’s cheek. “Don’t forget to take a vial of spare meds in your carry-on just in case your checked luggage gets lost or delayed.”
“Yes, Mom.” The tone was classic Kate, annoying baby sister. “Are we okay?” she added in a whisper.
“We’re fine. I love you,” Nina said, surprised to find she meant it.
“Darling, we should go,” Dmitri interrupted gently, nudging her with his arm. “You have a very early day tomorrow.”
Kate blinked, as if she had forgotten the massive man standing next to them.
“You’re going to have to tell me how you two met later,” she said, giving Dmitri an incredulous once over. “Mom and Dad are having a cow over him, discreetly of course…”
Grinning, Dmitri took Nina’s arm.
“It’s a long story,” she said weakly as Dmitri leaned over. He gave Kate a big kiss on the cheek.
“Until next time, little sister.”
They were in the Range Rover before Nina started breathing again. Dmitri was watching her closely.
“What?” she asked.
“I expected more fireworks.”
She leaned back, stretching her shoulders. “I think everyone was. However, I love disappointing people.” Unexpectedly tears stung at her eyes, but it wasn’t the same as before.
“I’m never disappointed in you,” Dmitri murmured after a moment of silence.
She sighed. “You just met me. Give me time.”
He didn’t appear to know how to answer that, so he focused on driving.
“I want to spend the night at my place.”
“That’s not a problem.”
“Alone.”
“Problem,” he growled.
“Dmitri, I’m very tired. I need a little space.”
“You can have space tomorrow. Tonight, you need me.”
“I—”
He turned the steering wheel, pulling over to the curb before twisting to face her. “She’s sick, isn’t she? Your sister?”
Nina took a deep breath. “She has a congenital heart condition. One that is inoperable—at least for the moment. It has to be monitored closely.”
“Ah… So the lifelong patient ended up a spoiled brat, one who only now realizes she went too far by stealing your milksop ex-fiancé. And you’re a—”
Nina held up her hand. “And I’m a doctor who went into cardiac medicine to find a cure for her condition. Congratulations, you figured me out,” she snapped. “It’s hardly a complicated story. Please take me home now. And I’d like my things returned from the hotel in the morning. I do have to go to the hospital early, but you can leave my things with the doorman.”
He was quiet. “The Caislean staff can have your things sent to you within the hour. And I can sleep over there if you want, but I would like to see you tomorrow. What time are you done at the hospital?”
“I have no idea,” she said, letting her head loll to the side.
“Nina.”
Drained, she could barely turn her head. “Hmm?”
“Let me take care of you tonight. We can just sleep. I know how tired you are.”
At this point, she might not make it to the elevator of her building without help. “Fine. But in the morning, we are going to have a long talk.”
Dmitri didn’t even flinch. “I look forward to it.”
His mate was dead to the world less than two minutes after he got her into her apartment. Nina had been so tired she’d passively let him strip her red dress off and put her to bed without a word.
He didn’t think that kind of submissiveness was going to be all that common for them, but it was just as well that she was asleep. He needed to think. Dmitri had a very big problem.
What the hell had his client been doing at the wedding tonight?
He had recognized Edward Lawrence instantly. The prominent Boston businessman had hired him through a dark web backchannel. The man had insisted on remaining anonymou
s, setting up his down payment through a proxy to protect his identity. Despite those precautions, Cass had uncovered his real identity in less than five minutes.
Wait a minute. Wasn’t Lawrence the last name of the groom? Dmitri swore under his breath. Upon reflection, the resemblance between the two men was clear.
His client was the father of Nina’s ex.
Chapter Fourteen
Nina woke to the smell of waffles. Bleary-eyed, she sat up, struggling to focus on her surroundings. She was home, not the Caislean hotel. The bright sunlight reflected off the honey pinewood floors beyond the forest green coverlet on her bed. Her overstocked bookshelves lined the walls on three sides of the room.
Her phone was on the bedside table, plugged into its charger. Dmitri, of course. She could hear him moving in the kitchen. Bowls and dishes clattered as he made breakfast.
Nina collapsed back on the bed, unsurprised to find herself naked except for her panties under the sheet. She pulled her phone off the base to check the time. Nine AM. She had slept eleven hours. That had to be a record. She hadn’t gotten more than six or seven in a single stretch since med school. Thankfully, she didn’t need to be at the hospital until after lunch.
They probably weren’t expecting her in at all. The entire staff was aware of the wedding. Some had even been guests, although she hadn’t spoken to many of them.
Nina had been quiet since her break-up with Matt. It had been too difficult to act normal, so she hadn’t even tried. Not that it would have made a difference. Most of their coworkers had expressed sympathy with her, but only on the surface. In practice, they were team Matt.
Maybe her withdrawal was a good thing. Shutting down and not sharing at work might mean she could get away with everyone believing Dmitri was her boyfriend. Only her good friends Jodi and Jesse knew she had rarely left her apartment since the breakup. And they had graciously lied to everyone at work on her behalf, making up stories about rebound hookups that hadn’t happened.
Nina made a mental note to take her friends to coffee to tell them the whole story. Damn. How did she start explaining Dmitri?
So much for this being a much-needed rebound fling… Well, when had she done relationships right anyway?
That included the one with Kate. When her baby sister had been diagnosed with her condition, Nina’s caregiver switches had been flipped. They were still on full throttle all these years later. The Matt fiasco hadn’t changed that.
She was still hurt, but losing him wouldn’t end her relationship with her only sibling. True, it would never be the same, but the sting was less intense, and she had Dmitri to thank for that.
As for Matt himself, she would get through seeing him at family events, provided he overcame whatever misgivings he was having now. He better…or else.
“Hungry?” Dmitri was in the doorway of her bedroom, holding a loaded tray. His hair was damp, and he was wearing loose cotton pants.
His chest was bare. Her mouth watered, and not for the waffles he’d made for her.
“How did you do this?” she asked, pulling the sheet up to her neck as he set the tray down over her legs with a flourish. These thick golden treats hadn’t come from the freezer.
“I don’t have a waffle iron. And where the hell did you find fresh berries because I know it’s not from my fridge?”
“I made a grocery run this morning,” he said, picking a strawberry off her plate and popping it into his mouth. “Your fridge was empty.”
“It usually is,” she said, her voice just a notch above sandpaper. She cleared her throat. “My job doesn’t leave me a lot of time to cook.”
“Not a problem. As you know, I’m a good improviser.” Dmitri waggled his eyebrows, making her smile despite her determination to stay in a bad mood. “Eat, dusha moya. You need your strength.”
She was starting to recognize that expression in his eyes. “Don’t even think about it. I am all sexed out.”
“No one is ever all sexed-out. At least no one who is sleeping with me. It’s like a replenishing well,” he said, giving her an exaggerated wink. But he didn’t make a move to touch her. Instead, he pushed the tray closer before waving a bottle of maple syrup in her face.
“I can think of several uses for this that is far more interesting than waffles by the way.”
Nina suppressed a laugh. He was incorrigible. “I have to go to the hospital at noon, so that’s a definite no.”
One eyebrow cocked, bemusement crossing his features. “You know I can count the number of times I’ve heard that on one hand.” He smirked. “Well, it’s more like three fingers…and one of those turned into a yes the minute the woman’s husband was in the bathroom.”
Nina sniffed disdainfully. “You hit on a married woman?”
Dmitri shrugged, then stretched out next. Appearing every inch a lazy Roman emperor, he picked another berry off her plate. “I was at loose ends in a bar in Slovakia. The woman was making eyes at me all night. I thought she was alone. Turns out she was just waiting for her man to be out of sight. I took back my offer to rock her world by the way. There are enough single women in the world not to have to mess with the married ones.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Except for you. Had you been married to the useless drip I saw yesterday, I would have taken you from him.”
“Not touching that one,” Nina muttered, focusing on her waffle, wondering how many women there had been. The number had to be astronomical. “Do you have any communicable diseases?”
Dmitri snorted, almost choking on a strawberry. “What…no lead-in?”
“I’m a doctor. What I’ve been doing with you—having unprotected sex—it’s beyond irresponsible. Especially after this rather gross rundown of your past sexual history.”
Nina put her fork down. “In fact, I’m starting to get nauseated the more I think about it.”
“Baby, you don’t have to worry about it. As I told you earlier, I’m clean. I’ve been out of commission in the boudoir department for a while. My last security detail went south, and I spent the last few months recovering. This is my first job since—” He broke off. “I actually landed in a huma—London hospital in the beginning before transferring to a specialist in Colorado. Between those two places, I got poked and prodded just about everywhere. Do you want me to make a call to get the results to whatever bloodwork I got done?”
Was he serious? “Uh… You know I’m a doctor, right?”
“Of course.” He smirked, continuing to nibble off her plate.
She smacked his arm when he reached for the last strawberry, popping it into her mouth before he could snag it. “Giving me your medical records is not like handing them to anyone else. I’ll be able to understand them. I might end up knowing more about you than you do.”
He shrugged, a corner of his mouth pulling up. “I’m not scared.”
Nina took another big bite, shaking her head at him. He offered, and it’s the quickest way to get those burning questions answered.
“Fine, then. Make the call. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Dmitri got up, leaving the room and coming back with his cell phone. “It’s too early for Colorado. Kiera won’t be at the clinic yet, but London should be no problem.”
“I’m going to take your word for it.” In her experience, a patient requesting his own medical records was not a high priority for any medical facility unless the case was critical. She had enough time to shower and get ready for the hospital before he was done.
He left the room to make his request. She could hear the deep rumble of his voice, but no words. It was oddly comforting.
Nina started to polish off the last bit of her breakfast. Before she could finish, Dmitri was wagging his phone in her face.
“What’s this?”
“My medical records.”
“What?”
“Haven’t you ever seen a PDF before?”
She snatched the phone from him. “Of course I have. But there was no way you got the
m that fast.”
He shrugged. “I paid my bill in full. Cash. They were more than happy to help.”
“Huh.” Nina blinked, turning her attention to the screen. She scrolled down. They had done a cursory STD check—just the basics, but there were no red flags.
The tension in her shoulders eased…at least until she read farther down.
“What the hell!”
Dmitri started toying with her hair. “Hmm?” he murmured.
She pointed at the screen. “You were poisoned?”
He leaned back on the bed, putting his arms behind his head. “I told you the job went bad.”
“Dmitri. A dose of strychnine this large should have been fatal, even to someone your size. How the hell did this happen? And how did you survive?”
The man yawned. “It was unavoidable. When I interrupted an attempt on my client’s life, I breathed in the toxin. I lived. So did the client by the way.”
“That’s unbelievable.” She turned back to the screen, rechecking the numbers. It was a miracle he survived.
“Wait, what is this?” Nina kept going, speed-reading the remaining lab results. All his other levels were way outside the standard range. The testosterone reading alone was cause for concern, and what the hell was going on with those protein levels?
Her lips parted, and she stared at him wide-eyed, her heart in her throat. “Dmitri, I think you’re ill. These test results are not normal.”
He shrugged. “I had just been poisoned.”
“No, some of these readings would have been unaffected by the poison.” She reached out, touching his arm. “Sweetie, I think you need to come to the hospital with me. You need a full workup.”
She could tell he was trying not to smile. “Do you call all your patients sweetie?”
Nina sniffed. “Sometimes. Just the children and some of the women.”
He scoffed. “Then definitely don’t call me that. I prefer my love or dearest heart.”
Her lips firmed. “Seriously?”
“Well, perhaps not. Those sound better in Russian. We’ll find something else for you to call me, dusha moya.”
