Page 28 of Hunter's Trial
He’s made me a promise before. I just hope he can keep this one.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
KATE
Inever thought that I would be living for the moments where a man sneaks into my house, feeling like I am living underwater. I can’t breathe until he’s there. Nikolai is the only one who has proven to me that he’s going to fight for me. I want to think that if Billy shows up again, Alek will take care of it, but when Nikolai’s here I just feel better. Safe. Protected. He’s like oxygen.
He’s the only reason that I made it through these last few days.
Every night he sneaks into my house and bitches about the fact that he was able to do it. He claims that if the security was good, he wouldn’t be able to. He says it should have been locked down like Fort Knox following Billy’s attack, but he was still managing to sneak in through the kitchen window. I would tell Horus about the blind spot, but I don’t want to lose Nikolai.
Plus it’s hilarious watching that huge man squeezing himself in through that tiny window time after time.
Even more amusing is the drastic contrast between the way he speaks to me when we are anywhere outside of the bedroom and the man that is unleashed when the bedroom door shuts. I swear I’ve never felt anything like it. He’s insatiable and I love every second of it. No matter what he does to me, it makes me feel alive.
I need it.
It’s only been three days, and my addiction to Nikolai’s touch is growing.
And not just because he told me that when he went outside to handle Billy he was gone. Nothing but a bloodstain left on the lawn to mark that he had been there in the first place. Nikolai said he discretely checked in with all the surrounding hospitals and nobody matching Billy’s description had been checked in. Which means that he’s just a big question mark at this point, and I don’t have the mental capacity to investigate right now.
I doubt that Billy will attempt to come after me again if he sees Nikolai with me. That’s not a beating that he’s likely to forget.
The knock on the kitchen window comes at the same time every night. Tonight, I took extra care to be ready and waiting for him. I’m wearing my best pj set. Emerald green satin that makes my eyes pop as my slipper dangles off the tips of my toes. Nikolai slides open the window and I delight in the way he contorts himself and nearly falls right on his face attempting to right himself.
I suppress a laugh, but Nikolai sees it anyway just before he closes and locks the window behind him.
“What’s funny, then?” Nikolai asks with a quirked brow. He knows good and damned well what I’m laughing at, but I’m game to play.
“Oh, nothing.” I say in a syrupy sweet voice. “Just your blunders. That’s all.”
“Blunders, huh?” Nikolai grins and heat courses through my body at the look in his eyes that follows directly after. I uncross my legs and plant both feet on the floor, ready to run. I can’t explain it but it’s like the look in his eyes activates my inner prey reflex. The moment that I do, Nikolai’s whole posture shifts. His shoulders drop and he gives me a look that damned near makes my toes curl.
“Problem with my word choice? Eh, Volkovich?” I tease, ready to make a run for it. It’s not like the house is big enough for these sorts of games to be played properly, but even the prospect of it has me raring and ready to go.
“Not at all.”
He calls my bluff. His muscles flex like he’s going to lunge for me and I erupt in a peal of giggles before taking off toward the couch. Nikolai’s strong arm finds my middle before I even make it three strides. He hauls me back into his chest, holding me just tightly enough to render me immobile but not fully cutting off my breath. Jesus, he's so strong. I’m thrown off kilter every time I see his effortless power.
“You know,” Nikolai says with his lips against the shell of my ear. Gooseflesh pebbles my skin as arousal builds between my legs. “I never got to properly thank you for everything that you did.”
“What are you talking about?”
“For fighting for me the way you did.” Nikolai answers in his husky, deep voice.
“I was just doing my job.” I answer with a laugh.
“All of it was just work then? Even kissing me?”
I refuse to answer that. My face flames as I start to playfully push at his arms in a weak attempt to make him let me go. I’m perfectly content in his hold, but that’s not the game that we’re playing.
Then he spins me in the span of a blink. One moment I’m in his arms, and the next I’m hauled up and over his shoulder as he walks the two of us toward my bedroom. His hand connects with my ass firm enough to bite into the skin and I yelp at the sudden contact.
I don’t want to say it out loud, but I want him to do it again. I’ve always enjoyed things a little bit rougher in bed. It was part of Nikolai’s original appeal if I’m being honest. Something about the way that he’s manhandling me has me wet already.
“Now are you going to let me thank you properly, or would you prefer this to be a punishment type of evening?” Nikolai says.
I’m sorely, sorely tempted to say punishment.