Page 9 of The Harbinger
“Wash.”
“But it’s cold,” she squealed, her eyelids fluttering from the droplets bouncing off her forearms towards her face.
“It’ll warm up.” I shut the shower door and stepped back, studying the ring that wouldn’t slide over my first knuckle as I took my position back at the counter.
“Can I get some privacy?”
“No.”
There wasn’t an inscription under the small circle; it was so delicate that the silver had warped under the wearer’s warmth.
Who was Jenny, and why would she give a homeless girl a ring?
“Izvinite?”
“Da, Dmitri?” I turned to him, peeking his head through the doorway, keeping his sight towards me.
“They are on their way to pick up the package and will soon be on our ship.”
Nodding, I tucked the ring into my pocket and stared at the woman drizzling shampoo in her hands as though she’d never seen it before. Steam billowed up around her ravishing but fragile body, her brows pulled together with her head cocked to the side.
A girl who had no recollection of family, or past life, worethisring, and who just so happened to have the markings fell into my lap whenNinadisappeared… It felt as though by design… but whose?
“Split the buy into two and send one to Belarus.”
“Consider it done.” Dmitri spared a glance her way. “What will we do with her?” he said, switching to English.
Mia’s eyes widened, and her hands slowed as they massaged her bubbly hair, working the shampoo to her scalp.
“Russkiy, Dmitri.” I adjusted my hand in my pocket and sighed. “I’m curious about her, but I don’t trust her, and neither should you.”
“I trust no one but you,Alexander Ruslanovich.”
Smirking with a sharp nod, I waved him away and watched the suds roll down her creamy tits as she rinsed Nina’s apple blossom shampoo from her hair.
A meddlesome need grabbed me with an unshakable hold, making me want to test every theory building up until she spilled her hidden secrets deep in her mind.
Mia turned, her eyes flicking up to meet mine, then, as quickly as they met, they disappeared behind thick lashes. She turned her body from my unyielding fascination.
There was one thing I knew for certain… I’d break her down like a little nesting doll, taking her apart piece by piece until she showed me exactly what was at her core.
Chapter 3
Mia
There’sastrangesensationone gets when they know they’re being watched. It’s a survival instinct ingrained into our very DNA since the beginning of time.
That’s why my skin pebbled and crawled, my scalp tightening. Because Sacha’s eyes hadn’t stopped roaming my exposed body even when I’d turned my back to him.
It was the feeling.
He had an unnerving gleam in his eyes as he sloped against the counter, which had my heart sputtering and searching for an escape… from an airplane bathroom.
My shoulders curled in as I kept my arms across my chest, rinsing the conditioner from my hair, then scrubbed the grime off my body.
I sighed with a pleased moan--my skin squeaking with cleanliness. I’d scrubbed off the dirt and filth that had accumulated over the past week, only to reveal bruising I’d barely seen but felt all too often.
Now wasn’t exactly the time to examine them, what with Sacha, the impervious pervert who insisted on watching me shower, standing there.