Page 66 of Frozen Heart

His jaw dropped. Literally dropped, like in a cartoon, and he let out a long string of Russian curses. I felt an odd swell of pride: I’d never done that to a man before.

The swimsuit was deep, emerald green but with a metallic gleam, almost like a superhero costume. It was cut just right for my curves and was fairly demure on the bottom half. But at the top, a scoop neck showed a valley of milky cleavage. Radimir’s eyes locked on the scoop neck and when I side-stepped, theyfollowed, like they were magnetized. I burst out laughing. “You really do like it.”

He finally tore his eyes away and smiled. “Yes,Krasavitsa. I really do.” He stepped closer. “What isthis?”

“What is what?”

He poked my braid. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

“You didn’t know women could change their hair?”

“I didn’t know you could make yourself look even more like a librarian.”

“I could probably do abun,if I thought about it…” I coiled the braid into a bun shape to show him...and then stopped as I saw the look in his eyes. If I turned him on anymore, we weren’t going to make it out of the villa. I quickly let the braid fall back down. “Maybe another time.” Wow, I was learning all sorts of things about him, this trip.

He got changed and we headed to the beach. As we walked, I basked in the heat, letting it chase the last of the winter chill from my bones. We passed a line of sun loungers and the men lifted their heads to look at me. But then I saw them turn pale and quickly look away.

I glanced across at Radimir. He was wearing a pair of red swim trunks and nothing else, his muscles and Bratva tattoos on full display, and he was giving each man who looked at me a glare of pure ice. “What are you doing?” I asked gently.

“Letting them know I’ll cut their balls off if they keep looking at you,” he said. One of my admirers was close enough to hear and he suddenly took great interest in his newspaper.

I squeezed Radimir’s bicep. “We’re on vacation, let’s try not to cut anything off anyone,” I told him, secretly delighted. Radimir was attracting a lot of attention from the women, too: I could see them eyeing his tattoos and scars and whispering to each other. I remembered how I’d stared, the first time I’d seenhim without his shirt. There was a new scar, now: the one on his arm where I’d stitched him up. I’d become part of his story.

When we walked hand-in-hand into the surf I let out a little moan of amazement. Even though it was now early evening, it was sowarm!We paddled, then waded and then started lazily swimming. It was a revelation: even after a half hour swimming up and down, my joints barely felt it at all. I hadn’t swum in years, I’d never had time, and I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed it.Okay, I need to start doing this when we get back.

We swam and kissed and splashed water at each other like kids until the sun sank into the waves and we stumbled up the beach, giggly and pleasantly tired. It wasidyllic,everything I’d dreamed of. He’d changed so much in the last three weeks. I remembered the days when he never even smiled.

But…

I could feel something hanging over us like a gathering storm. When the honeymoon was over, we had to go back to Chicago...and he’d want to go back to his life.

Radimir wrapped his arms around me from behind and we stood there in the surf, watching the sun turn from melting copper to cherry red as it set. I wrapped my arms over his and squeezed them even tighter around me,

I was terrified I was going to lose him.

The wedding had shown me how easily one of his rivals could snuff out his life. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the gunmen at our wedding, spraying bullets across the room. And it wasn’t just Spartak: a week ago it was the Armenians, another time it would be the Italians...he had enemies everywhere, not to mention the police and FBI.

It felt like the Bratva was this huge, dark part of his life that every day threatened to snatch him away from me. Eventually, one day, something would happen. And there was nothing I could do about it. I was an outsider.Just the wife.My job was towait at home every night for the phone call that told me he was dead or in jail. And that drove me crazy. It was like watching the person you love sit in a car that was slowly rolling towards a cliff edge, and not being allowed to stop it.

I frowned and shaped the fear into flinty determination.I’m not losing him.

There was only one solution I could see. I didn’t know if he’d even consider it but I had to try and I had to do it in Mexico, while I had him away from his brothers.

I pressed my back even more firmly to Radimir’s chest.

Today was paradise. Tomorrow...I had to ask him if he’d leave the Bratva for me.

46

BRONWYN

The next day,we had breakfast on the private terrace outside our villa, overlooking the sea. Then Radimir took me into the jungle to see the spider monkeys and they were freakin’ adorable, with huge, dark eyes and little furry heads. We took about a million photos, including one of Radimir with a monkey on his head.

In the afternoon, we rented a thirty-foot sailboat. I thought it looked enormous, but Radimir had done this before and assured me the two of us could handle it together. And after I’d figured out my mainsail from my jib, and he’d patiently agreed thatportandstarboardwere just stupid and I could useleftandright,we got the thing skimming through the water so fast I felt like we were going to take off. Eventually, it came time to turn back towards shore and head in. But I kept the boat stubbornly pointing out to sea. “Part of me wants to just keep going,” I mumbled.

Radimir must have heard the worry in my voice because he sat down beside me and slipped his arm around my back. He nodded, watching me intently.Go on.

“But we have to go back,” I said. I looked at the tattoos on his chest. “Don’t we?”