Page 93 of Doctored Vows

“You what?” Her reply is so loud half the patients of Myasnikov Private hear her.

“Things are complicated.” I sigh, not wanting to have this conversation at all, much less over the phone.

“Oh, I bet they are. Maksim is…”

Many words roll through my head when she pauses to consider a reply. They should be about his dark and dangerous side, but my heart wins the battle this time, and it has me expressing something I thought I’d take to my grave. “I miss him, Z.”

“Then tell him that.”

I slump onto the bench across from my locker. “I can’t.” Before she can call me an idiot, I express my biggest fear. “What if I lose him too?”

“Keet…” She stops to breathe out the laughter I hear rattling in her chest, shocking me. How is this funny? “I love you, girl, but sometimes you’re so blind you can’t see what is directly in front of you.” I blame the adrenaline rush of my last two hours in the ER when a tear topples down my cheek. “Maksim would never put you in that position. He loves you too much to ever hurt you like that.”

The tear flings off my cheek when I shake my head. “No?—”

“He. Loves. You. That’s why he is struggling to give you the promise you need to move past your fear that you will lose him too. He isn’t a man who can sit back and let the person he loves be hurt because she wants him to promise not to retaliate. I don’t know a single man who could promise that, let alone one who spent most of his childhood protecting his mother.”

My voice cracks when I ask, “He told you about that?”

“No.” Nothing but honesty rings in her tone. “But I know you, and I understand your fear.” A shuddering breath fills my chest when she says, “And I also understand Maksim’s. He doesn’t want to hurt you. He wants to love you, but that comes with a prerequisite of protection. Everyone knows that. You just seem to have gotten the criteria a little mixed up since you’ve forgotten the love a parent has for a child is different from the love of a spouse.” She hits me where it hurts. “Maksim isn’t your dad, but I sure as fuck hope he loves and protects you as fiercely as your father did your mother, because that is the type of love every girl should strive for. That is real love.”

The dam in my eyes breaks, and so does my stubbornness. For years, I only considered my feelings when my father chose revenge over me. I never once considered the hell I forced him to walk through when I demanded he pick me over the love of his life.

I am his daughter, his flesh and blood, but he chose my mother long before I entered the picture.

I am the byproduct of their love, not the source of it.

As I wipe under my nose to make sure nothing has spilled, I say, “Z, I have to go.”

“Fuckin’ oath you do.” Jealousy burns up some of the wetness in my eyes when she says, “Give him a kiss from me.”

She’s still laughing about my grumble when I yank my phone from my ear, toss it into my purse, and then hightail it out of the locker room.

“Dr. Hoffman,” the ER ward clerk shouts when I race past the nurses’ station she’s manning with the billing clerk from the administration team.

“Not now.”

“We need to?—”

My head slings to the side when assistance to flee without payment comes from the last person I anticipate. “Let her go. We will get everything squared up tomorrow.”

I thank Dr. Sidorov for his assistance with a smile before I race through the staff-only side entrance. Ano is going to be pissed when my sprint past the security camera in the alleyway will force him to undertake a middle-of-the-day workout, but I’m too eager to get to where I’m going to wait in traffic.

By the time I reach the corner of my apartment building, sweat is beading on my nape and the chilly winds have frozen my tears to my cheeks.

With the media dwindling to two the past few days, the doorman spots my approach before I hit the driveway that leads to the underground parking. He opens the door for me and dips his hat in greeting.

I push through the door just as the elevator doors open, and Maksim races out. He’s dressed to impress in a tailored suit and polished designer boots. He is the epitome of a successful businessman with an edge of darkness that should have exposed his necessity to protect those he cares about from the get-go.

“Nikita,” he breathes out heavily when he spots me standing at the side of the foyer, gawking like it’s the first time I’ve laid eyes on him.

He looks angry, furious, even, but some of the agitation scoured between his brows clears away when I push off my feet and race his way. He catches me in his arms, and when I seal my mouth over his, his shocked exhale flutters over my tongue.

As I lick the roof of his mouth, his arms come around me. One pulls me closer while the other weaves through my hair.

Our kiss is needy and hurried, and it makes me wet in an instant.

I’m not the only one excited. Maksim’s cock is thick and braced halfway up my stomach.

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