Page 23 of The Enemy's Defector
“What?” Nik turned to face me, furrowing his brow. He’d noticed that sharp intake of air. He was so attuned to me that he was aware of the slight change in my behavior.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as I continued again, leading him through the kitchen, hopefully toward a bedroom where he could rest and I’d help him with his injuries.
I shook my head faintly, so overwhelmed by what my reaction to blood triggered.
It was that memory of him. That last time I saw him before tonight.
He’d stared into my eyes as he braced himself over me. As I’d spread my legs wide, inviting him to take me hard, he’d curled his long fingers around his thick cock to line the tip up with my entrance.
Hisbarecock.
That he’d stuffed in me and stretched me with until we both came so hard.
After that night, I left with his cum still inside me. Where it remained long enough for me to miss my period.
I was late. I wasreallylate, only aware of it right now when I was considering my reaction to his bleeding. With the search for evidence, then the hunt for Nik, I’d been so distracted that I hadn’t realized I’d missed my period.
Back with Nik, though, and recalling the fact that we hadn’t used protection, I resisted thinking about the idea of being…
Pregnant.
“Katerina.” Nik stopped, forcing me to go still too. “What’s wrong?”
I couldn’t tell him. Not like this. Not now. Maybe not ever. I couldn’t worsen his burdens when he was barely surviving, breathing so hard and bleeding too much.
“Nothing,” I lied, breaking eye contact and urging him to walk forward again.
Having Nik’s baby would be a blessing—to me.
Until I could guess how we’d move past this day, though, I hated how easy it was to assume this would be a hell of a complication to our already messy lives.
10
NIKOLAI
My body couldn’t take any more. I was too weak to stand, too exhausted to walk.
When Katerina found a bedroom in the safehouse, the sight of a bed was like an oasis in the distance. A mirage of relief. The mere concept of lying down on a mattress or soft surface was a luxury I would never take for granted. After a month of being dragged around and tossed onto hard floors and dirty surfaces, the simple bed looked like heaven.
Even though she tried to be gentle as she lowered me to the bed, I let gravity take over. Slumping down fast, I braced for the hit. Then as my tired body sank to the plush yet thin blanket, I sighed.
“Wait. Just sit for now. Let me clean you up first,” she protested.
I shook my head, rolling my face over the blanket but not having the willpower to fully lift it. “No. I’m not getting up.” I wasn’t sure if I could.
“All right.” She stepped back. “Then don’t. Stay here.”
I grunted a weak laugh. Where the hell else could I go? I was a sack of bones, depleted of all energy after giving it all to run with her and get out of there.
I was still stunned that she’d just shown up. That she was the one who dared to break me out.
I hadn’t found the time to think through the reasoning for her risky behavior. But now as I listened to her leaving the room, the sound of running water, and then her returning steps back in here, I planned to find out what I could now.
Before I succumbed and fell asleep. Because I had held on for as long as I could. With this brave woman near me, I could finally relax and recharge. Our names meant we had to be enemies, but deep inside, I knew she could be trusted to have my back. She wouldn’t have risked freeing me otherwise.
“Did your uncle order me to be taken?” I asked. It was a blunt and direct approach to what I needed to know.
“I don’t know,” she replied, unbothered by how curt I was. “He’s involved, obviously, since you were moved to one of the old guesthouses on his property. But I don’t know if he ordered you to be taken. You know as well as I do that Anton has served the purpose of housing others’ captives since he has so much land.”
