Page 10 of The Bratva's Innocent Pregnant Bride
Dan wouldn’t leave it. His voice echoed in my thoughts, the feel of his hands still tingled on my skin. The fresh, icy air didn’t erase his scent from my nostrils.
“Dummy,” I muttered to myself, glad I was alone on the lift.
It was a mistake, but I couldn’t say I regretted it. It had been too amazing, too perfect. Maybe, just maybe, it was better than snowboarding. And it could not happen again. Not when my life was in turmoil. The next three weeks I could regroup, but then what?
As soon as things calmed down and I was settled in, I could start sleuthing and hopefully find out that six missing people in a little more than a year was just a huge coincidence and nobody was murdered by the accounting firm I worked for. There wasn’t much hope of that, but I clung to it anyway.
Thankfully I wouldn’t risk running into Dan again, since I’d arranged with the resort to send my bags up to the lodge while I used every minute of my free morning to go up and down the mountain. Much too soon it was time to go to the lodge and find the family I’d be working for.
The lodge was huge, almost like a small walled village, with the main house in the center of a giant courtyard thatboasted a small ice skating rink, a little hill for sledding and what looked like targets for ax throwing or archery. It seemed like the perfect place to take a little kid, and inside the main lodge, it was ruggedly decorated but not lacking in luxury. I felt myself relax as a pretty young woman sitting beside a handsome older man rose to greet me.
“Hi, can you tell me where the Fokin suite is?” I asked, assuming they worked there.
The man laughed, his smile and wavy blond hair making me think uncomfortably about Dan. “Which one?” he asked.
The woman tossed her wild red hair behind her shoulder and faked a scowl at him. “He’s trying to be funny. You must be the nanny? I’m so sorry but I don’t remember your name.”
It was probably for the best since I wasn’t the nanny they were actually expecting. I told them and shook their hands as they introduced themselves as Nik and Emerson, and that their son Pavel couldn’t wait to meet me.
“Alina’s been dying for you to get here, too,” Emerson said as a rambunctious little boy of around four or five came flying out of nowhere to throw himself at Nik. “Oh, here’s Pavel. Where are your cousins sweetie?” she asked.
He bellowed out a string of names and pretty soon I was swarmed with adults and kids. They were all Fokins, and once they all stopped running around and shouting, I counted six kids that looked to be under six years old and two of the women were holding tiny babies. Maybe staying in LA and facing would-be murderers would have been easier.
One of the women, Katie, quickly assured me I wouldn’t be in charge of all of them at once, and the two moms with babies piped up that I wouldn’t have to worry about their little ones. The fear must have been written all over my face and I remindedmyself that I was supposed to be a professional nanny who was used to a gaggle of preschoolers.
Katie told me to settle in, I wouldn’t officially be on the clock right away, and then invited me to join them for dinner. Her daughter Alina saw my board propped up in the lobby and told me proudly she was going to get a lesson.
“Maybe,” her mother said. “I’m still not convinced it’s safe.”
I piped up that it was plenty safe and that I’d been snowboarding and skiing since I was younger than Alina. I even offered to give her a lesson myself, citing my previous championships. Why I was volunteering for extra work was beyond me, but there was something about the sparkle in Alina’s eyes I recognized. When Katie agreed, the little girl danced around, her younger cousins joining in and begging for a chance to learn, too.
They all dispersed and a woman named Lilia, who was about a year or two younger than me, showed me my room at the end of one of the long hallways upstairs.
“Is this really all your family?” I asked.
“Not even close,” she said with a smile, leaving me to unpack and explore the lodge and grounds a little.
This seemed like it was going to be a pretty cushy gig despite the large number of kids. The lodge was fantastic, with pine bough wreaths scenting the air and old fashioned charm in the rugged furniture. My room was cozy, with a handmade quilt on the big bed and a view of the mountain. I was safe out there on the outskirts of Aspen and floating on cloud nine, already well on my way to putting that mistake of a one night stand behind me and forgetting about it.
Until dinner, when none other than Mr. One Night himself rolled in. I stood on the fringes of the big group of Fokins, and as soon as I accepted a glass of wine, there he was, looking better than ever. This time he wasn’t wearing a sleek designer suit but dark jeans and a comfy sweater, making my fingers twitch with the urge to slide over the soft fabric. His blond hair was windblown and he looked around expectantly like he owned the place.
What the hell? I slipped further out of the way, but he seemed to hone in on me, his eyes narrowing when he saw me lurking. Oh, please let him be making a delivery. No. Everyone gathered around, hugging and welcoming him. He was one of them. Out of all the gorgeous, hypnotizing men I had to choose to have my very first ever one night stand with, why did it have to be a member of this family?
I was about to double over, waiting for it to be revealed he was married and one of those cute kids was his, but thankfully, he was at least unattached. Despite wanting to sink into the floor, I got a jolt of longing, watching as he set about ignoring me. Making it clear I was only a conquest. Okay, I could handle that. Let’s keep it that way, even though my feelings took a bit of a stab.
Then it was pure embarrassment as Katie brought him over to introduce him to me. Oh God, he wouldn’t say something about last night, would he? I held my breath, pleading with my eyes not to start something that would get me fired on the spot. He pretended he didn’t know me and I sagged with relief, nearly choking on my tongue as I endeavored to act normal while shaking his hand.
That hand that had been all over me not so long ago. Not long enough because I had far from forgotten it. Katie got called away and I tried to follow, to sneak out of his orbit. He took mywrist to stop me, mischief in his eyes that had me feeling weak. And was beginning to piss me off. He was enjoying watching me squirm.
“No goodbye?” he asked.
He sounded perfectly innocent to anyone else but I knew exactly what he was saying, calling me out on sneaking away that morning. I wanted to whirl around and ask him to deny he’d never done such a thing. If I’d slept a little longer, it would have been me waking up to an empty room but oh no, someone like him was used to women hanging around to beg for scraps.
I didn’t say anything and only fled in the opposite direction. It was an interminable twenty minutes of trying to hold conversations with my new employers while I felt his eyes burning holes in me, a smirk on his face.
Cocky, possessive, insufferable.
I just had to get through dinner and there were so many people present, what were the odds we’d be anywhere near each other at the table? And then it was like I had offended the universe itself when I found out he was seated next to me.
