Page 22 of Brooklyn Bratva

CHAPTER 10

Becca

Backing off instead of crossing the kitchen and kissing him the way I’d dreamed about for years made me feel like the child I’d been trying to convince him I wasn’t. But I didn’t know what else to do.

My heart was pounding as I closed the bathroom door behind me, and sank against it, glad for the barrier between us. For now.

I hadn’t anticipated the strength of his desire. And it turned out I didn’t have the first clue about what to do with it. Could I handle a man like him? He’d be used to women who knew exactly what they were doing. He’d be the first man I ever saw naked and I’d probably do something stupid or wrong, and he’d realize exactly how immature and inexperienced I was. I didn’t want to be the cause of him changing his mind.

In the bathroom I contemplated leaving the door unlocked. But knowing my luck, Mrs. K would walk in, and that was the very last thing I wanted.

Frustrated, I turned the water in the shower to cold, to cool myself off. If he didn’t have clothes on when I came back out there, it wouldn’t matter. I’d try to climb him like a tree. It had to be illegal to look as good as he did, and it had to be a crime to flaunt it in front of me. After yesterday, he had to at least have a clue how into him I was.

I groaned, and dunked my head under the chilly stream of water, wincing at the needling cold, but suffering that was better than giving in to the itch to let my fingers sink between my folds and make use of the massage setting on the shower head.

The bathroom was pristine and I wondered whether Mrs. Kovalenko had any help keeping the place neat and tidy. From what I’d seen of the woman so far, she was something of a dynamo and it was a little confusing to me that Ivan was so concerned about her health. She wasn’t the frail little woman I’d half been expecting. But maybe I’d find out that I was wrong. After all, hadn’t he said she hadn’t even gotten out of bed yet.

The clinic I was due to start at had requested a basic uniform – a standard nurse’s top and trousers that were standard issue in so many healthcare settings from orthodontists to veterinary practices. I’d hung the pristine white scrubs up the night before so the creases from being packed my bag could fall out, and it looked like the ironing job I’d done before I left had mostly held, but I wasn’t looking forward to pulling the shapeless thing on.

Not after he’d basically declared he was struggling not to strip me naked.

So now I had the dilemma of how to appear remotely attractive to him with my hair scraped back into a bun, in this uniform that was the opposite of sexy. Whatever they based those nurse’s halloween costumes on was not the functional, shapeless uniform I was wearing. Yesterday I could have sworn he looked me over like he was seeing me for the first time. Dressed in this, he might reconsider any thoughts he’d had about me being attractive.

But what was I going to do? Hide in here because I didn’t look like some kind of goddess? That was ridiculous. He was a cop, and I was training to become a doctor, and from what I knew of him, he was the kind of man who appreciated honest, hard work. So what was I worried about?

Bundled in a bath towel, I made it back to my room to change into my uniform. A quick blast of the hair dryer and a swipe of mascara and I was good to go out there and face him.

He looked up as I entered the room and he paused for a solid moment to take me in, then spared me a stiff nod and picked up a plate. He couldn’t have been surprised to see me, but I still seemed to catch him off balance and that disappointed me. I wanted him to be pleased to see me. I wanted him to light up when he thought about me the same way I felt myself glow when I thought about him. But that was probably a bit too much to ask after twenty four hours, even if he did think my leggings were sexy.

I smiled all the same. “Good morning. Again.”

“Morning.”

It was kind of surreal to watch him take charge like this. I’d not thought of the man as domestic before, and I wouldn’t exactly have called it that now either, but there was no doubt he was putting a big fat tick in the provider box, like he intended to prove some kind of point.

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