Page 12 of Nurse for the Russian Mafia

I glare at him, but I can’t see any of the obvious sadism in his face, not like that douche-bag from high school.

Dirk.

“Why are there cameras up there? And why are they the same color as the wallpaper?”

“There are cameras in all of my properties,” he says. “And I’ve got no idea why they’re the same color as the wallpaper. Coincidence, I presume. There’s no conspiracy, Samantha. Do you really think I want to record you and show other people? I had all the cameras in this entire building deactivated before we arrived. If somebody got their hands on a recording of you in an intimate situation, there’s nothing in the world that could stop me getting it back. Nothing.”

I look closely at him, but my mind is still tinged with the harsh bitterness of paranoia. “I want to believe you,” I whisper. “But I’ve been tricked before.”

“Tell me,” he says, taking his hands in mine.

He moves his fingers over my knuckles, each small movement a tiny ripple of the underlying power, his attentive eyes giving me one-hundred percent of his attention.

“I bet there are women who’d kill to be looked at like you’re looking at me now,” I whisper.

“That’s the spirit,” he says, but he doesn’t smile. He keeps staring. “Tell me, Samantha. I’ll always be here for you.”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

When I open them, Alexander is staring at me firmly, but I can also see the glint of the supportive man of my dreams in his sharp gem colored eyes.

“When I was in high school, there was this football player named Dirk. He was the boy everybody liked, I guess. But I never really wanted him. To be honest, Alexander, the only person I’ve ever crushed on is you.” I feel my cheeks glow with this admission, and go on. “Anyway, I didn’t like him. But when he asked me out, my friend sort of persuaded me to go along with it, because she liked his friend and wanted to get close.

“So I said yes. And, I have to admit, I was a little flattered. Mostly because all these people who just ignored me before suddenly knew my name. I was Dirk’s date, and people were impressed. One day after class, the day before we were meant to go the dance together, he told me he’d left me a surprise in my locker. I was super excited, mostly because I’d never been given anything before.

“But when I opened my locker, candy bars just started to fall all over me. He must’ve wedged at least a hundred candy bars into my locker. I mean, they were stacked from top to bottom. I felt so ashamed, I just started to cry. And that’s when I turned around and saw that in the opposite locker, there was a hidden camera. I could see the lens and the little hole he’d made.

“When I tried to get it, Dirk and a bunch of his football players came and snatched it before I could. The next day, they put the video online and everybody in school saw it. I was the school joke until graduation.”

Alexander lets go of my hands and jumps to his feet, the veins pulsating in his neck as he lunges across the room and punches a supporting pillar. Brick and plasterboard go flying in tiny fragments, scattering across the floor.

“Fucking Dirk!” he roars, punching it harder, turning his whole body into the strike.

“You embarrass my woman!”

Harder and harder, he lays into it, until the beam is half crumbled to pieces as though a giant has taken a bite out of it. He turns to me, eyes dark.

“Samantha, my queen.”

I only realize I’m crying when he sits down again, his knuckles bloody. He wipes away the tears from my cheeks and pulls me into his arms. I collapse into him, burying my face in his hard, supportive chest. I’ve never told anybody all of this, not even Dad. Of course, people know about it. It wasn’t exactly a secret. But I never speak about it.

“I would never do something like that …” He leans forward, kissing my tear-wet cheeks. “What a childish thing to do. What a pathetic boy. If he was here, I’d show him how much of a coward he is.”

I lean back and glance at the half-destroyed beam. “I believe you,” I mutter.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he says. “You are mine, that’s all. And no man deserves to hurt you like that.”

“So that camera, it wasn’t a hidden one?” I whisper. “You weren’t trying to trick me?”

“Never.”

“Oh.” I giggle through the sobs. “I feel silly now.”

“What a ridiculous thing to do,” he says, shaking his head. Rage burns in him like molten lava. “You like to eat. You know how to take care of your body. Half the girls in your high school probably had some eating disorder … If that prick was here now …”

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