Page 54 of Sapphire Tears

He turns to me with one raised eyebrow. “Your clothes?” he asks innocently. “Why would you need those?”

His stance is rigid, his expression even more so. It’s sending warning signals running down my back.

“You just said I’ll freeze to death. Is this really helping with that?”

He grabs a thick blanket off the bed and tosses it to me. I don’t miss the way his eyes graze over my body before I manage to secure the blanket around me.

“You should get some sleep,” he says. “It’s late.” He turns and heads for the door.

“Wait! Where are you going?”

He pauses, but he doesn’t turn around when he speaks. “I had two dozen of my men on guard duty around the premises, and not one of them caught sight of you until you were driving away. I have to go deal with them now.”

I stare at him with wide eyes. “That’s not fair.”

“Fairness isn’t in my job description, June. Just like failure isn’t in theirs.”

He turns towards the door once again, but I step forward and call out to him. “Kolya!”

Once again, he pauses.

“If anyone deserves to be punished, it’s me. Don’t take your anger out on the men.”

He’s still for a long, tense breath. Then he turns and drifts back to me, his eyes refracting the moonlight that’s beginning to sneak through the gaps in the clouds as the storm breaks up. He stops inches from me, towering high overhead.

“You’re right. You do deserve to be punished,” he says. “Not least of all for putting not just yourself, but your baby in danger.”

I flinch back, but he’s right. I should have thought more before I left the way I did. “I know.”

“So you want to be punished? This is your punishment.” He points at the door behind him. “The door is unlocked. You can leave any time you like. But you’ll have to do so without your clothes.” He gives me a dark, stormy glance. “Sleep well, Junepenny.”

Then he shuts the door in my face.

24

KOLYA

It’s a quiet Sunday. The construction crew don’t work weekends, so I’m here alone. My Bratva men filter about the place, but they have their post orders and most of them have been avoiding me since their telling off the night June tried to run.

They’re not the only ones avoiding me, either. June has stayed in her room for the last twenty-four hours. I’ve had to send trays of food up to her room. The trays always come back empty, so I’ve had no excuse to stomp up to her bedroom to check on her, as much as I would like to do exactly that.

I’m in the west-facing garden, the one that sits directly under June’s room. I’ve been glancing up at the windows all morning, but I haven’t glimpsed her once. The doors to her balcony remain firmly closed.

In the end, I turn my attention back to the gazebo I’m working on.

I’ve always enjoyed working with my hands. Especially when there’s a lot on my mind. It helps me focus.

The downside? It also helps me remember.

I hear a distinctive click and then June walks out onto the balcony of her room…

Stark fucking naked.

No chance in hell that that’s an accident. So shehasseen me working down here. I feel a twinge of satisfaction before annoyance and anxiety creep in. My men are patrolling the grounds. If any of them make the rounds here and see her…

“What the hell are you doing?” I growl up.

It’s chilly today, much too cold for anyone to be walking around naked. I’m shirtless and sweaty, but the only reason I’m not feeling the cold as much is because I’ve been hauling lumber and hammering nails for over an hour.

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