Page 44 of Surrendered Innocence

“Have a good night, Jewel.” I smile at her.

When I get to the front office door, Maxim is standing on the other side. He’s staring at me through the glass with a wry smile painted on his lips. It gives me a start at first, him just standing there gawking at me like that.

“You’re going to give someone a heart attack doing that.” I open the door and scold him. Which of course doesn’t work, because he’s Maxim, and I don’t think anyone can actually scold him. His own mother probably never got out a proper lecture.

“I texted you that I was coming up to get you.” He hits the elevator button.

“Oh. I didn’t hear my phone.” I lean against the elevator wall once inside. “It was a long day.”

“Did you eat the lunch I sent?” he asks, hitting the lobby button.

I smile. “I did, yes. Thank you for that.” He’d had a ham and Swiss sandwich delivered with a note ordering me to eat every crumb or he’d find out. “I’m not sure how you got the delivery service to write that threatening note though.”

He grins. “Nikolai’s wife owns that deli. What I had her put on that note was nothing compared to the threats he makes to her when she’s not taking care of herself.”

“She owns it?” I ask, curious. Why would someone as powerful as Nikolai Romanov have his wife working in a deli?

“She had it before they met and insisted she keep it after they married. But once she has their baby, I’m not sure how she’ll convince Nikolai to let her keep working.”

“Let her?” I don’t even try to hide the indignation in my tone.Let her?

“Nikolai is traditional. Like me.” He shrugs.

“So, you’ll stop your wife from working if she wants to have a career?”

He moves his gaze from the elevator panel to me with a flat frown. “No. Of course not. If you have a job outside of our home, it will be because you want to, not because I can’t provide for you and all the babies we’re going to have.”

“All the babies that we’re…” I blink a few times. “You’re very sure of yourself.”

Reaching up, I unclip the claw holding up my hair and let it fall down around my shoulders. I had the damn thing in too tight for most of the day. It’s like releasing a pressure valve now. I clip it to the strap on my purse and look up. He’s gawking at me again.

“What?” I ask. “You look like you’re going to pounce on me.”

He shakes his head. “Not in the elevator. These things are unpredictable. I wouldn’t do anything to get it stuck.” He stares up at the floors as they light up.

“Are you afraid of elevators?” I can’t hide the little smile pulling on my lips. The idea of this big hulking man afraid of anything is astonishing. The fact that it’s the elevator makes him all the more… human. I think the man might actually bleed if he’s pricked, and it might be red just like the rest of us mere mortals.

“Not afraid,” he grouses but doesn’t take his eyes off the lights.

“How have I not noticed this about you?”

“The elevator in my building is sound.”

“Don’t the Romanovs own this building?” I point out, poking holes in whatever defense he’s coming up with. “Would they have a subpar elevator in a building they own?”

Before he can answer, we arrive at the lobby and the doors swoosh open. He grabs my hand and pulls me along with him. It reminds me briefly of the night we met, in the club. How firm his grip was, and how easily he maneuvered me from the club into his car.

Since I’ve met him, he’s been able to wiggle his way into every crevice of my life. And not just because he’s helping me find my brother. In the middle of a phone call with a disgruntled patient today, I imagined what Maxim would say if he knew the man was swearing and yelling at me. Maxim wouldn’t have tolerated it. In little quiet moments, I found myself wondering what he was up to. Where was he? Was he doing something dangerous?

“Mandy.” Maxim stops on the sidewalk in the middle of the hustle of everyone trying to get home. “What are you thinking?”

“Right now? That we should move before we have a riot on our hands.” I gesture to the flow of people moving around us in a hurry to get a cab or catch a bus.

He doesn’t pay them any attention. “The car’s here.” He gestures to the SUV parked at the curb.

“Maxim. This is a tow zone.” I hurry from the crowd toward the car.

“Not for me.” He opens the passenger door and I climb right in. A police car slows down, rolling past us. Maxim stops at his door, staring at the car. The cop nods, then drives on.

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