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He nodded, and I exhaled shakily before lifting my trembling hand to his face, touching his slightly rough cheek for the first time. He closed his eyes, turning his face to kiss the tips of my fingers, and I bit my lip to keep from making a sound—but the sensation was overwhelming.

“Nikolaï,” I whispered, my voice unfamiliar, trembling, breathless.

He didn’t speak. Instead, he gently grasped my wrist, pressing my palm against his cheek, his lips trailing over the inside of my wrist.

“Nikolaï ! ” Roman’s voice suddenly broke the moment, yanking us back to reality.

I instantly pulled away, gasping, clutching my hand to my chest, while Nikolaï remained still, eyes closed, fists clenched on either side of my thighs.

He rose, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Your painkillers?” he asked, his voice rougher.

“In my purse,” I answered, straightening up.

He nodded and left, closing the door behind him, leaving me alone with the storm raging inside me.

Nikolaï

I draped an extra blanket over Selina’s sleeping form and clenched my fist at the memory of her soft lips against my fingers.

Groaning, I scrubbed my face with both hands and stepped out of the room, trying to shake off the flood of images running rampant through my mind.

I shrugged off my jacket and made my way toward the mattress on the floor, which I’d be using for the night—since Grigori had already claimed the couch, sprawled out like he owned the place.

I frowned when I saw Abbiati already lying on one side of the mattress, eyes closed.

“Already asleep?” I asked, kicking off my shoes.

“Hmm,” he grunted without moving.

I glanced around, looking for Roman. “He already left for patrol?”

“Yeah. You’ll take his shift in two hours, so get some rest,” my brother replied, pulling his blanket over himself.

I sighed and lay down, trying to relax, but it was impossible with the tension radiating from the statue of a man beside me.

“Are you not going to sleep?” I muttered, shooting Abbiati a glare.

He lazily cracked one eye open before closing it again, clearly uninterested. I swear, sometimes I wanted to put a bullet in him just to see if he was capable of showing an actual expression.

“Take my advice—fall asleep as fast as you can,” I warned, turning my back on him and ignoring his questioning look.

But after several minutes, neither of us had fallen asleep, which was about to become a serious problem.

And sure enough, the walls and floor began to shake violently as the unmistakable sounds of my brother’s snoring filled the room.

I felt Abbiati bolt upright behind me.

“What the hell…?”

“I warned you,” I groaned, burying my head under the pillow.

Screw this.

Chapter twenty

Selina

The cool breeze coming through the window swept through my hair as I took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of the forest and the nearby sea, which lay just beyond the tall trees lining the road we were driving on. The landscape was idyllic.