Page 5 of Bound By Debt

If Mr.Giant is, well, a giant, the guy standing in the doorway is a bear. Or a linebacker. Between his height and the width and breadth of his shoulders, he blocks out half the light from the bright fluorescent hallway behind him.

He eyes Mr.Giant and me before asking, “Am I interrupting something?”

“Impeccable timing as always, Dmitri.”

The hair on the back of my neck stands on end at the warning in his tone. But the bear only grins.

“I can come back if you want me to,” he says.

Mr.Giant doesn’t answer. He sets both my glass and his on the desk, then stands and offers his hand to me again. I slip down, eyeing the man who must be the club owner, who does, in fact, seem to know Mr.Giant well. Very well, if their banter is any indication.

“Coming back?” Dmitri asks as we pass him going out the door.

Mr.Giant says something rude to him in Russian, and I bite back a giggle because he undoubtedly thinks I can’t understand him. Dmitri’s hearty laughter follows us down the long hallway.

Outside, my ears ring from the noise of the club. The two bouncers nod to Mr.Giant, their gazes flicking to me before lifting away again.

A soupy fog has settled in the time I’ve been in the club, forming halos around the streetlights and the headlights of the cars pulled up to the curb. But the shadows are deep tonight, the sounds of the city muted.

“Where is your car?” Mr.Giant asks.

“I took a cab here.”

Because our family car was, yet again, in the shop. But I wasn’t going to add that part.

Mr.Giant stops, and suddenly, we’re close again, so close I have to crane my neck to look at him. His eyes search my face in a way that sends a shiver through me and heats my blood, the green so bright in the darkness.

“Would you like me to take you home?”

A question that holds a multitude of other questions, questions I would love nothing more than to answer with an enthusiastic “Yes!” Damn safety and propriety. My heart gives a loud thump, more than ready for what Mr.Giant is promising.

“I can’t,” I reply reluctantly. “My siblings live with me.”

My dad, too, but I’m not going to share that information, either.

“Ah.”

I’m not sure, but I think I hear disappointment in his tone and see it flash in his eyes.

Again, he stares at me, watching me in a way that sends goosebumps up and down my arms, and I’m taken back to the moment our eyes met as he crouched down to check on me. The echo of that moment still thrums around me, and I wish I had the time and freedom to understand what it means and to know why this man made the world drop away for a heartbeat that stretched endlessly.

The world returns as Mr.Giant lifts his arm to call a cab, and he keeps my hand in his as my ride for the evening pulls up to the curb. He opens the door but stops me before I can slip inside. His lips part as though he wishes to say something. Instead, he leans down and presses a kiss to my cheek that I still feel as he guides me inside the cab.

His last act is to hand the driver a bill. I can’t tell which one, but the way the guy’s eyes widen says it’s big.

“Take her wherever she wants,” my mystery man rumbles.

And with a final look, he closes the door so the cab can pull away.

With some effort, I don’t look back. There’s no point. Maybe if things were different in my life, I could have at least had one night with a seemingly rich, sophisticated man whose voice alone has left a throbbing between my legs.

But as my life is now?

It’s a good thing I’ll never see him again.

3

EVGENY