Page 172 of Ruthless Rustanovs

The first thing Sola did when she got back to the home she hadn’t seen in weeks was check in at the main house.

“Want to come with me to meet Eddie and Vanessa or wait at my place?” she asked, holding out her keys to the hulking man who’d exited the limo with her. She already knew how he’d answer, but wanted to give him a choice…

He glanced at her. Glanced at the little house she’d happily occupied for the last few years.

“Your place,” he answered.

Ivan looked tired, his eyes more hooded than usual, his half-burned face drawn. Too much socializing, she guessed. He’d been alone for so long, and now he’d had a lengthy, drama-filled day. And he couldn’t even decompress in his own surroundings.

It was on the tip of Sola’s tongue to thank him.

Yet again. Honestly, she didn’t know if she’d ever be able to thank him enough.

But he was already on his way to the guesthouse.

Like a cold winter bearing down on the quiet little California cottage.

She couldn’t help but note that he seemed out of place in her world.

Almost as out of place as she’d been in his Idaho manor.

Sola sighed and headed into the main house.

Eddie was in the kitchen, sunken down in his wheelchair at the room’s round wooden table.

When Brian first introduced his new T.A.

to his husband, he’d been a big and burly actor with a booming voice.

He’d been known for playing thugs in nineties comedies until he aged out.

And like most actors who were really good at playing villains, he’d turned out to be kind and warm, welcoming Brian’s protégée into their lives with open arms.

But today, he sat bent and painfully thin, mouth partially hanging open. He needed a haircut, Sola noted, scraping the hair out of his eyes, and pressing a kiss to his papery forehead.

“Hi, Eddie,” she whispered. He only stared into the distance, his eyes unfocused and dull, which meant he was having a catatonic Christmas day.

It was sad but it was also a blessing compared to the days when he would rage from his chair, accusing anyone who came through the kitchen of being ghosts from his past. Men who had hurt him.

Women who had said cruel things to him. And vice versa.

Sometimes apologizing to her, Brian, and Vanessa with tears in his eyes.

Looking at Eddie now, Sola felt better about pushing Brian to get help. No, he didn’t want to be away from his husband. But the three-month break he’d get from his role as a part-time caregiver on top of holding down a full-time job would certainly do him good.

“Merry Christmas, Sola! Did Mr. Brian make it to New Promises okay?” a voice asked behind her.

Sola looked over her shoulder to see Vanessa come in with a basket of laundry.

Apparently Ivan had been so sure about Brian accepting his proposal, he’d already had his lawyer explain the situation to her.

Vanessa was clearly excited about expanding her hours, and told Sola she had a cousin who was eager to work alongside her as Eddie’s assistant aide.

“I’m so sorry you had to take care of Eddie all by yourself on Christmas Day,” Sola apologized.

As they’d agreed in the beginning, they spoke only English in Eddie’s presence, both deeply aware he was still listening, despite the limitations of his body and brain.

“Oh, it is no problem,” Vanessa assured her with a wave of her hand. “Big bonus your boyfriend give me more than made up for it.”

Her boyfriend…

Sola let the word bounce around in her mind. Boyfriend. But no, not really. Strange…Ivan felt like so much more than a boyfriend. Her lover. Her savior. Her friend. Her man. Her confessor. So many words to describe his relationship to her, but nothing that completely summed it up.

“I saw him through the window,” Vanessa confessed, setting the hamper on the table. “He’s big, and maybe you don’t mind his face so much, no?”

Sola half smiled, thinking of how many times he’d accused her of not liking him because of his face. “No, I’m fine with his face,” she answered.

But his attitude—that still needed some work, she thought as she walked across the back lawn and into her guesthouse for the first time since early December.

Something inside her went a little cold when she found him in the living room. His black pea coat still on, like he was getting ready to leave at any minute.

“I need his name,” he said, before Sola could so much as say hello. “I need the name of the man who hit you.”

“Why don’t you take your coat off?” she asked, coming to stand in front of him.

But when she started to unfasten the large silver buttons, he grabbed both her hands in his. “I need his name, Sola. I can’t leave you here, knowing he’s still out there.”

“Who says you have to leave me here at all?” she asked him, putting a lot of effort into keeping her tone soft and teasing.

“This is no joke.”

“I know that,” she answered in a more serious tone. “But Ivan…you’re talking about leaving already.”

He stopped then. Breathed. “Sola, I cannot be here in this place with you. Little houses in small towns are not my way of life. And my face—”

“I don’t care about your face,” she reminded him.

“You are only one who does not care. Everyone else stares.” He shook his head. “I must go soon—I cannot be here.”

She let out a sad breath. “Okay, I understand. I’ve got school, and you’ve got your life as a recluse to get back to.”

“Good, you understand,” he said. Either not getting or choosing to just plain ignore her dig. “Then you will give me his name, and I will make sure he does not bother you again.”

“I also understand we don’t have much time left together, and I don’t want to waste it.”

“It would not be a waste,” he insisted, tone harsh as the Idaho mountain he lived on. “Protecting you could never be waste of time, Sola.”

“Ivan, please,” she said, her heart breaking at the prospect of him leaving. Like what they’d had in Idaho meant nothing to him. Like she meant nothing to him.

Sola began unbuttoning his coat with frantic urgency.

“It’s been a long day, and I don’t want to argue about this anymore. I want you.” She kissed him. Once, twice, with all the desperate passion in her heart. “All I want is you. Can it just be you and me again? Just for tonight? And then we’ll figure out all that other stuff in the morning?”

Ivan looked away, and she could almost see something ticking in the mottled skin that covered his jaw.

Then, as if making a decision, he took her in his arms and kissed her with what felt like a year’s worth of pent up passion. Even though they’d been together only that morning.

But the kiss—and the sex that followed in her relatively tiny bed—felt like a good-bye. And it was all Sola could do to keep from crying as his large body rolled over hers.

Giving her his passion but reserving his heart.

Sola fell asleep holding on to Ivan tightly, but was surprised to find him still there when she woke the next morning.

She looked down at the large man taking up most of the space in her tiny bed with wonder. He kept his room at the manor the very opposite of hers. Dim and in shadows, so it was nearly impossible to see his face.

But she could see it clearly now in her brightly lit bedroom. One side was mottled and red. The other side…less interesting, but even more beautiful somehow for its contrast with the other.

She pondered, not for the first time, his life before the car bomb that had killed his family and ruined half of what looked like a very handsome face. How many women had there been? Obviously a lot. He knew how to please a woman, and you didn’t get those kind of moves without a lot of practice.

Looking down at him, she resisted the urge to touch the smooth side of his face and whisper, “Mine,” to any would be takers.

Crazy. Not just because it was too soon to feel so strongly about him, but because he’d pretty much already told her he’d be leaving any minute now.

Breakfast, she decided. That was exactly what this situation needed. Something, anything, to keep him there a little while longer. As much as she’d hated this man two weeks ago. She was nowhere near ready to let him go now.

Of course everything but the cereal in her kitchen would be long expired by now. But shopping for groceries was one of Vanessa’s duties, and she always had the staples lying around.

Thinking about the authentic Guatemalan breakfast she could make for Ivan this morning, Sola pulled on a robe and gingerly jogged in her bare feet across the concrete carport driveway that separated her guesthouse from the main house.

Sola edged around Brian’s Lexus, which Brian had taught her to drive, even though she couldn’t technically apply for a license.

She shook her head at the car, barely able to imagine going back to her life at ValArts to finish her year after everything that had happened.

“Hey Vanessa!” she called out as she entered through the back of the house and headed toward the kitchen. “I need to borrow some milk and eggs for…”

She stopped in the kitchen doorway when she saw who was seated at the kitchen table across from a catatonic Eddie.

It was Scott.

And Vanessa was sprawled across the kitchen floor behind the table, obviously having been knocked out by the butt of Scott’s gun. But he had the point of his gun trained on Eddie.

Until he spotted Sola standing in the doorway. At which point he swung the gun away from Eddie, aiming it directly at her.

“Hey, Sola,” he said. Scott’s words were friendly enough, but his tone was as sinister as anything she’d ever heard. “I was wondering when you’d join us.”