Did she even realize that?
Probably not.
“Are we sharing secrets?” Pav asked.
Viktoria smiled a little. “I don’t know, are we? Do you have something you want to share with the rest of the class?”
She was so sarcastic that he wanted to laugh. It was amusing. She was usually so cutting, but even now, softened and sweet, there was still a hint of that fire and bite in her. It wasn’t that her persona or the front she put forth was entirely a mask, he realized. She’d just sharpened and honed it enough to use it as a weapon against those who became too close to her.
Viktoria was naturally quick-witted. She was always going to be a sharp-tongued woman with a bark far worse than her bite. It was all in how she chose to use that against someone else that determined whether or not her barbed-wire-covered heart was going to cut when a person came too close.
Well, if they were sharing secrets …
“This is the longest I’ve been away from the Compound in a while,” he admitted. “A couple of years, anyway. The last time, I was taken out for the weekend. But it’s been a while since I was away for this long.”
Viktoria glanced up. “Is it?”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
Did she really want to know?
“Are we making pillow talk?” he asked.
Viktoria’s brow lifted into a perfect arch. “Not used to that, or …?”
“Usually, women I spent the night with were paid for their time, and then I would hope the next man treated them better than they typically get treated.”
That made her swallow hard. “Oh.”
Pav straightened to his full height, done with tying his shoes. He closed the bit of space between them, coming to stand at the side of the bed. She peered up at him, and he liked it entirely too much that she didn’t shy away from his touch when he reached for her. No, she let her cheek lay against his palm, and her long lashes fluttered against her skin when he stroked her with his thumb.
“I am—was—as much a prisoner of the Boykovs as any other man down in those cells. The only difference, yes, was that they allowed me a bit more freedom than the rest at certain times … and always with a companion to keep me in line.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.”
“Still—”
Pav bent down, and pressed a quick kiss to the top of Viktoria’s mussed hair. “Then doesn’t matter. Now is what makes the difference.”
“But does it really?”
“For me, yes.”
Viktoria sighed, and he swore he could feel her shoulders deflate. “This must be … strange for you, then. Have you really spent all your time in the Compound?”
“The majority of the last fourteen years.”
“So yeah, this is strange.”
Pav chuckled, and stood straight again, letting his hand sift through the messy strands of her hair to comb it out the best he could. “I was handed documents that gave me a proper name, and cards with enough money on them to do me longer than I will need. Repayment, I was told, for the last decade and a half. I don’t know how to drive. I can’t remember my mother, or her name, and for a while, I almost forgot my own, too.”
“What about your dad?”
He stiffened.
She didn’t miss it.
“What?” Viktoria asked. “What was that for?”
“I just … he’s not very important.”
Lies.
He was.
Viktoria frowned up at him. “You sound like he is.”
“Was,” Pav corrected. “Your father killed mine. That’s how I came to the Boykovs.”
She quieted.
He understood why.
“The whole world is strange to me,” he murmured. “I don’t know anything about it.”
“It used to be a nice place,” she replied, “but not so much now.”
• • •
Viktoria moved from one thing to the next in her kitchen, and while Pav thought to help as much as he could, he found it was far more interesting to watch her. There was something enthralling about this woman, and all the secrets she held tight to her chest.
She seemed innocent, in some ways, and sinfully wicked in others. He was caught by the way her hips moved as she slid from one end of the counter to the other. Her icy blonde hair was slightly more tamed than it had been earlier, now falling in soft waves halfway down her back. She’d pulled on an over-sized sweater to wear, but her legs were still bare, and he just now realized she walked on her tiptoes.
The woman had no idea about the things he knew. She wasn’t aware that he knew her darkness and why it was there. He didn’t feel it was right for him to know without her having been the one to tell him, but he didn’t know what to do about the things he’d been told, either.
Did he tell her?
Let her tell him?
He knew one thing for sure … she was amazing, but he didn’t think she knew it. She didn’t have the slightest clue of her strength, or worth.
And wasn’t that a shame?
“Are you satisfied with just watching me from over there?” Viktoria peeked over her shoulder at him, and he could tell by the glint in her gaze that she was teasing. “What do you plan to do, just eat my food and run?”
“Where would I run to, woman?”
