I didn’t like to curse.

I was normally in control of my emotions, but today, I was all over the place. The ink around my wrist, the attack, the accurate words thrown my way, it was all too much, and there was only so much I could take.

This time, rather than create more distance between us, I advanced toward him. “Tell me, Sergei. Tell me all the great advice about why all my life, people hated me. How I’ve never matched up. How I’ve always been second best in everything. Tell me.”

“Because you’re beautiful,” he said.

Now this made me laugh.

“Wrong.”

With that, I spun on my heel and I left him alone.

A friend would be so fucking welcome, but Sergei wasn’t my friend.

I went straight to the bathroom, stripping naked, and stepped beneath the spray of the water.

Men in our world had mistresses all the time. I had no doubt some of the women enjoyed a lover or two.

I didn’t know where I stood with Slavik.

In the week since the attack, he hadn’t been around. I didn’t know where he was. Some nights he didn’t even come home.

I turned off the shower, wrapping a towel around me, I stepped out of the bathroom, into the bedroom, and gasped.

Slavik stood in the bedroom.

“Wear this. We’re going out to dinner.”

“You scared me.”

“I don’t have all day. Reservations are in thirty minutes.”

“I didn’t know we were going out,” I said.

“Now you do.”

I hadn’t even heard him come home. For several seconds, I just stood there in the bedroom, dressed in a towel. The last place I wanted to go was with him or out in the world. The cuts on my back had mostly healed. Some of the larger wounds had scabbed over, and the pain was no more. I didn’t want to go out, but there was no room for argument.

Drying my body, then my hair, I set about styling it, adding in a few curls, allowing it to fall naturally.

The dress was beautiful, modest. Black with a low front bodice, which would show off my chest, and it fell to the floor, but had slits up either side, giving a hint of thigh.

The arms were also exposed.

I was surprised by how snug the dress fit. I left the bedroom and found Slavik waiting. He held a pair of heels in one hand as he typed on his phone with his other. He didn’t even look up. Not that I should expect him to.

Sergei took the heels and knelt at my feet. After the conversation we’d had, this felt so wrong.

I kept glancing at Slavik, expecting him to explode and kill us both. Sergei wasn’t attracted to me, but I didn’t even know if I was allowed friends. With the heels on, I was ready to face whatever I had to.

Slavik put his cell phone away and stared at me.