“He’s not a bad man, you know,” Brenda said. She poured her own cup of coffee and sipped it, watching Viktor through the door. “I’ve known him a while and he’s never said an unkind word to me. He can be…intense, and he pushes himself hard. But he’s not cruel.”
“He’s the Russian godfather,” I said. “Surely he’s a little bit cruel.”
“Never to me,” Brenda said.
“Well, let’s hope he extends that courtesy to me.”
“I’m sure he will,” she said, sitting down opposite me. “You captured his interest, the pictures your cousin gave him. He had them laid out on the table and he spent the afternoon just looking through them the day he decided to agree to the alliance. I thought the marriage was a good idea. I’d hoped he’d marry for a long time, so imagine how excited I was when I heard you were coming.”
I gazed at her, unsure how to reconcile our two emotions. Her eyes were glittering and she was smiling. I, on the other hand, had a myriad of more complicated, depressing feelings about marrying Viktor.
The front door banged and we both jumped as Viktor strode down the hall and entered the kitchen. He had taken off his coat and he wore a pistol strapped to his thigh. When he saw me sitting with Brenda, his pale eyes lingered on me for a moment before he reached for a coffee cup.
“I have to go into town,” he said abruptly.
“It’s nice to see you too,” Brenda said.
To my surprise, he bent forward and hugged her, pressing his lips briefly to her temple. “It’s good to see you, Brenda,” he said warmly.
I couldn’t conceal my surprise as I looked back and forth between them. This was a side to him that I liked far better than what I’d seen yesterday.
“Why are you headed into Charleston?” she pressed.
“There’s a chaplain I trust in the city. I’m going to ask him to come out tomorrow to perform the wedding ceremony,” he said.
“Sounds romantic,” I said dryly.
His eyes fell on me as he circled the table until he stood at my elbow. I felt his gaze burn down on me hard enough I had to lift my face to meet it. There was a thoughtfulness to his light blue eyes that I hadn’t noticed before, a kind of steadiness that drew me in and made me wonder what sort of man he was underneath it all.
“Were you expecting romance?”
His pleasant, deep voice reverberated deliciously in his chest. I could practically feel it vibrate through the table and into my body. A warm glow started between my thighs and I squeezed them together, mentally scolding myself.
“From you? No,” I said quickly.
“Well, you won’t be disappointed then.”
He reached over my shoulder, his forearm just brushing the side of my neck, and picked up my coffee in his lean fingers and emptied the cup. A little surge of annoyance rose in my chest and I scowled, inching away from him, but there was nowhere to go. He placed the cup in front of me and leaned down.
“I’ll see you tonight then.”
I didn’t turn around to hear the sharp clatter of his shoes as he left via the front door. A car engine purred in the drive and disappeared into the distance. When I looked up, Brenda was gazing after him with a wistful expression on her face.
“Something is going on with him lately,” she said thoughtfully. “He’s not been himself ever since he got back to the States last week.”
“Does he leave the country often?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Maybe twice a year. He’s got a beautiful old house in Russia, absolutely enormous, that his father left him. But deep down, I think he hates it.”
“Is that why he has this house?”
“Yes, and he likes the solitude. I think he favors the weather here more too, he likes the warmth and sun. Strange for a man from one of the coldest places in the world.”
“So he doesn’t like company?”
“No, he doesn’t mind it, he just doesn’t need it.”
A timer beeped on her phone and she ducked into the laundry room for a few minutes. I filled a fresh cup with coffee and took a long drink, savoring the rich, expensive taste. I’d never cared for pricey things, but I did enjoy a good cup of real Italian coffee. Lifting one of the potato patties, I nibbled at the edge and found it good. Savory and similar to a hash brown.