Maksim. At least, it was Maksim’s face, Maksim’s body. But his expression, the glint in his eyes…it was that of a wild man. I barely recognized him.
He had the look of a tortured, broken beast. I’d never seen him look like that, not once in all the time I’d known him.
“Maksim,” I gasped.
As soon as he saw me, his face transformed completely. At once, he became himself. A very relieved version of himself. I thought he might have even smiled a little, and ran his hand through his soaking wet hair. But the smile was so fleeting that I thought I might have imagined it, relieved as I was to see him here.
He took a few steps toward me, his expression darkening once more. I knew I had made a mistake, and it was my fault that he was out here in the pitch blackness. As he took another step toward me, I shut my eyes and turned my face away, almost anticipating a slap on the cheek.
You stupid little brat. I could almost hear him saying it already. I don’t have time to chase after your ungrateful ass.
But no slap came and no insult either. I opened one eye and warily looked up at him.
“I can’t go back,” I said, my voice quavering. “I cannot marry him, Maksim. I can’t.” Tears flooded my eyes, blurring the flame of the torch. “I… I can’t…” I stammered. “Please don’t make me.”
Setting the torch on a nearby ledge, he crouched in front of me. And opened his massive arms, taking me in an embrace.
With tears streaming down my cheeks, I wrapped my arms around him. It was the first time we had ever been so close. I melted into him, disappeared into his warmth, his strength, his scent. He swept my hair away from my cheek and nestled his face against mine, his lips to my ear, his rough stubble to my smooth flesh, quieting me as I sobbed into his arms.
“Shh-hhh-hhh,” he said, softly and patiently. “You’re alright. Everything is alright. It is.”
Wracked with sobs, I shook my head.
“It isn’t alright. That man… he’s…. Last night he…”
He breathed out through his nose, a warm and comforting sound of reassurance.
“I know. I know it all already.”
Slowly, his body warmed mine a little and his strength calmed me down. Once my waves of sadness had passed, I sniffled against his massive shoulder.
“What am I going to do?”
Cradling me in his arms, he rocked me gently. My heart throbbed in my chest as I clung to him. I had seen him every shade of angry, every hue of annoyed, every version of irritated. But I had never seen him soft like this. I had never felt his kindness until now.
“I promise you, Anika,” he said, his voice gruff and low in my ear, confident and absolute. “As long as I live, you will never marry that man.”
Maksim got a partly dry saddle pad from his horse and made sure I was comfortable on the cave floor, while he set about getting the fire going. He didn’t say a single word to me, but kept glancing at me and looking away. He had always been difficult for me to read, but never more difficult than now.
His temper had, for so long, seemed to be constantly simmering right below the surface. He’d always seemed ready to explode. And so now, this softer side of him took some getting used to. I wasn’t sure I could trust it.
But I hoped I could.
Once he placed the last dry log on the fire and dusted off his hands, I asked, “How did you find me?”
He turned to me, the flickering flames showing the hard edge of his jaw, the rich dark lines of his beautiful eyelashes.
“You don’t want to know.”
My heart sank. Perhaps the anger wasn’t so far away after all. But I’d dipped my toes into the pool of his kindness, and I couldn’t help myself.
“Yes, I do. I want to know everything about you.” The words tumbled out and the flash of embarrassment warmed my cheeks.
He growled a little. Again, impossible for me to read. He turned to me, tightening his eyes slightly, as if assessing if I could handle whatever he was about to say.
I raised my eyebrows and waited patiently and silently. Now was no time to push him. And I was too exhausted to even contemplate it, anyway.
“I knew you couldn’t have gotten far. I know your paths. Sometimes I keep an eye on you and I knew you’d been to this cave before. With the storm, I tried to think like you. Where would you go.”
He’s been watching me. That, at least, explained how he’d been able to help me so quickly the previous day with the highwaymen.
“But also,” he added before I could ask another question, “I can feel you.” He glanced away. Embarrassed, even ashamed.