Page 19 of Trapped By the Bratva

I hadn’t forgotten her affection for the baby she watched. I hadn’t lost the memory of her beautiful brown eyes, so captivating with their dark depths. And the sight of her curvy yet slender figure…

Fuck.Seeing her in the flesh again was a punch to the gut. I couldn’t breathe too well with how tight my chest felt, but it wasn’t an altogether bad sensation. It felt something like… anticipation.

A thrill.

Stop. This is stupid.

I wasn’t sure how Becca managed to find her and ask her to come play nurse for me, but she was definitely here. Not in my dreams or my memories but right here, hugging little Emily and laughing along with the girl as she clung her small arms around her neck.

“All right, let’s not strangle Uncle Dmitri’s new nurse,” Becca said.

“No.” I firmed my expression into the stoniest deadpan I could manage.

It caught her attention. Hannah slowed down the slight swaying hug she gave the toddler. She locked her caramel gaze on me over the child’s shoulder and sighed. “This is who you want me to care for?”

“No,” I repeated, answering in place of any of the others even though she hadn’t asked me.

“As you can see,” Alek said, then cleared his throat, “he’s been resistant to the concept of cooperation with his recovery program.”

Hannah opened and closed her mouth, seeming stuck on what to say.

“And,” Becca added, “you can also see why the advance and salary were so high.”

Blinking quickly, Hannah snapped out of her reverie. At the mention of money, she ceased the confused expression she’d adopted since she saw me.

Does she remember me? At all?It felt like a stretch to count on any recognition from her side. She’d suffered a head trauma that night. We’d only been in each other’s company for a couple of hours at the most, and that whole time was chaotic with the kidnapping attempt.

Of course, she wouldn’t remember me. She peered at me with worry, though, perhaps reconsidering her act of volunteering to be my nurse aide.

We entered a stare-down. It wasn’t a matter of an inability to look away that kept me gazing at her, but a sneaky, deeper draw. I was pulled to her, ensnared by the chance encounter with the woman I couldn’t really forget.

“Hannah?” Becca asked.

She glanced at her, breaking the connection between us, but she immediately looked at me again, almost clinically. I watched as she spotted all my wounds, but she didn’t cringe or flinch.

“I said no,” I repeated. It was bad enough that I struggled to banish her from my thoughts. This would be a disaster.

“Who asked you?” she sassed, handing Emily over to Becca.

My jaw dropped, but I pulled it back up and glared at her as she approached. The bossiness. That take-no-shit attitude.

“Ooh,” Margie whispered as she snuck closer to the door. “She’s gonna be perfect for you.”

“You need assistance, Dmitri,” Alek said.

“But not from someone who’s not a nurse,” I argued. It was a weak fighting point, but I’d be damned if I told them I didn’t want Hannah here because she might distract me.

“Damn near a nurse,” Ivan said. “We already looked into her background from before. Hannah had to drop out just before graduation.”

“She’s trained in physical therapy, too,” Becca added.

I glared at Hannah as she probed at my wounds, testing my ankle, then my hand. She didn’t make eye contact, focused on her assessment, but I had to wonder if that slight tension in her jaw meant that she felt the same burning zing when our skin touched.

She intrigued me, keeping that professional aura up. As she leaned over to check my shoulder, her breasts came near my face. I warred with immediate desire.

Dammit. I don’t have time for this.

“Be nice,” Alek warned.

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