Page 123 of Toxic Temptation
Pavel goes very still, focusing intently on a box of heart rate monitors.Toointently. Those things aren’t that interesting.
When I notice, I poke him in the ribs. “What aren’t you telling me?”
With a shudder, he resumes stacking. “What do you mean?”
“You know something I don’t.”
“I know lots of things you don’t. We’d be here all night if I started listing them.”
“God.” I roll my eyes. “You’re like the annoying little brother I never wanted.”
“Funny. Kovan says the same thing.”
I turn away to hide my smile. We work in comfortable silence for the next thirty minutes, restocking the shelves that Jeremy had plundered and pillaged. But instead of feeling better, dread settles in my stomach like a stone.
Pavel seems to sense my unease. “You okay?”
“No. Yes. I don’t know.” I shake my head. “He’s not going to let this go. There’s going to be hell to pay. I can feel it coming.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much. You’ve got us on your side.”
“Jeremy has powerful people backing him, too.”
Pavel snorts. “We are the powerful people, Vesper. Jeremy and his puppet masters are about to learn that the hard way.”
The way he says “puppet masters” makes me study his face, but he’s already turned away, carefully avoiding my eyes.
“Can we get out of here?” he asks, glancing around at the cramped closet. “This place is giving me claustrophobia.”
I follow him out of the supply room, acutely aware of every nurse watching us. “You can leave now, you know. My shift is over. I’m gonna shower and go home. There’s no point in you sticking around.”
“Except I’m under strict orders to escort you home.”
My jaw drops. “You’re kidding me.”
But Pavel simply shrugs and starts whistling. “I don’t see what the big deal is. You didn’t have a problem with it all the other times I followed you home.”
“That’s because I didn’t know you— Hold on, what?!”
Pavel chuckles like this is all perfectly normal. For him, maybe it is. But it’s news to me. Intrusive news at that. “I’ll wait outside the locker room while you change. And hey, does the doctor’s lounge have any snacks? Something sweet, maybe? I’ll settle for a juice box if that’s all you’ve got.”
“Aren’t bodyguards supposed to be seen and not heard?”
“I’m a special kind of bodyguard.”
“You’re special, alright. That’s for damn sure.”
He pouts out a lower lip. “Someone’s cranky when she’s tired.”
I push open the door to the doctor’s lounge, blocking Pavel’s path. “Stay here. I’ll only be a few minutes.”
“Sit, Pavel. Stay, Pavel. Roll over and play dead, Pavel,” he mutters to himself. “No one appreciates me around here.” Just before I close the door, he calls out, “Don’t forget the juice box!”
“Idiot,” I mutter, though I’m fighting back affection I don’t want to feel.
Fifteen minutes later, showered but still exhausted and irritable, I emerge, hoping Pavel has gotten bored and left.
No such luck. He’s leaning against the desk at the nurses’ station, flirting with Meg, one of the pediatric nurses. She’s young, blonde, and curvy, exactly the type of woman who makes fathers linger during visiting hours.
