Page 91 of Essence of Fear

“Here … you … who knows?”

She did.

And so did he.

Viktoria just hugged him tighter.

Pav let her.

• • •

Naked under sheets that smelled like a floral detergent, Viktoria stared up at an unfamiliar ceiling. The room was warm, and her comfort was aided by the hot air blowing through the heater, and the hard body of the man tucked in beside hers. She knew he wasn’t sleeping, a lot like her. Their silence coated the room heavily, and yet, neither of them closed their eyes to sleep.

His fingers trailed over the bare skin of her arm. With each stroke, goosebumps snaked over her skin and shivers raced down her body.

She loved it, though.

That’s what scared her the most.

“Pav?”

“Hmm?”

His soft murmur made her smile.

Almost.

It was the racing of her heart and the tightness in her throat that kept the light happiness at bay. It was the way her anxiety thrummed deep and her fear danced over her nerves, that reminded her happiness was ever fleeting and easily taken.

She’d been happy once.

Someone ruined it.

She’d been good once.

Someone took it.

And somehow, she had found herself in this spot again. Happy, and good. She wasn’t the same woman as she’d once been sure, but she was still there again. In a place she’d never thought she would be and feeling an emotion that she promised wouldn’t ever make her weak, because that’s all it could do.

Love.

“What is it?” Pav asked.

The huskiness of his tone said he was edging closer to sleep than she was, but she knew he’d wake up the moment she asked him to. Anything she wanted, he was there trying to give it. Sometimes, he didn’t know how to do it.

But he tried.

That mattered.

He always tried.

“I’m terrified again,” she whispered.

His fingers stilled on her skin. “Why?”

A lump was back in her throat. An impossible knot keeping her words at bay and forcing her to stay silent. She refused to let it, and somehow, managed to swallow it back so she could get this out.

So he could know.