5. Bronwyn

5

brONWYN

“Okay,” I mumbled to the mirror. “I may have underestimated on the seashells.”

A half hour curling my hair into soft waves had given me definite princess-of-the-sea vibes. And the thrift store dress Jen and I had covered in giant sequins made a pretty good mermaid tail. But it turns out, seashell bras work better in cartoons, especially when the mermaid is big up top. However much I tugged at the cardboard shells, there was a lot of sideboob or underboob or just boob boob.

Jen put her head around the door. She’s been my best friend since middle school. She’s curvy, like me, but with ash-blonde hair and a gorgeous, golden tan, and she consumes detective fiction like I consume romance and fantasy. She’s always eager to work a shift in the store because her acting gigs aren’t enough to pay the bills, and I love working with her. I’d take her on full time if I could afford it. “They’re all ready for you,” she told me. “About twenty kids.”

I sighed. In an hour, I’d be closing the store forever. I wanted to sob in a corner, not be happy and upbeat. But I wasn’t going to disappoint the little ones just because some hedge fund prick decided to put me out of business. “How do I look?” I asked, turning to face her.

Her jaw dropped and she came into the room. “Like The Little Mermaid started an OnlyFans.”

I swatted her arm, then took a deep breath. “Okay, I’m going out there.” I started shuffling towards the door: the dress trapped my legs together but at least the tiny steps were easy on my joints. Goosebumps were rising on my skin: I had the heating on but seashell bras are not designed for January.

Jen opened the door for me, looked outside and quickly closed it again. “It’s him .”

I felt my skin flush, and my heart rate shoot up like someone had stamped on the gas pedal, and I wasn’t even sure if she meant him him yet. God, what is this? “Who?” I checked, trying to sound casual.

“The eight-foot-tall scowly Russian with the cheekbones— he’s coming in!” she jumped back as the door crashed open.

Radimir’s face was an icy mask...then he focused on me and that mask just shattered . He gawped at my hair, the tail, the seashells and then his eyes flared with raw lust. His gaze licked up and down my body. Suddenly, my exposed skin wasn’t cold anymore.

“I…” I looked down at myself. “I’m about to go read those children a story,” I said apologetically, waving towards the front of the store.

“I’ll stall them,” said Jen immediately and backed out of the door, giving me frantic go for it gestures behind Radimir’s back. She’d been trying to get me dating again since Nathan dumped me. She’d seen Radimir when he came into the store to buy the second book, but she had no idea who he was, and I didn’t dare tell her. I knew she’d warn me to stay away.

The door closed and I looked at Radimir, confused.

He stepped forward, pulled a sheet of paper from his jacket and unfolded it. “This is your new lease,” he told me, handing it over. “The rent is back to the normal rate. And it’s locked in for five years.”

I stared at the lease. I was struggling to read the words because my mind was short-circuiting as it tried to process what he was saying. The rent’s back to normal? I can stay open?

I CAN STAY OPEN?!

I drew in a breath and felt it shudder. Oh God, was I about to happy cry for the first time ever? “I don’t—I don’t understand, how did you—Did you talk to him or?—”

That’s when I finally managed to take in the logo at the top of the lease. Aristov Incorporated. My eyes flicked to Radimir’s face.

“I am your landlord, now,” he confirmed.

I could feel my mouth hanging open. What...the fuck? He was staring right back at me and there was a war going on in those frozen sky eyes, a ferocious warmth struggling to get out from behind bars of ice.

He bought the building?! “W—Why are you doing this?”

His jaw twitched and he dodged my gaze. Then he tugged his waistcoat straight. “I’m a property developer and I want to encourage small businesses in the area.”

I stared at him. I knew that wasn’t the truth. But the other explanation, that he’d done it for me...that was even crazier. I put my hand on the wall to steady myself, overcome. I can stay open. I can stay open! And then I remembered something. “The coffee shop next door: will you give her the same deal?”

Radimir blinked at me. From his face, he’d forgotten there even was a coffee shop. He frowned, like he couldn’t understand why I’d care. Then his face softened, and he looked at me like I was a freakin’ baby bunny. “Of course,” he said levelly.

My lungs filled. I’d have to call Cassie, the woman who ran the coffee shop, and tell her the good news. Everything’s going to be okay . I mean, the bookstore was still losing money and things were going to be even tougher, now that I’d sold off half my stock in my going-out-of-business sale. But I wasn’t closing down tomorrow and that made all the other problems feel manageable. “ Thank you! ” I told him and, instinctively, I put my arms out to hug him.

He hesitated for just a fraction of a second, his eyes sweeping down my body, and that’s when I remembered I was wearing two cardboard seashells held on by elastic. But now it was too late because he was stepping forward and his arms were coming up and Oh God his eyes were blazing ? —

Our bodies met and my mostly naked breasts pillowed against his chest. His arms wrapped around me and his big hands took possession of my bare back, one just above my waist and one between my shoulder blades. Everywhere he touched was naked skin and I could feel the warmth of him soaking into me, rolling inward in waves and turning into liquid heat as it reached my groin. I inhaled and felt my chest swell against him, the flimsy cardboard seashells shifting and moving, and he growled low in his throat, just as he had in my fantasy. I was pressed up against him tight, all the way down to our ankles, and I could feel his cock thickening and lengthening against my thigh.

I looked up. Oh God, he really was big: I was barefoot, under the mermaid tail, and my mouth was only just at the tops of his pecs. And now I was looking up at his mouth, at that hard upper lip and that soft, full, lower one.

He stared down at me, his eyes molten, and his hands tightened on my back, tugging me a little harder against him. This wasn’t a hug, anymore. I could feel the huge, hard muscles of his back under my palms, feel the sheer brute strength of him…

That’s when something sank in. He’d stormed out of the store and, just a few hours later, he’d come back having bought the building. That was impossible. These things take weeks, months, with teams of lawyers and stacks of paperwork. Unless…

Unless he’d scared my former landlord into selling.

For a moment, I’d forgotten who he was. Now sick fear unfurled in my chest, sending out cold tendrils. All the stories I’d heard about him: the bodies buried under his buildings. A monster. And I was in his arms.

I tensed and he felt it. His eyes narrowed for a second, possessive, and for a moment I thought he was going to trap me against him. But then his hands loosened on my back, and he gave me a tiny nod. What does that mean? ‘Yes, I’m a monster?’ ‘Yes, you should stay clear?’

I lifted one foot, ready to step back from the hug. But then I remembered the way he’d looked at me, when I’d been crying in the bookstore. He’d stared down at me, his face thunderous, and I’d felt so…. protected.

I looked left and right, along his broad chest and huge shoulders, and I realized I didn’t feel threatened. I felt safe, like I was behind a wall that could stop anything.

Radimir Aristov was a monster. But I knew, right then, that he’d never hurt me.

I looked up at his face. He was scowling again, willing me to step back. Trying to protect me from him. But I could see something behind the anger. I could feel it as a tension in his arms, like he was a half-second from pulling me in again.

He was as lonely as I was.

I stayed stubbornly where I was. I saw his eyes narrow, then flick to my lips. Time seemed to go syrupy and slow?—

“I— “said Jen, throwing open the door. “Ohhh… ”

I jumped back out of Radimir’s arms, forgetting the mermaid tail, and nearly fell on my ass.

“Um. I’m running out of children’s songs out there,” said Jen.

I nodded. “On my way.” I shuffled as quickly as I could towards the door, feeling hazy and muddled, still drunk on the scent of him, the feel of him.

Radimir followed and, in the hallway that led to the main store, he overtook us. “Goodbye, Miss Hanford,” he threw over his shoulder. It sounded so...final. Like I might never see him again.

I swallowed. “We should celebrate. Drink a toast to our new…partnership.” The wrong word. Or was it?

He stopped.

“Can you stick around until after the story?” I asked.

He looked back over his shoulder, his expression unreadable. Then he gave me one of his curt little nods and walked towards the main store.

“What the actual fuck is going on?” hissed Jen. “Who is he? What’s with all the Miss Hanford stuff? Were you about to kiss him?”

“The store’s not closing,” I told her, rushing through the answers. “He’s a...” —I didn’t want her to worry—“Russian property developer who just saved my ass. I like the Miss Hanford stuff, he’s old fashioned. And...” —I flushed—“maybe. Now I have to go read a story.”

Jen nodded, stunned. “Go.” Then she held up a hand to stop me. “But, um...maybe fix the seashell malfunction first.”

I looked down. One breast was fully on show, nipple and all. How long has it been like that? I flushed deeper and tugged the seashell back into place. Then I shuffled into the main store for story time...and whatever came next.