I've known Nikolai Volkov since I was thirteen years old.
I've also known, since long before I should have, that he's been in love with me for just as long — and has spent every year since building walls instead of bridges.
He's the club enforcer. My brother's best friend. The quietest, most controlled man I have ever met. And for ten years, he has looked at me only when he thinks I'm not looking back.
I'm always looking back.
Now we're running a youth mentorship program together. Side by side, every week, close enough that I can feel the decade of restraint vibrating off him like a live wire. He calls me Ms. Calloway in front of people. He knows exactly how I take my coffee.
The wall is cracking. I can hear it.
But Nikolai Volkov doesn't do anything halfway — not his silence, not his loyalty, and not the way he loves.
The question isn't whether he'll finally let go.
The question is whether either of us will survive it when he does.
Genre: Romantic Suspense
I've also known, since long before I should have, that he's been in love with me for just as long — and has spent every year since building walls instead of bridges.
He's the club enforcer. My brother's best friend. The quietest, most controlled man I have ever met. And for ten years, he has looked at me only when he thinks I'm not looking back.
I'm always looking back.
Now we're running a youth mentorship program together. Side by side, every week, close enough that I can feel the decade of restraint vibrating off him like a live wire. He calls me Ms. Calloway in front of people. He knows exactly how I take my coffee.
The wall is cracking. I can hear it.
But Nikolai Volkov doesn't do anything halfway — not his silence, not his loyalty, and not the way he loves.
The question isn't whether he'll finally let go.
The question is whether either of us will survive it when he does.
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Used availability for Tessa Knox's Ember's Fire