Chapter 4! I know it's short, but I have many things planned for it in the future.
After that night you stuck to Nikolai like glue. He didn't seem to mind at all, sometimes you would even catch him smirking when he thought you weren't looking. For a while after that you would jump at every noise, and you were constantly looking over your shoulder. Nikolai was more than happy to let you cling to him when you were scared or had nightmares, and every night he would sleep in the same room as you.
You had begun to have nightmares after that night. There were two specific ones that seemed to plague you. One was the men attacking you, except this time Nikolai didn't come to your aid. The other one was you would get attacked by the men and Nikolai would save you, but he wouldn't just kill the men, he would kill you as well. The dream Nikolai would always claim that it was a punishment for leaving him.
"Never leave again, (name)." It was the same words he said the night he saved you, but it was an entirely different context. He would whisper it right before he stabbed you in the dream.
You would wake every night in tears, sometimes you would even wake screaming. And every night Nikolai would be right there waiting to comfort you. You would cling to him and cry, trying to forget the dreams that plagued your mind. He would stay awake with you for hours. Soon he would just climb into bed with you at night. You never protested against him, part of you was too scared to find out what would happen to you if you did. Every night he would crawl into bed with you, pulling you into his strong arms. After a week of this your nightmare's started to stop. It was slow, but eventually your nightmares went from every night to once a week to a couple times a night.
When the nightmares stopped, you had been too scared to tell him to leave. Truth be told you kind of liked having him there every night.
Though in a part of your mind you knew that Nikolai still didn't trust you. Part of you said that he only stayed with you every night just so that you couldn't try to escape again. This was only enforced by the fact that whenever he left he would lock you in your room until he got back. Truth be told though escape was the last thing on your mind. If he had found you once then he would find you again.
Why bother escaping when he would just find you again?
You started to do things around the house, anything from cooking to cleaning. You quickly learned that Nikolai couldn't cook very well, so you decided to start cooking the meals. With every passing day Nikolai seemed to realize that you had no intention of going anywhere, so he would leave you alone for longer periods at a time. He would even let you go outside, as long as you were with him of course.
Nikolai started to touch you more though. Whether it was brushing his hands across yours or actually hugging you, he always seemed to be touching you. It was as if he was afraid that if he wasn't constantly touching you then you would disappear. At first you would flinch at the contact, but then you got used to it, even welcoming his touch.
You couldn't help but wonder though, if his same rules about marriage would apply to you.