With This ring

by Le Carre, Georgia

“Is that good enough? Do you just nod to a fully worded salutation?”

  She snickered and I tried to feel amused too, but I just could not. I was actually hurt. I had never stopped thinking of him and all the while he couldn’t give a shit. Hell, he couldn’t even say hello.

  “Don’t mind it too much,” Aldie said, “that’s how he is. He barely says anything.”

  “Oh no, he speaks,” I corrected bitterly. “Just not to people that he feels are beneath him. Isn’t that just plain arrogance?”

  “Uh,” her eyebrows furrowed and I realize that I was ranting to someone I’d just met for the first time a few minutes earlier.

  “Ignore me,” I said with a forced smile. “I’ve known him a while and I was just being touchy. Rough day.”

  “Perfectly fine,” she said with a genuine smile as Levan and Bianca returned to the room.

  The dessert tasting soon began, but Maxim didn’t join us. “He’s not one for sweets,” Levan explained.

  I resisted the impulse to roll my eyes. He definitely needed some with all the bitterness he carried in his twisted cold heart.

  Bianca’s assortment of desserts for her wedding were exquisite. The stars of the show were mini cannoli, golden cupcakes, blended mochas in shot glasses, and the cutest caramel apples dressed in tuxedos. Almost an hour later, the tasting came to an end and the final choices had been made.

  “I need to run,” Aldie said, rising up. “Early morning tomorrow.”

  “We’ll walk you out,” Levan said and he and Bianca stood.

  Looking around at the loads of used plates, I decided to help them get a head start on the cleaning. I was pretty sure they had some help, but it was my habit not to leave a mess for the morning. I began to gather the small dessert plates and forks we had used and took them over to the sink. They had a dishwasher, and I was about to give them a rinse when Maxim emerged from wherever he had crawled into.

  I completely ignored him as he came over with a used cup of coffee and placed it on the counter. I glared at the dirty cup as he turned to leave and couldn’t hold back any more.

  “Why are you so impolite to me?” I asked. “Is it because you see me as beneath you?”

  He turned and gave me his full attention. “Excuse me?” he asked, and just like that my brain was scrambled again, at his gaze, at the melody of his voice, and most definitely at the fine specimen of a man he looked clothed in his charcoal suit, black shirt and white tie.

  I turned away before I embarrassed myself. “Forget it.”

  Out of nowhere his hand closed around my arm.

  My heart gave a nervous jump I whirled around like a cut snake. Hissing with aggression. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Why do you always want to provoke me?” he asked softly.

  I stopped breathing. He was too close, his scent of musk and lemon, twirling all around me, and those eyes on mine... and then on my lips. My knees became jelly.

  “Let me go!” I tried to pull my hand away but he wouldn’t let go.

  “Are you attracted to me?” he asked.

  My mouth dropped open with incredulity. The next few moments were of me puffing air and unable to form a coherent sentence to defend myself. I settled on an outraged insult. “Get over your fucking self, Maxim.”

  “Kiss me,” he ordered, his gaze fluttering down to my lips.

  I felt my cheeks burn.

  “Let’s see if this attraction between us is really as potent as it seems.”

  His gaze lifted to mine with the challenge and I wanted to defy him. By God that was all that I swore to myself I wanted, but the truth was a whole different matter. I wanted something even more.

  My voice weakened but I gave it my best shot. “Let me go,” I croaked, like a helpless Victorian damsel. I tried again to pull away, but by now my willpower was feeble, reduced to nothing in the presence of the beast.

  He let go, but then his hand slid around my waist and in the next breath, his lips were on mine.

  I felt a zap!

  A painful jarring sensation shot straight to my core and awoke every single nerve in my body. He kissed me softly, gently, and I felt myself begin to crumble to the floor. His taste was like a drug, released into me to completely unravel me, and it was so sweet that it stole my breath away.

  His tongue teased mine, stroking and withdrawing and at the hard suck of my lips I almost felt liquid hot desire begin to drip from my thighs.

  “Maxim,” I held onto his shirt, desperate not to fall … desperate to hold on to what remained of my sanity. This was wrong… he was wrong. I was supposed to loathe him. That was all I knew for so long.

  Somewhere in the distance, I heard laughter and was instantly jerked back to my senses. Maxim did not hear or did not care.

  I tried to pull away, but he held on tightly to me and slipped his tongue even deeper into my mouth. I couldn’t help it. All I could do was suck on his tongue. He tightened his grip around my waist and I was so lost in him that for the next few seconds I did little to protest. But then I felt everything go silent and that was more than enough to jar me back to reason. I grabbed uselessly at his hand around my waist.

  “Maxim!” I heard a call from the distance, and his grip loosened.

  Our parting made the sweetest, softest, sucking sound. I knew that punctuation to the end of how much he had just made the world spin under my feet would haunt me in the days to come. He let go of me and turned away, not giving any of us a chance to see just how much he had unraveled. I watched him, his chest rising and falling with every harsh breath. I turned around to meet Levan and Bianca watching us. Levan had a very thoughtful gaze on his face while Bianca couldn’t hide her smile.

  “We’re so sorry for interrupting you both,” she apologized, and grabbed onto her fiancé’s hand. “Let’s give them some privacy.”

  “No need!” I almost yelled. “I’m leaving.” I began to look madly around for my purse until she reminded me that it was in the foyer. I almost sprinted towards it. She came after me to see me out, but I barely heard a single thing she said.

  I was out of the door in a flash. My whole world had just turned upside down.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Maxim

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgy7vEje5-w

  I couldn’t go home.

  With that one kiss, it felt as though my entire belief system had come crashing down, and I needed to finish what I started. I went and got my car and found myself arriving at her apartment building and parking on the opposite side of the street.

  They lived on the third floor of an old Bronx apartment building and although the blinds were open all I could see was a glimpse of their living room. But there were no movements whatsoever.

  But I couldn’t leave. I had to see her again. One look, and I promised myself I would go. Just one look.

  I felt cursed, put under a spell that I couldn’t understand. Even the crippling dose of self-loathing that filled me was not enough to make me pull away. I sat there like a fool. For one little glimpse.

  I knew not to call her. She wouldn’t respond. She was probably as shaken as I was, but had an ego that was bigger than any man’s. It aggravated me, but at the same time heightened my excitement for her.

  I saw a car pull up in front of her building and stop. A few seconds passed and no one came out of it. I sat up, all my senses on high alert. Then a man came out of the front passenger door. He was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, and had a baseball cap worn low enough to hide his face. He had a pizza box in hand, but he looked around cautiously. The way a hitman does.

  I could be just paranoid, but no harm in being safe. I immediately grabbed my gun and got out of the car.

  I began to approach the car. As I got closer the car jerked to a start, and I immediately pointed my gun at it. It screeched away and I knew then that I only had a few seconds before Freya would be in trouble.

  I pulled my phone out of my pocket and made a quick call as I r
an up the stairs.

  “Follow the car!” I said to the men watching.

  “Already on it,” came Nikolai’s response.

  “How many of them are in the car?”

  “Just one,” he responded. “The driver.”

  That meant he would be too preoccupied to warn his colleague who had gone into Freya’s apartment.

  I arrived at her door and knocked hard, twice. It took a while, but soon it was opened and Freya appeared at the door looking more annoyed than anything else. I looked beyond her into the room, my gaze searched and saw no one except Britney, sitting on their couch.

  The expression on Freya’s face shocked me. “Maxim sweetheart,” she sang out.

  I knew then he was already in there.

  “What are you doing here, darling? It’s already too late and Britney and I are just about to go to bed, but I’ll see you tomorrow?”

  “I forgot my tie here,” I said, and when she still refused to step aside I gently pushed her out of the way.

  All seemed well, but I knew that was not the case. Her friend looked terrified while Freya had fear written all over her face as she looked from me to the counter. I turned around and found myself staring down the barrel of a gun.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Freya

  I hated with all of my heart that Maxim was here.

  My shock at seeing him at the door had been immeasurable, then relief, and then the fear that he would get hurt had swamped me. I didn’t want him here.

  “Put down your gun,” the idiot that had posed as a pizza delivery man ordered.

  He was skinny and had the weirdest looking face and flattened bangs I had ever seen. I couldn’t place his ethnicity but he had the protruded facial structure of a dog or wolf. I liked wolves and dogs, but it was not a good look on him.

  “Drop your fucking gun!” he yelled, and I could see that his fully tattooed hand was now shaking, where it had previously not been when he had been faced with just myself and Britney. I could see then that he feared Maxim. He probably even knew him.

  I breathed easier, but we were still in the midst of a madman and possibly mere seconds from life and death if he got spooked and began firing. Britney was the one whom I pitied the most. She was trembling so hard in her flea market red chair I could almost hear it rattling under the pressure. I swore then that I would find a way to get her out of all this.

  Maxim lowered the gun and gently placed it on the ground as per the instruction given. When he rose back up, he asked a question that we all wanted to know the answer to. “Who sent you?”

  “Shut up!” The madman barked nervously. “Step away from the gun. Far, far away. Or else I will blow her fucking head off right now.”

  He pointed the gun towards me and my heart almost jumped out of my chest. I needed to sit down but I couldn’t move an inch from my position against the door.

  “Tell me who sent you,” Maxim repeated, “I’ll let you go. I’m a man of my word.”

  He began to approach him and suddenly a bullet was fired. Britney screamed as even the walls seemed to shake with the explosion. My hands went to my ringing ears. For a few seconds, I was in shock. I felt sick to my stomach and was almost too afraid to open my eyes, but when I did, I saw that Maxim was alright and Britney who had her head buried between her knees was completely still. She might have passed out.

  “Don’t you fucking move!” the gunman screamed. It was clear he felt he’d lost control of the situation and was in panic mode.

  Everything in the room stilled as we waited along with the madman for what Maxim would do.

  Maxim took another step forward.

  I found my voice. “Uh, I don’t think that’s the best approach, Maxim.”

  “I will blow your head off!” the madman promised, his eyes wild, but when that didn’t seem to faze Maxim he turned the gun towards me. “I will blow her fucking head off.”

  Maxim raised his hands in the air. “You know who I am. If you kill me or her, you will be hunted down like a dog and made to suffer for days. Your skin will be torn off you. Your dick will be cut off and fed to you. Your mother will die. If you have children they will die too. If you have a wife or girl, pity her for what she will suffer.”

  The man began to shake uncontrollably.

  “I’ll let you go,” he said. “I’ll count to three, and you can leave.”

  I suddenly wasn’t sure who was more out of their mind. Maxim or the madman, but I kept my mouth shut, but I did notice the intense way Maxim was studying him. Perhaps he knew something that I did not.

  He backed away then and the man seemed to be considering what he had just said.

  Maxim turned to me and I was more freaked out than anything that he had actually taken his eyes off the guy.

  “What are you doing?” I whispered.

  “Move!” he ordered. “Move away from the door right now.”

  I looked towards the madman and saw that he didn’t seem to have any problems with Maxim’s request. So I took one step to the side, and when I saw that he didn’t react, I hurried over to Britney’s side.

  Maxim moved away too, and to my surprise, stood as a shield in front of me and Britney. I cradled poor blameless Britney and prayed for this nightmare to quickly come to an end.

  The madman began to move, slowly and carefully and soon he was at the door.

  “You can leave. I won’t do anything to you,” Maxim said.

  The man stood there uncertainly. Then he lifted his gun and pointed it directly at Maxim.

  Suddenly, I knew then that things were going to go sour.

  “Move out of the way!” the man yelled. “I didn’t come for you, Ivankov. I have my orders.”

  So he did know who Maxim was.

  “Well you’re not getting to her unless you go through me.”

  “I will shoot you!” he roared.

  “Do it. You know the consequences,” Maxim replied. I had never seen anyone look as torn as the gunman. With a heartbreaking look at us, at his failure, he turned and ran for his life. Maxim picked up his gun and was out of the apartment in a flash, after him.

  The life was nearly squeezed out of me. “Come back!” I yelled to him. “Why the fuck are you going after him?”

  I ran to the door but before I could leave Britney cried for my return.

  “Please don’t leave me,” she begged and I instantly went back to her. I sat by her side and rocked the both of us. I was terrified for Maxim. I felt as if I would die if anything happened to him.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Maxim

  “You’re not staying here,” I declared, the moment I returned. “Pack what you need, you’re coming to my house.”

  I thought she would argue against the idea, but hoped she would have been scared enough not to. I was grateful when all she said was, “I’m not going without Britney.”

  “You can bring her,” I said, relieved.

  They grabbed the things they needed and in a short trip later we were back at my home. They were shown different rooms by our housekeeper Mariah, but Mariah said both girls decided to stay in the same room. I realized they were both gravely shaken and it made me even more furious at the attack. I was about to enter the meeting with my head of security when Levan called me.

  “I just heard,” he said, his voice muted, probably so as not to alert Bianca.

  “Everyone’s alright,” I quickly established.

  “Fuck,” he swore. “It must have been so hard on them. It was just a few months ago that I was in deep shit, and now this? Why does this stuff keep happening?”

  “The common variable is women,” I pointed out sarcastically.

  He laughed. “I don’t even know what to say to that.”

  His laughter unwound me a little bit and I began to look at the situation with a little less heat. “I’ve got to go, but I’ll give you the details tomorrow.”

  “Sure, but why did you go over to Freya’s place? I was told that you we
re already there. Did you know something was going to go down?”

  “Goodnight,” I responded, and put an end to the call.

  Then I walked into the study and listened to my men brief me about how they let the gunman disappear into thin air. As for the driver, he had apparently crashed his car during their pursuit of him and been injured and knocked unconscious. My men couldn’t do anything but drive on as a police car arrived almost immediately on the scene.

  “We took his photo. Through that we should be able to find out more.”

  I felt irritated, angry and disappointed. What would have happened tonight if I had not been there? Was this what I was paying top dollar for? And what about Igor’s men? Were they asleep on the job as well, or had they relaxed because my men were on the job? Were both teams slacking off because they assumed the other team was on it? I decided then to tell Igor to pull his men off. I knew my men were better. They just needed a damn good kick in the ass.

  Then I let my team see my extreme displeasure. Roman was white-faced by the time I was finished. More security devices were put in place and the meeting came to an end.

  Restless and disturbed I went upstairs. I stopped outside the room Freya and Britney were sleeping. There were no sounds coming from inside and no strip of light under the door so it was safe to assume they were sleeping. I didn’t want to knock in case I woke them up, but I needed to see that everything was okay. Quietly I pushed the door open, no more than a crack, and in the darkened interior saw the shapes of their still bodies on the bed.

  Satisfied that they were both safe I shut the door and headed to my room.

  I had just arrived in my room when a message arrived on my phone.

  Can you talk? Is it too late?

  It was Freya, and my response was immediate.

  Yes.

  Her reply came quickly.

  At the bottom of the stairs? Five minutes?