With This ring

by Le Carre, Georgia

  “Levan!” I howled.

  And just like an answered prayer, he appeared.

  He ran into the room but the flames were too high, and he immediately jumped right back.

  “Extinguisher!” he shouted and disappeared once again.

  The smoke began to get into my system and the heat began to char at my skin. I crouched down into a protective position but I knew I was only mere seconds away from being burnt to a crisp. I tried to contain the coughing, but the smoke itself felt as though it was seeping into my very bones.

  I could feel the fire start to lick at my skin when Levan blasted the extinguisher and it killed the fire in the section where I stood.

  “Come out!” he yelled, but the ground was too hot.

  “Maxim, come out!” he yelled and continued to blast the extinguisher to make a path for me, but I couldn’t move. He threw the fire extinguisher aside and came to me. Hauling me up, he dragged me out of the door.

  “Come on,” Levan ordered with a shout at his men. “The whole place is going to go up in flames soon.”

  “Freya…” I managed to croak out.

  “She’s fine,” he reassured me.

  With one of my arms around his shoulder and the other around Viktor’s we moved along. Everything passed by excruciatingly slowly and then…. so rapidly I experienced it in flashes. One moment I was struggling to walk and near collapse from the pain, and in the next I was being carried on a gurney into the hospital. I was in a corridor. Moving fast. I saw the light overhead, bright and so beautiful. I kept drifting in and out of consciousness, the damage to my body no longer bearable.

  Levan remained by my side, but after a while there was only very little that I could register.

  “Boris…” I muttered. “Don’t kill him. I’ll handle him myself.” I was going to finish him off just the way he had planned to do to me. Burn every single part of him to a crisp over an extended period of time. He was going to look for death and not see it.

  “He’s dead,” Levan said harshly.

  And I finally shut my eyes and let the blackness descend.

  Chapter Seventy-Eight

  Freya

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj0XD1NFa1I

  Levan, Bianca, and I were seated in the hallway of Maxim’s hospital room, awaiting the moment when he would finally awake. It had been two days now, and his eyes remained shut.

  They were speaking in low tones to each other and I felt alone and afraid. My nails were bitten to the quick, and my legs tapped nervously on the ground. Just thinking of all he had endured made me feel lost and sad. Stab wound, broken ribs, countless bruises, third degree burns on his hands and feet, the more serious problem of a concussion.

  What saddened me even further was that I had, so far, only been able to see him a handful of times and only with Levan’s presence in the room. As if he didn’t trust me with his brother. As if he blamed me for what had happened to Maxim.

  I felt as if I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed to be by his side, to watch even the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, and to listen to the beating of his heart. To soothe his hand with my touch until he came awake. I knew I could will him awake.

  I rose to my feet. “Levan, I’m going to sit with Maxim for a little while,” I announced, but before I could get to his door, two of his guards stepped in front of me and blocked my path. I turned around to look at Levan's stern gaze, and Bianca’s face, guilty and apologetic. She knew if it was Levan in there she would be in there with him.

  “You don’t have to,” he said. “He’s healing, let him be.”

  I was not going to back down. “I’m not going to disturb him. I just want to be by his side.”

  He sighed and came over to me. “Freya, the last thing I want is to be rude to you, but I think its best you keep your distance from him for now.”

  “Says who? You? I’m his woman and I deserve the right to be with him just as Bianca would have the right to be with you if you were lying in there hurt.”

  I’d never said the words out loud before, but I couldn’t deny the warmth that they filled me with. I was his woman. And no one could take that away from me.

  Even Levan was a bit taken aback, that I had finally spelt it out. Still, he pressed on.

  “I don’t think that you’re good for him.”

  “That’s not your call to make.”

  “My father could come by at any moment.”

  I looked him in the eye. “I’ll step away when he does.”

  He sighed at the determination in my eyes. I was going to go in no matter what he said unless they carried me out themselves. He nodded to the two men blocking my entrance, and they stepped away. I walked into the room, shut the door behind me and walked quietly towards Maxim. I could feel the sob forming in my throat.

  Only a few days ago he had looked so virile and indestructible, now he looked so pale and unwell.

  His feet were wrapped in bandages as well as various parts of his arms and chest. Thankfully, he only had a few cuts on his face which had been stitched up, but everywhere I looked some part of his flesh was purple with bruises.

  He had been hurt way too badly and it made my very soul ache. I sat on the chair by his side, and the tears began to roll silently down my cheeks.

  I wanted to touch him, but there was hardly any place that did not look sore and hurting. I was worried that it might cause him some sort of discomfort. Eventually, I rested my head on the edge of his bed and softy laid my hand on top of his.

  I thought of all the times we had spent with each other thus far, the arguments, the misunderstandings, the fights, all the bad blood, the twisted history, and in the end here we were. None of that mattered any longer. He was my heart. The reason I woke in the morning. The reason I breathed. I never wanted to let him go. I wanted Maxim ferociously. I wanted to care for him… bear his children. Grow old with him.

  I wiped the tears from my face and wondered at the force of my emotion for him. How and when had he snuck his way this deeply into my heart? I could have sworn that I had been on guard.

  Suddenly, I felt a slight movement on my palm and almost jumped out of my skin. I realized that it could have been Maxim just stirring, but with hope bursting out of my chest, I lifted my head to study him. My heart nearly fell out of my chest as I breathlessly watched his eyelids flutter and open.

  He looked at me and I remained stuck and frozen in position.

  And then he opened his mouth to speak. His tone was low and weak, but I watched his lips and heard every word.

  “Why are you crying?” he asked.

  I quickly shook my head. “I’m not crying,” I sobbed. “I’m really not.”

  “I don’t want to see you cry,” he murmured, and stretched his hand towards me.

  Instantly, I leaned into his touch and his bandaged hand wiped the moisture from my cheek.

  I shut my eyes and basked in the pure bliss of his touch and presence, and then I lifted my gaze to stare into his eyes.

  “Thanks for being here,” he said, and all I could do was smile.

  “I will be fine,” he said and I nodded heartily in response.

  “You don’t have a choice,” I said. “You have to recover and quickly, so I can beat you up for being so reckless.”

  He smiled. “I love you, Freya Federov. My one regret while they were torturing my body was I didn’t tell you that.”

  I began to howl with happiness. At the sound Levan and his guards rushed in.

  “Get out,” Maxim said, his voice stronger than it had been.

  Levan had tears of joy in his eyes as he ushered his men out.

  “Maybe you don’t love me yet, but you will. I’ll make you fall in love with me if it’s the last thing I do.”

  I leaned down and kissed his mouth. Our kiss tasted strange, of the chemicals they had given him, but I didn’t care. When I raised my head, I looked deeply into his eyes. “I’m so in love with you, I thought I would die when I saw t
hat photo of you on the ground with a knife in your body.”

  He grinned. “Was that all it took? If you had told me earlier I would have stuck a knife in myself.”

  “That’s not funny, Maxim,” I complained. “You don’t know what it’s like to love someone the way I love you.”

  “Are you trying to pretend you love me more than I love you?”

  “Are you trying to start a fight?”

  He started to laugh and then had to stop for the pain. He looked into my eyes. “Can you just be a bit clingy for once?”

  “You want me to be clingy?” I asked incredulously

  “I like clingy from you.”

  I smiled. “You have no idea what you just signed up for.”

  “I know exactly what I’ve signed up for and I can’t wait to start my life with you, my darling heart.”

  “Neither can I, Maxim Ivankov. Neither can I.”

  Epilogue

  Six Weeks Later

  Freya

  I was looking for Maxim.

  The store was a flurry of activity and excitement, but more than half an hour had passed since he said he would be here. I knew he had a meeting afterwards, but he had promised to make the time to stop by for my store’s launch. Maybe he got held up. Never mind, I told myself. It was not important. There will be many other launches we will celebrate together.

  A waiter passed by with a tray of champagne and without thinking I reached for a flute, needing the refreshment, but then I remembered, and drew my hand away. As I turned away I saw him.

  He was seated at the welding station. His hand was outstretched and Jeremy, one of our interns, was attempting to weld a chain bracelet around his wrist. It was a design I made and excitedly showed to him a week earlier.

  Maxim had his hawk-like gaze on my newbie and I saw the terror on his face, and that was already more than enough to unsettle him. There were two guards in suits looming in the background, which did nothing to alleviate his fear. I saw his hand shake, and immediately hurried over to rescue him.

  “I’ll do it, Jeremy,” I said, and he jumped to his feet gratefully and handed the machine over to me. I sat on the stool before my heart.

  “I thought you couldn’t make it,” I said.

  A gentle smile curved his lips. How I loved that my presence could do that to him, instantly brighten him up and put him in a better mood.

  “I canceled my meetings for the rest of the evening,” he said. “It’s your big day. I want to be here through it all in case you need me.”

  His words struck my heart, and I watched him, tears filling my eyes, especially in the light of what I knew.

  “Hey,” he called and reached forward to catch the tear with his thumb before it ran down my face. “Hey, are you alright?”

  I leaned my face into his palm, and reveled in the warmth of his touch. “I’m fine,” I said and sniffed my emotions away. “I’m just happy and overwhelmed. I’m finally opening my own store. It’s not been easy at all.”

  “I know,” he said. “You’ve worked so hard. I adore you for that.”

  I laughed at his generous compliment. “You’re one to talk Mr. Workaholic.”

  “I’ve slowed down greatly since you’ve come into my life. You have to acknowledge that.”

  “I do,’ I said, and leaned forward and captured his lips for a quick kiss.

  But he wrapped his hand around my neck and lengthened the kiss. Holding me in place he claimed me, our tongues dancing as I savored his oh so familiar and especially intoxicating taste. The whole world faded away and I almost fell from the chair.

  Laughing softly he caught me and set me upright. My eyes opened wide in a daze. Sometimes I still couldn’t believe that this man was mine. Suddenly I was aware of the people milling around me so I broke his gaze and focused my attention on welding the solid gold bracelet to his wrist. Just like mine, it was to remain on him until he intentionally broke it off. I gazed at it and wondered if it would last until the day he died.

  “I want to go home,” I said and rose to my feet.

  He did the same, and looked down worriedly at me. “Already? Your event is still on.”

  “It’s winding down. The main itinerary for the evening has been handled. Britney can handle the rest. I don’t feel very well,” I said.

  “Of course. I’ll get Roman to bring the car around.”

  Maxim

  Freya went upstairs as soon as we got back because she needed the bathroom. I pulled the tie off my neck and went ahead to pour myself a drink, but a better idea occurred to me. Perhaps if I opened a bottle of wine instead, she would join me. I hardly ever had wine but this was a worthy exception.

  I walked into our bedroom, placed the bottle and glasses on the dresser, and I heard her coughing. I hurried to the bathroom to find her on her knees spilling her guts into the toilet bowl. She lifted her gaze to mine and she looked miserable.

  All the color had drained from her face, and her eyes where reddened and strained. She had tied her hair back and out of the way, but a couple of stray strands were plastered to the perspiration on her forehead.

  My heart lurched at the sight and I dropped down next to her.

  “Freya,” I called and pulled her towards me.

  She quickly wiped the vomit that stained the corners of her lips.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m alright,” she managed a weak smile. “I think I ate something bad earlier.”

  She began to head towards the sink so I supported her and held her hair as she rinsed her mouth. When she was done, she turned to me with a smile and gave me a quick hug.

  “I’ll go lie down for a little bit.”

  “Should I call the doctor?”

  “No, I’m alright, it’ll pass. I just want to lie down.”

  I helped tuck her into bed. She turned her face away from me and suddenly I knew exactly what was wrong with her.

  “Do you want some wine?” I asked.

  She waved her hand in response.

  “Er … no.”

  “Perhaps later?” I asked, one eyebrow cocked.

  “Uh …”

  “I’ll get you some food then. Craving anything in particular?”

  “Uh … maybe some steamed rice rolls.” She turned to glance at me. “I think I can stomach that.”

  “Alright,” I said and placed a kiss on her forehead. The moment I exited the room, I placed the order for the food, and then called Bianca.

  It was a six-hour time difference to South Africa, but thankfully she picked up.

  “Hey, Maxim,” she responded. It was 3am there.

  “Bianca,” I said. “I’m sorry for the late call but I have to ask you something. What symptoms did you have when you got pregnant?”

  Freya

  “How far along are you?” he asked.

  My heart stopped beating. For the longest time, I didn’t move. I waited for him to say something else but when he didn’t, I knew that my period of grace was up. I sat up, too afraid to meet his eyes.

  “Uh …” I breathed. “About six weeks.”

  The room went silent. And then he moved to sit next to me on the bed.

  “Why is your head hanging?” he asked. “Why are you acting like you’ve committed a crime?”

  I choked back tears. “I wasn't careful. I’m so sorry.” I searched his gaze. “I was going to tell you. I was just waiting for the right time. I know it will change things, but I promise I will take care of everything.”

  “Do you have so little faith in me?” he asked.

  I raised my head.

  He shook his head. “So your conclusion is that I am not going be happy with the inconvenience of having a child, the baby I created with you?”

  My brain felt scrambled. “You’ve never …”

  “Never what?” he asked, one eyebrow arching.

  “You’ve never said anything about wanting…” I couldn't complete my statement. I didn't want to cry again, but the tears roll
ed down my face before I could stop them. “I’m sorry for crying, but it’s the hormones I swear. I’m so freaking out of balance.”

  Maxim placed a leather box on the table.

  I stilled and stared at it.

  “Open it,” he urged softly.

  I reached for the box with shaky hands. Taking a deep breath I pulled it open. Inside was the most beautiful diamond ring I’d ever seen. It sparkled like mad. Slowly, I looked up to Maxim’s waiting face.

  “Marry me, Freya Federov.”

  I opened my mouth but no words would come out.

  “Yes,” I replied. “Yes, yes, yes, I will. With all of my heart.”

  “Now we will make both our fathers happy.” He reached me then and pulled me into his arms. I held on tightly to him and never wanted to let go.

  “I love you, Freya. I love you so much it fucking hurts when I think anything is wrong with you.”

  “I feel exactly the same way,” I said, and pulled away to look into his eyes. “I can’t believe you’re finally mine.”

  “And I am over the moon that you are pregnant with my child. I can’t wait to have a little red-headed Freya running around.”

  I laughed. “Funny, I was thinking I couldn’t wait to have a little black-haired Maxim running around.”

  “Well, how about we have both. As far as I am concerned we can have as many as you want to have, but I draw the line at sixteen.”

  I laughed. “I want three.”

  “I can live with that.”

  Then he slipped the ring onto my finger and bending his head pressed his lips to mine. The kiss he gave to me was the sweetest and most soul stirring kiss I’d ever received from him.

  Epilogue 2

  Maxim

  Three Months later

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtOvBOTyX00