“You know something, Ryker, I thought you were just being controlling at first. But I can see now that you’re deep. You’re so deep that you’re not looking to do a thing except help me be me again. And for that, I have tremendous respect for you. So much respect that I’d never want to be with you without ending things with Damien first.”
His eyes close and he lets out a breath as he takes my hands and holds them to his heart. “You have no idea how good that is to hear, Gia.” When his eyes open I can see how glassy they are and it makes my insides melt.
“You do love me, don’t you?” I ask him as I can nearly see the love that glows around him.
“I do,” he says with a nod. “And I’ve never known this kind of love before. Gia, everything I’ve done lately, is for you. There’s not a thing I’ve done without you at the forefront of my mind. That’s how come I know that something will work out for us in the long run. I have not one fear about that.”
“My only real fear is that you will try your best to bend and shape me into doing and being what it is you want,” I tell him, finally being honest with myself.
He looks down as if contemplating what I’ve said. When he looks back up at me, he says, “You may well be right.”
Biting my lip, I know I’m right. “So, you see, there’s not a hell of a lot different between the two of you.”
“No, you’re wrong,” he says as his grip on my hands grows tighter. “You see, I will never force you and I will always keep watch over you. If I think you’re caving to me, I will stop what I’m doing. I want you to do whatever it is you want in this life. But I want us to spend at least a piece of this lifetime we have, together.”
“That’s almost like a proposal, Ryker. A very sweet and honest proposal and I wish like hell I had my shit together already. But I don’t.”
He nods and lets my hands go then gets up and stands in front of me. “So, I will be waiting for you until you come to me or tell me not to wait anymore. In the meantime, I will keep you to your contract with Apollo Engineering. I get you for a week out of each month. So, you go on back to Russia if you want to but I will see that gorgeous face at least once a month.”
With a smile, I get up and make my way to the door. “If I was completely out of this thing with Damien right now, I’d be all over your ass, Ryker. You’re caring ways have me flowing hot.”
“Then you better hurry your hot ass out of here and lock your door because it’s taking everything I have to hold myself back from throwing you over my shoulder and taking you to the bed and showing you just what you mean to me.”
I giggle but when I turn back around to look at him, I can see that lustful look in his eyes and the laughter stops. “Oh, you’re for real!”
“I’m for real. Run, baby,” he growls and starts moving toward me.
Part of me wants to run right into his arms but the part of me with what’s left of any morals that are trying to come back to the surface, turns and I go out the door, run to my bedroom and lock the door behind me.
Falling back on the closed and locked door, I laugh then hear a thud on the door behind me and the door knob wiggles. “Damn!” I hear him say.
Resting my head on the door, I want to open it more than I’ve wanted anything. “Goodnight,” I whisper.
Then I know he’s still there as he whispers back, “Goodnight, Gia. Can I hear you tell me the words?”
“I love you, Ryker.”
“Yes,” he hisses. “And I love you, Gia. With my whole heart and soul, I love you. Make the right decisions, baby. Make the right ones with me in mind, please.” Then his steps can be heard, walking away and I walk to my bed.
Sleep might come or it might evade me but one thing is certain, I have to make some drastic changes to my life. For my sanity and Ryker’s, my mind has to be made up and that has to happen sooner rather than later.
Part 6 - The Departure
GIA
Stepping off one jet to get right back onto another, I look over my shoulder to find Ryker wearing a frown on his handsome face. Looking forward, I see Damien has stepped out onto the stairs to look for me.
Sandra and Tabitha come up on either side of me, Sandra whispers “You hurry back to us, Gia. We really need you.”
Tabitha pats me on the back. “You’re the major brain in our trio, Gia. Please do hurry back to us.”
“Gia,” Damien shouts as he waves at me. “Come, we need to be on our way.”
“I’ll try,” I tell them as I quicken my steps to get to Damien.
“Gia!” comes a shout from Ryker as he hurries to get to me. I jerk my head in Damien’s direction to see what he thinks about this and find him frowning. “I need to tell you one more thing before you leave us.”
I stop and wait for Ryker to get to me and find him taking my hands in his and looking at me with more than a bit of fear in his dark eyes. “Ryker, you know this is going to get me into trouble with Damien.”
“Good,” he says then grins. “Gia, I want you to be confident. I’m not going to ever use the information I know about Damien’s son. Don’t let that affect your decisions. No matter what Damien thinks, I’m not that kind of person.”
“That’s great to hear, Ryker. For the record, I knew you weren’t.”
“Gia, promise me you’ll come back soon.” He looks into my eyes and I see the worry in them.
“I’m going to see about things. I’m not making you any promises. The only one I will make you, is that I will be returning next month as the contract states I will.”
He nods but my words have done nothing to comfort him. “Don’t let him treat you like shit.”
“I won’t.”
“You say that but you’ve always allowed it,” he says then pulls me very close to him. So close, I’m afraid he’s going to kiss me.
“Ryker,” I say but it does no good.
His hands let mine go as they move up my arms. I should step back but I stay right where I am. My body tingles with his touch and when he takes my face between his hands, I melt into him.
Our lips touch and a fire rips through me. I’m kissing Ryker Crawford in front of his employees and Damien!
The way his thumbs rub my jaw has my lips parting for him and he comes right on in, like an old friend. Our kiss is long and speaks to me just as clearly as any of his words could possibly do to make me see what he feels for me.
I can hardly breathe when he ends the kiss with light pecks. “I love you, Gia. I don’t care who knows that. Come back. Whether you come back to me or not, just come back.”
I can’t talk as I look into those sad, dark eyes of his. I nod and turn away from him. Tears blur my vision as I walk to Damien’s jet. I wipe them away as I walk up the stairs and find him still waiting at the top of them.
“That was going too far, Gia,” Damien hisses at me. His hand closes around my upper arm then he jerks me inside the plane.
I see Svetlana and Friedrich sitting in the back as Damien manhandles me to a seat in the front. He, not so gently, pushes me down to sit and I look up at him. “You need to stop with the physical shit, Damien.”
Leaning over, he whispers in my ear, “You and I will be going into the bedroom as soon as this plane is in the sky and you will learn who you belong to, Gia.”
My stomach knots then it quickly goes away. “No, we won’t. I don’t belong to anyone. Not anyone, Damien. I’m going back with you for my own reasons. None of them have to do with you.”
“Do you really expect me to give you what I leave here, if you don’t do what I ask of you?” he asks me as he takes the seat across the tiny aisle from me and belts himself in as the plane is readying for takeoff.
“I’m not going to talk to you about that right now.” I close my eyes and lie my head back to rest as the captain speaks in Russian over the speaker system.
“You seem confidant,” he says then makes a huffing noise. “Let’s see how long that lasts. I will be reminding you of what I have to give you
.”
“Yes, the palatial estate in Russia. The mountains of money.”
“The jewels, the cars, the purses, and shoes. The designer clothing, the fancy creams and lotions. All those things you now have are really mine, Gia. You came to me with the clothes on your back, which are long gone now. I promise you, you will not leave with any more than you came with.”
I open my eyes and level them on his. “I bet I will.”
His right eye twitches a bit. “He has turned you completely against me, hasn’t he?”
“You have done that on your own.” I lie back and close my eyes again in an attempt to keep my relaxed composure.
My stomach is doing a dizzying dance of knotting up then relaxing as my body goes between full on panic and trying to keep control of my emotions. I will not go back to the weak woman I have been these last three years. But it’s an internal battle that’s going on inside of me.
“We will talk, you and I,” he says as the plane starts to take off.
“Yes, we will,” I agree. “I will talk.”
“Your head is held high now,” he says under his breath. “But how it will soon fall.”
My heart clenches as I fear what he’s going to do but then it eases as I tell myself, he can’t do anything to hurt me. He only has the power I give him and I am no longer going to give him any.
I can hear poor Friedrich crying as we make our ascension into the sky. His cries stir my soul and I feel terrible about him and what he came into. But he carries the genetics that make up Damien too. I’m sure, as he grows up, he will have that same strength the whole family of Markov’s possess. And I remind myself, he is not my burden to bear.
My family is not my burden to bear. I have but one and that is myself, for now, anyway. One day, there may come more people into my life that I hold dear enough to make sacrifices for. These people are not them.
Spending time with the team has taught me loads about life. I was hellbent on taking what Damien offered me and making sure my life as well as my family’s was stable, secure, and one of great wealth.
I spent the weekend with people who are striving to make it possible to leave this planet, with all of its material things, to go to a place with nothing. Sandra was talking about doing a camp out once and thinking it was hard and she’d never want to do more than a couple of days of living like that. But she wants to go Mars, where living will be a hundred times harder than camping anywhere on this planet is.
I suppose that’s where I’m at right now. I thought I couldn’t do without the money Damien would be leaving me. I thought my family could never make it without that security. But I’m about to leave that security blowing in the wind as I take off to another place. A place of uncertainty and hard work.
There’s never been a time that I felt so close to the brink of disaster and I love it in this place. There will be no wobbling back and forth, where Damien and his money are concerned. I’m set on the path I have planned out for myself.
Two men will not be happy about what I’ve chosen to do but I will have to learn how to deal with men who are unhappy with my decisions.
RYKER
It’s been two weeks since Gia left with Damien to go back to Russia. And she’s not contacted me even once. I’ve given her space and left her alone but my heart is aching to hear her voice, so I’m calling her on the pretense of work. While the work day is over, being it’s six in the evening here, it’s just beginning in Russia, where it’s eight in the morning.
“Gia Flynn’s assistant, can I take a message?” a young woman asks me as she answers Gia’s cell.
“Uh,” I stammer as I have no idea what the hell is happening or who this is. “This is Ryker Crawford.”
“Oh, yes. Mr. Crawford, Miss Flynn has a consulting contract with your company, Apollo Engineering. What may I do for you today, sir?”
“Can I speak with her?”
“She’s in court today. That’s why I have her cell. I’m not sure when she’ll be out. I will leave her a message to call you. Is this an important matter that needs immediate attention, sir?”
“No, not really. She can call me back whenever she gets time. Where is she?”
“I’m not at liberty to give out that information,” she says with quipped words. “Will there be anything else, Mr. Crawford?”
“Is she in the states or Russia?” I tap my finger on the desk, as not knowing is making me crazy.
“That is not my information to divulge.”
I turn on my charisma and charm to see if I can get more information out of this tight-lipped woman. “You sound pretty. Mind me asking where I might find you? It’s nearly lunch and I’ve yet to find a lunch date. Maybe you…”
“Sir, I am well aware of your relationship with my employer. If you would refrain from speaking to me in a flirtatious manner, that would be appreciated. Also, I am quite smart and am completely aware that you are seeking information about my whereabouts so you can obtain Miss Flynn’s. She will be given this message when she gets out of court. Good day, sir.”
“Good day,” I say as she ends the call.
Well, I’m not stopping there. I call her father to see what he knows about his daughter and her whereabouts and why she’s in court. “Ryker,” her father answers. “How’s it going, son?”
“Great here. How about with you, Johnny?”
“Fine, just fine. Did you get those soil samples back yet?” he asks me.
“Still waiting on them. I needed to make sure you emailed your banking information to payroll, so they can set up the direct deposit for you.”
“Yes, that was done already,” he says.
“How’s Gia?” pops out of my mouth.
“Good, I suppose. I haven’t talked to her since you guys left that day. I thought she was working with you, Ryker. You should know how she is.”
“I haven’t talked to her since that day, either. Do you know if they made it back to Russia?”
“Well, now that you’re saying something about it, no. You don’t think something’s happened, do you? A plane crash!” he says.
“No!” I stop his bad train of thought. “No, I talked to her assistant. She’s fine. Alive, no crashing. It’s just that I don’t know where she is.”
“Her assistant?” he asks. “Your company gave her one, or what?”
“Or what,” I tell him. “She must’ve gotten one on her own. I called to discuss some business with her and the lady who answered her phone said she was in court. And I suppose you don’t know anything about that, either.”
“No, not a thing.”
“Well, okay then. I guess I’ll have to call Damien. I need to set up the dates I’m going over there at the end of this month, anyway.”
“You do that. Let me know what’s going on with my baby girl. We’ve gotten used to not knowing anything or hearing from her for months at a time since she’s been with Damien. It sure was nice to get to see so much of her while she was in the U.S. this last month. Thanks for that, Ryker.”
“Yes, sir. You’re welcome. I’ll let you know what I find out. Bye.” I end the call and make the next one to Damien.
His cell rings and rings then goes to voicemail. So, I call his office phone. “Markov Global, Mr. Damien Markov’s office,” a secretary answers.
“Is Damien in?” I ask.
“Not today. He is out for the entire day. May I take a message?”
“Let him know, Ryker Crawford called to set up the dates for my visit at the end of the month.”
“You can give me that information,” she says.
Crap!
“I would but I needed to see what’s good for him,” I say, stalling to get to talk directly to him.
“All days are good for him,” she says. “So, give me your dates.”
Taking the calendar that’s in the top desk drawer, I pick the last three of the month and she sets me up but I still don’t know a thing about Gia. Hanging up the phone, I don’t have anything else I
can do.
This is sure to drive me nuts!
GIA
My heels click along the marble floor as I make my way out of the court hearing. The sound of men’s shoes, coming up behind me, has me wanting to run but I maintain my steady gait.
“Gia, wait,” Damien says as he catches up to me. “You won the case against my company, and rightfully so but what does this mean for us?”
I stop and look at him with a stern expression. Then wait for my lawyer and the one for his company to pass us by before I say a word. “Tell me who, us, is?”
He points to me and then himself. “You and I.”
“Oh, I have to ask because you have two of us. Tell me what I mean to you, Damien.”
“You mean security to me the same way I mean that to you and your family.”
“I don’t mean the world to you, do I?” I ask as he looks at me with confusion riddling his handsome face.
“I don’t know what you mean. I need you and you need me.”
“Not anymore, I don’t. Not since I’ll be getting what’s fair for my invention that I sold much too cheaply to your company. I’m about to be a very wealthy woman, and I’ve done that entirely on my own. No help from a soul. So, please tell me what it is you and I have.”
“I need you,” he says then looks down. “It’s me who needs you to portray my girlfriend. You know that. So, I am asking you, will you still be doing that for me and.” He stops and looks around to make sure no one is around us. “My son, needs you too, Gia. Don’t forget about him. He needs this more than I do.”
“That’s supposed to pull at my heartstrings, isn’t it?” I ask him as I smile. “It’s not accomplishing what you intended it to. Sorry, Damien. That deal is off. No hard feelings, I hope. I’m sure you can find another woman to fill my role in what’s left of your life, here on Earth. Mars will mean different things for you. And I wish you and yours, the best. My assistant will be helping me pack my things later this evening. I will be staying until I’ve made arrangements back in the states. My assistant is also going to be staying too. I’ve made arrangements with your mother about that already.”
Rockstar Untamed: A Single Dad Virgin Romance Page 115