by S. S. Sahoo
All of a sudden something fell on my lap and I jerked out of my blank state to look at the object on my lap. Zachary sat on the chair next to mine while I couldn’t help but glare at him.
“How many times do I need to tell you? Don’t scare me like that!” I complained.
“Whatever!” he rolled his eyes and took the newspaper that he brought and began reading it making himself comfortable on his chair.
I looked down on my lap to find a small bag and I opened it only to gasp.
“A phone?” I asked as I looked at the box and then open the box.
“An iPhone!” I smiled and looked at him.
“You are giving me a phone?” I asked smiling at him.
“No! Look at it carefully. It’s a mosquito!” as always was his sarcastic reply which instantly smacked the smile out of my face. I didn’t quarrel with him though. Taking the brand new phone out of the box I switched it on. A smiled remained plastered on my face while I tried to figure out its features.
“Now that you know everything I hope you don’t try to run or escape like the last time,” he said and I nodded inattentively.
“What?” I asked once I realized I wasn’t paying attention.
“Never mind!” he said and got back to reading his newspaper.
“What is your number?” I asked excitedly to him once I checked the contact list and found it empty. After saving everyone’s number that I remembered like dad, Kiara, Jace and mom I thought about saving Zachary’s number too. I mean why not? He brought me the phone, after all, and he is my husba...
“You want to save my number?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Why not?” I questioned.
He sighed and took the phone from me and dialed his number before saving it and handing it back to me.
I scrolled over wanting to see what he did only to gasp seeing the name that he saved.
“My heartbeat?” I questioned gritting my teeth in annoyance.
“Classic?” he smirked raising an eyebrow.
“Oh very!” I replied with a sarcastic smile of my own.
Such a jerk!
40
Zachary
“Sir Mr. Stephen has left the penthouse in a hurry. I tried to stop him but he said it’s urgent and he took the next plane back home,” Cosmina told me while I got up from the bed and looked back at a sleeping Juliette who faced the other side with her left hand on the bed on the pillow, while the other was on the back of her head while she slept on her belly. That’s an uncomfortable position...
“I know! He had informed me about the last night” I said I sat on the recliner that Juliette had chosen from that furniture shop. And honestly, I love this recliner. Why did I not ever think about bringing one home earlier? It relaxes me so much that whenever I wake up in the morning or whenever I am tired I have grown used to sit on this recliner.
“Oh! Very well. He just called me some minutes ago and told me to inform you.” she said and my eyes averted to Juliette who stirred in her sleep and sleepily covered herself using the duvet.
“Hmm. It’s early in the morning. You did your job very well but now you can sleep. I will not be coming to the office today! If you want you can take the day off too. If you do so, make sure to inform Marc. He will handle everything,” I said and looked at the time to find its four in the morning.
“Oh! Thank you, sir! Yes, I will do that” she said sounding grateful. We hung up and I kept my mobile on the side as I raised my left leg and kept in on my right knee. Juliette’s father told me yesterday that he had to leave for some urgent thing and he will be back within the week with his family. Out of the all the people in Juliette’s family, only a few has the idea about what has been going on in Juliette’s life. Juliette’s mother Jessica knows everything and I think they have told only a few parts about Emmett being Nicholas to Jace and Juliette’s friend.
That reminds me of that Nicholas.
Not caring what time it was, I dialed Max’s number. He picked up after just two rings speaking or might I say whispering “Hello?”
“Where are you?” I asked after a moment of pause.
“Oh! Boss!” suddenly I heard shuffling in the background and then he spoke, “Yes Boss!”
“I am in my home now,” he answered but again he was back at whispering.
“I want to know about Nicholas’s whereabouts. Is your man doing the work properly?” I asked.
“Yes, Boss! He is constantly reporting me about Nicholas’s whereabouts. Last time I checked that he took a flight to Afghanistan and he checked into a hotel in Kabul. My people have been sending me his photos and even his movements. So, far he has not tried to contact his father” Max spoke and I nodded chewing the inner lip thinking what is he up to?
Nicholas took a flight to Afghanistan and yet he had not tried to contact his father. Why not? Does he know that someone is following him or marking his movements? Or is he not contacting Vito because...
“Tell your men to have their eyes on the people that he met. Let that be a woman or even an old man. Inform me everything! Even if it’s a child!” I said scratching my chin thinking about Nicholas.
“Yes Boss! I will do that!” he whispered.
“Why are you whispering?” I asked all of a sudden wanting to know why was he acting so weirdly, whispering in his own house. “Umm, I am in my bathroom,” he said and that made me raise an eyebrow.
“Bathroom? I asked.
“My girlfriend is sleeping and she gets irritated whenever I umm I pick up my phone in the middle of the night. So, I walked into the bathroom not to disturb her sleep.” he said and I could hear the irritation in his voice. A small smile appeared on my face. I found the situation really funny though.
“Well! Don’t disturb your girlfriend then! Sleep well.” I said and hung up.
I looked back at Juliette, her back was facing me. “Well, she doesn’t complain!” I thought as I kept my phone on a table next to the recliner.
But she isn’t your girlfriend!
Actually, that reminds of that day when I cooked for her, just two days ago I was so tired because I had to drive back to the warehouse where I had kept Nicholas in order to set him free and then I had to attend a meeting and after that, I slept in my office exhausted. I intended on just to take a short nap and then I would have been in my car, driving back home because I was aware of the fact that Juliette was left alone in the house but then I was so tired to the point that without even having my dinner I slept on my office’s couch. The next day, I woke up early in the morning and straight away drove back home thinking that she must be scared all by herself in the house because her father had told me earlier that she despised living alone. But the moment I saw her in that kitchen wearing that skin fit tank top with her wet hair I literally felt the ground slip beneath my foot as I felt my heartbeat racing against my chest so, I had to balance my body by leaning against the open doorframe just to look at her.
She looked beautiful and I even couldn’t help those words slip out my tongue and I told it on her face “frumoasa…beautiful” but thankfully she couldn’t get it. It’s so frustrating that I have been like this since the day I have started to have all these strange emotions for her. Are this emotions and feelings related to the fact that I am just trying to protect her from Nicholas or something else?
But whatever it is, I guess she will never like it. Nor will I. I must continue to have all my attention on Vito right now. I am just wandering off my ambitions. But.
She has this effect on me now. I have never been in any relationships nor have I ever dated any woman yet here I am straight away married to a total stranger whom I only knew from a simple plain photo just to had this on my mind that she was Stephen’s daughter who would be walking down that aisle for Nicholas and whom I had to marry in order to save her. That was the deal and as soon as I get that Vito in my hand she will be going back home, to her normal life being her normal self. I knew it from the beginning that she despised cri
minals and I doubt that she ever had this dream to marry a criminal but much to her annoyance she is, she is married to a criminal must I say, to a mafia leader who has this already messed up life of playing two roles, one of being a mafia leader and another of playing a successful businessman.
This is what life has chosen for me. I never really chose this life for me. Who really wants a life like me?
It will be better if she gets back to her own life. She doesn’t belong here and nor do I belong in her life. It will be better if she gets back to her life away from all this chaos, weapons and especially from my life because, in the end, she will end up hurt if she doesn’t. And judging from her question that day while having her breakfast she did ask me if she could go back. This only indicates that she wants to go back. As much as it gives me an uneasy feeling but I understand that she doesn’t want to have anything to do with my life. She even made it clear that day that she clearly has no interest in my life nor has any intention of staying here after all this is over.
I closed my eyes as I leaned against the recliner making myself comfortable.
I was as she stirred in her sleep and turned towards my direction. A mere sight of her does all these things to me. My hands formed into a ball thinking about that. And do I like whatever I was feeling? This woman...
It’s been two days since we had breakfast with each other but that fresh, sans of any makeup out of the shower look is still in my mind. Undoubtedly the woman on my bed is beautiful and the fact that she doesn’t even realize how beautiful she is which just adds another feather in her cap. I never really thought that she would be mentally this strong to take in about Nicholas, but she proved me wrong and here she is already moved on.
Is she really moved on or is she just trying to act stronger than she is already is?
Whatever it is, but I have no doubt on the fact that the woman before me is not only beautiful but strong and eve brave.
That made me smile for she is the only woman who has the braveness to glare at me. She even speaks of her mind and she even shouts and screams at me which no woman apart from mom and my grandma did to me.
“If you’re done with your phone call then sleep!” came her sleepy yet sultry voice as she pulled the duvet to her neck and snuggled up more to the pillow which I wish it to be me...
“You are awake?” I asked even though I knew she was.
“No, I am asleep. Can’t you see?” she said sarcastically as she opened her eyes and looked at me through those vivid electrifying blue eyes of hers. I smirked thinking that she is unknowingly behaving like me. Out of all my activities, all she learned is how to be sarcastic.
“Yes, I can see!” II said as I got up from the recliner and made my way back to the bed.
“I still don’t understand! Why do you sleep shirtless?” she said as she squinted her eyes shut. I could see those red tint forming on her cheeks which she tried to hide by pulling the duvet over until her cheeks were hidden.
“It’s too hot!” I said as I lay down next to her and turned to her side and put my head over my folded left arm.
“The temperature is so down that my teeth is literally chattering and you call it hot?” she complained snuggling into her duvet.
“Really? Let me help you,” I said as I threw my right arm over her body and her eyes shot open alarmed as I pulled her up against me with the duvet placed between us.
“What are you doing? Move away!” she pushed hard on my chest.
“Move!” she complained.
“No, I’m fine, thank you!” I told her closing my eyes.
“Ugh! You are a jerk!” she said and she slapped me on my arm but as she stopped struggling against me and finally fell into sleep, my eyes opened slowly just to look at that calm face as I slowly let her go and raised my hand to slowly unhide her face from that duvet. Her innocence showed on her sleeping face, the peaceful and serene dreams blocking out the dangers of the outside. The soft breathing making my world seem to stand still as I gazed at every inch of her face drawing an exact picture in my mind which I decided to cherish later when she would be gone.
The strands of her hair falling on the side of her hid her face from me, which I decided to slowly push her hair to the back of her ear by my finger as I trailed my finger on her skin feeling that electrifying sensation against my skin. Her skin was undoubtedly smooth and flawless. My finger trailed her small scar just above her eye right under her eyebrow and it made wonder how she got that scar.
It would be so easy if I never had this life. How much better it would have been if we met in some other situation and in different being.
I sighed thinking that it is of no point to think what is never really possible because what is before us is our real life and we had to live it whether we want it or not.
“Frumoasa,” I heard my own voice as I complimented the woman right before my eyes as she slept next to me carefree about the world.
I turned around away from her face because I knew it was the best. I should turn away when I can because if I don’t then it would be too late to cope up with my new feelings that are seemingly growing every day for the woman behind me. And it scares me that eve if I deny it, I knew exactly what those feelings are. And I shouldn’t complain when I say whatever I’m doing to is best for both of us.
As I closed my eyes and snuggled into my pillow feeling my eyelids growing heavy due to sleep, my eyes it shot back open as I felt those cold yet fragile arm circling over my torso and I felt as she snuggled up against my back pulling me closer.
“No! Don’t turn around!” my brain warned me and I chose to listen to my brain, I didn’t turn around because I knew if I did then I would go weak. I would fail to keep my emotions at bay and I would definitely break.
I pulled the duvet over us and rested my head back on the pillow as I tried to sleep once again with her hand over me. Unintentionally, I grabbed her hand and intertwined our fingers as I fell into deep slumber saddened thinking that it is just a wonderful dream which will soon diminish into all those wonderful and beautiful dreams that my brain had shown me once. What shall be left is only memories. Painful and saddened memories.
“What is this?” she asked as she opened the bag that I brought for her. She looked through it as I tied my tie and looked at her activities through the mirror.
“A dress?” she smiled as she unfolds the beige colored high hem and low v-neck sequin dress and lifted it up to look at it.
“For you to wear for today’s party,” I told her and before she could find me already looking at her, I averted my gaze away from her and lowered my head to look at my tie. I was ready for my office as I wore a gray Armani suit with white underneath shirt.
“I will be wearing this for your award function?” she asked with a hint of fear which made me look back at her immediately as I narrowed my eyes at her thinking what she meant and why is she scared.
“Yes! it’s a couture that Cosmina chose for you for today’s award function” I told her walking towards the wardrobe.
“Liar! You chose it for her” my brain mocked me which I ignored. It was true though. I sat for hours in the showroom searching for a dress which would flaunt her skin and I wanted to see her figure once again which I had witnessed when she wore that bodycon dress when she fell in that fountain. Hilarious day of my life.
“But I- I uh” she stuttered looking uncomfortable.
“You what?”
“I have never worn this uh this- um it’s too short” she bit down on her lower lip as she looked at the dress that she was holding.