by Jennise K
“What do you mean they want to renegotiate the contract? Spencer, that’s not something I am willing to renegoti—alright, settle a meeting then.”
My nose scrunched at the name of that woman, but I kept my lazy pace, nearing the man seated on the sofa, his eyes still on the view outside. But I knew he knew I was here.
“Yes, that sounds fine, Spence,” Romanov muttered into the iPhone, and I moved around in front of him. He looked up and his eyes found mine. I moved my right leg into the tiny space on the sofa between him and the armrest and then did the same with the other, slowly settling myself onto his lap so I could straddle him.
With my hands on his shoulder, I smiled cheekily as my eyes found his suddenly darker ones, and I moved my hips against his already hard dick. Romanov’s eyes glazed golden, and I watched with amusement as his grip on his phone tightened.
I grinned.
Commence mission Tease Romanov.
His cologne smelt like heaven, and so I leaned in forward until my lips pressed against the crook of Romanov’s neck, noting the hardening of his jaw as I slowly fluttered kisses down his neck.
“Y—yes that sounds good. You d—”
Romanov stopped, and my grin widened as I spread the flats of my palm under his t-shirt until they touched the solid surface of his abs and then dragged them up to his chest.
He coughed before continuing “You do that.”
I was a bit guilty. He was clearly having business talk and here I was being naughty, but I wasn’t done. I still had other plans.
Taking in his heavy breathing, I continued as my lips pressed soft kisses along his jaw before my lips found his earlobe.
“Alright, yes. I’ll let you know.” And he ended his call.
On impulse, my lips wrapped around the earlobe.
I let out a loud gasp when Romanov’s hands found my ass, this time thrusting into me as he held me by my backside. I pulled his earlobe between my lips again, slowly nibbling on it.
Romanov’s fingers thread into my hair before his grip tightened and he pulled my head back, exposing the long length of my neck to him.
“Seductress,” Romanov growled as his tongue found my sweet spot, pressing an open-mouthed kiss.
I let out a loud moan, and Romanov growled again.
My fingers dug into his chest as I dragged my nails down his back, gasping and moaning while he kept tormenting me in the most beautiful of ways.
I didn’t know where his phone was; I didn’t know where the coffee was, but all I knew was that his hands were on me, and he was making me barely feel my feet.
“Rome,” I said as his hand found my breast over my tank.
Romanov didn’t respond. Instead, he moved his hands till it gripped the neckline and then, in one go, ripped the black tank from the middle, exposing my breast.
My eyes snapped to his. His eyes on mine, Romanov grinned.
“You shouldn’t tease your mate, Olivia. Especially not when he’s an alpha king.”
~
Romanov was right. Everything had changed. Keeping my hands to myself seemed a little difficult now. Keeping his hands to himself seemed impossible for Romanov.
I wasn’t going to ignore the fact that he had not used a condom in any of the many times we had sex over the past two days. The fact that my sister had put me on pills ever since I had turned sixteen in hopes of seeing my lousy arse get lucky by some miracle was nonetheless a blessing in disguise.
It seemed strange when I’d think about it, but Romanov seemed to growl and snap at the slightest of physical contact between anyone who was a stranger to him and me. In fact, he even seemed to glare at old Pompy whenever she brushed my hair. It was getting a little frustrating. Especially knowing I had Jay and River back home who didn’t shy away from hugs.
We were leaving tonight, which was even more nerve-wracking. It was clear that Romanov and I were together in this for life. But I liked the idea of having a straightforward communication with him. I reminded myself to bring up the topic with him and establish how much we needed to implement better communication now that he was so territorial with me, because even the idea of arguments with him had this coil twisting in my chest, and I didn’t like it. So, it was a bit uneasy not knowing how he was going to behave now that he constantly had his territorial side switched on.
“You all right?”
I turned around towards the source of the question and smiled tiredly at the man. “Seeing as you’ve witnessed Romanov’s recent…mood swings, it’s safe to say I’m a bit nervous.”
Matthew smiled as he settled down beside me. I’d always noticed that easy smile Matthew put on every time he’s around people, and even when he was alone. I admired him for that. Matthew sure knew how to pull through tough times.
“You’re the most precious thing he has in this world, Olivia. You’re his walking, breathing lifeline.”
My eyes widened and snapped to Matthew’s warm brown ones. Smiling at me warmly, he placed a hand on mine and gave me a comforting pat with the other.
“His soul is yours. Just as yours is his now. And I’m sure you would feel just the same when the situation comes.”
The upper parlour door to our right opened, and I turned just in time to see Romanov walk through it, the door closing shut behind him.
“Hey mate!” Matthew greeted happily, and I noticed he still had his hand over mine. My eyes, however, stayed locked on Romanov’s whose eyes were looking angrily at Matthew’s hand.
Striding towards us, Romanov leaned forward and scooped me up before settling on another sofa, with me on his lap
“Hi,” he grumbled, looking at Matthew for the first time since he entered the parlour.
My eyes met Matthew’s, and his eyes sparkled with mischief as he tried his very best not to grin. I shook my head at that.
Romanov was right. Everything did change.
But I couldn’t say I didn’t like it.
Chapter 23
When do you know that it is over? The circle you’ve been going round and round has now caused a hallow path in the ground. How do you know it’s time to stop, and just stop pretending that you can’t see it die anymore?
When do you know when to just sit and let all the tears flow? Do you even know if you should let the tears flow? Or should you be mad?
What should this charade end? When does the curtain finally fall?
Is it okay to acknowledge that the fine red thread is fraying in the middle? When is it okay to leave?
Or are you already...gone?
“Is it that good?”
Hm?
I blinked once, twice before my eyes snapped up and met the warm brown ones of Matthew. Despite my moist vision, a soft smile spread across my face, and I nodded.
“It’s a great read.”
“Say…what’s the name of the book?” Matthew’s eyes twinkled as he shifted in his seat up front. Beside him, Romanov tapped his thumb impatiently against the wheel as he continued to drive us towards the castle.
We’d caught the 7:00 pm flight from London, reaching Berlin when it was already moving towards sunset. Saying goodbye to everybody this time around was harder than the last. It was hard having a home in more places than one. There was always someone to leave behind.
“Actually…it’s a journal,” I mumbled in response, my eyes running along the black leather binding on the old, worn-out diary. “Of E. Leightmonshtein,” I spoke the name of the owner under my breath as my fingers ran along the letters engraved on the leather cover.
“Well, what is the journal about then? What good gossip did the earlier owner have to pour out into blank sheets of papers?” Matthew asked with a playful smirk on his face.
I matched Matthew’s smirk as I looked at him, clearly impressed, while patting the journal warmly.
Poetic!
“Well, she got her heart broken by her childhood sweetheart. Eight years of being in love and in the last entry, she found out that for the past four years
, he had been courting someone else. Publicly.”
Romanov scoffed from the driver’s seat, and Matthew’s eyes widened on the now closed leather book, his lips curled with disgust but still not losing his interest.
“That’s not all. In the latest entry, she is trying to express when is it fine to let go of him because although he has the other woman, he simply isn’t cutting ties with our writer as well. She doesn’t know what he’s feeling. I guess she just wants to know if he loves her or not—despite him being a lying scumbag.”
At this, the three men scoffed in unison.
“Read the next entry out loud!” Grayson requested and straightened beside me, suddenly interested as I saw him put his phone aside.
Uncertain, my gaze moved towards the diary again, feeling Romanov’s eyes on me from the rearview mirror. Matthew had now turned all the way in his seat, facing me.
I exhaled audibly and slowly opened the journal to the page where I had last read it. My thumb caressed the ancient page as I traced the elegant slim handwriting that swirled and curved into words. I began reading.
These passing nights have brought along many dreams. Death is a constant in all of these. Every warmth seems to be slowly fading—a chill even this velvet dress cannot defeat.
Their marriage is this coming winter. It’s going to be the most celebrated affair.
Fate is so cruel. The whole village is filled with glee with so many getting employed because of his wedding. So many rejoicing.
But not me.
We’d met where we always did, under the full moon’s light. Small pebbles in his palm, he threw them one by one into the lake.
One by one while he explained that she was younger. Only just blossoming.
Eight years, I’d grown with him. Loved and dreamed of getting old with him.
Eight years. Twenty years and two, and my blossoming days are done.
Small pebbles, one by one he threw into the lake. One by one—all but one.
One I’ll always cherish.
A monument for the garden of blossom I lost, waiting for a man who burnt them all.
These passing nights have brought many dreams. Death—a constant in all these.
Merciful, oh Lord, forgive me. For tonight, I fear I’ve lost the last bit of warmth in me.
A strange sort of silence settled in the car. I flipped the journal close and looked up, my eyes meeting Matthew’s disturbed brown ones.
Beside me, Grayson sunk in his seat and let out a low whistle. “I’m guessing she became a cold shell of a woman afterwards?”
“Read the next entry.”
All three of us turned towards Romanov, whose calm eyes gazed steadily on the road, focused on driving—and definitely not on this diary.
“Read the next entry,” he repeated, and I blinked, my eyes moving back down at once on the diary.
Father Henry delivered a wonderful sermon today.
About youth and beauty.
He didn’t ponder on many details that my heart required—but much of what he said was enough.
Youth.
Is the cure to this ailment the essence of true happiness? Youth and beauty?
The wedding day grows closer and so does the desperate need to keep alive the hope that maybe if what has been lost is regained, I may still be able to win him.
Youth and beauty.
That’s exactly what I need. But before it, I need money.
Funny, when I have not a single penny in my keep.
There is a new lord in town. They say he is quite ravishingly handsome. Sad, however, as he is still in mourning. His poor wife has just passed away.
At nights when sleep comes playing hide and seek, I lie awake and wonder if I should try and talk to the widowed lord —maybe beg him for a dime?
Enough to buy some rouge.
Maybe then, my flowers will blossom once more…
Maybe then even the wedding will be no more.
Oh, how I wish.
“Can I see the journal?” Romanov inquired casually after a moment of silence, surprising the rest of us in the vehicle as we stirred out of our personal bubbles of thought.
My eyes moved down to the black leather, and I pressed it tightly before smiling curiously.
“Sure,” I mumbled as I extended the book towards the driver’s side. At once Romanov’s hand grabbed at the book.
Matthew, Gray, and I watched with curiosity as Romanov glanced at the book before he flung it out of the car.
“Rome!”
“Alpha!”
“Whaaaaaaaaattt!”
My mouth fell agape in disbelief and outrage as I looked at the darkness the book had disappeared into, my jaw suspended on the floor. I turned towards the front.
Romanov’s charcoal-coloured pools found mine in the rearview mirror. “It was Edika’s journal. How did you find it?”
I blinked.
My whole body seemed to be suddenly shaking. The image of Edika’s mangled body from that horrible night rushed into my mind like a long-forgotten nightmare one never thought would come haunting back.
“Olivia!”
I blinked. My focus returned to the question I had been asked.
“I found it in the castle library, hidden in a secret compartment under the cushions on the alcove bench.”
“My mother hid it there.”
I couldn’t stop the gasp from slipping out of me.
The two other men froze in their seats, now vigilant.
“She found it too. Just randomly. She had been reading it…” Romanov stopped, and I could almost feel my own temperature increasing.
I frowned at that. Strange.
“Then she died.”
~
The large proud castle gates came into view, and I thought I heard everyone in the vehicle sigh. What for, I did not know.
Was it because the large illuminated castle was, in a way, home? And home was always supposed to be a safe haven? Or were they seeing what I was seeing too?
We were coming to war.
This castle was a battlefield where Edika was winning. We couldn’t see her. We didn’t know how we could kill her. We didn’t know when she could do what.
Seated in the car, watching the rest of the boys getting out of it, I knew that there was nowhere Romanov could go that she couldn’t. And yet I just wanted to run away to somewhere—anywhere but here.
My eyes trailed Romanov as he talked to Orik, who looked relieved at our safe arrival. Mr. Swiss—Romanov’s manager—was right behind Orik.
The rest of the car ride had been quiet. Every one of us was silent as we each mourned for Romanov and ourselves, as we each thought about how wonderful and frightening the world could be at the same time.
I looked down at my lap and opened my palms. I traced each line with my eyes, and my focus went to the longest where it spanned from one side of my palm till it abruptly stopped in the middle. It was the lifeline.
A sudden knock on the car window startled me. I looked up just as Romanov pulled the door open. He leaned inside the car, and a gasp escaped my lips as he slipped his hands under me, scooping me up without delay.
He began striding towards the castle entrance, Matthew and the rest of the men already making their way in.
The large door came closer and closer, and my gaze moved up to Romanov’s serious ones, which were looking ahead. A soft smile graced my lips as I watched him.
This oddly felt like something a husband would do to his newly wedded wife—carrying her over the threshold.
He walked inside, and my eyes moved towards his chest. I hesitated, wondering whether he would feel awkward, then slowly moved the flat of my palm down until it rested right above his heart.
As I felt the steady beat of his heart, I couldn’t help but wonder if he loved me, too, for the girl that I was, not just because we were soulmates.
“Is she hurt?” Aunt Meryl asked, her voiced strained by her worry. As soon as we entered the grand living room, she
rushed in, her hands outstretched as she almost swept towards us.
I smiled at the old woman’s warmth and wondered if she too had a soulmate.
“Aunt Meryl! It won’t be such a—” Matthew, alarmed, spoke up and stopped.
Aunt Meryl suddenly stopped, seeming to understand what Matthew was warning her about. Her eyes widened as she watched Romanov and me. My eyes moved up, and I cringed at the unreadable expression on Romanov’s face.
He had stopped a foot away from Aunt Meryl and just stiffly stood there with me in his arms. I didn’t know what he was looking for—what he was waiting for. But it felt like he was waiting for something.
“Your scents have mixed,” Aunt Meryl said, her voice barely audible from the shock of the knowledge. Then, with a large grin on her face, she moved towards us but then stepped back. “Since you’re the crazier cousin, I take it your tolerance level is quite low right now.”
A few minutes passed, and I felt him relax, his eyes found mine, and he smiled softly and slowly put me down.
“Ello!” I beamed at everyone in the room, my arms wide open. I began moving in toward Aunt Meryl when two arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me back, leaving my arms hanging in the air. A confused expression now clouded my face.
“Oi! What’s that for? She’s a woman! She’s your aunt!” I whispered, completely confused, and a little frustrated.
“I can’t,” Romanov muttered under his breath, and I sighed.
That was it. His explanation. He couldn’t.
Just then, Jay and Dom walked into the room with Marsha, Sophia and Rose—not far from them—who were carrying trays in their hands.
All five of them suddenly stopped, their eyes widening. I cringed, knowing exactly what they, too, were figuring out.
“The only con of being my soulmate,” Romanov whispered into my ear before he moved his hand towards mine and grasped it.