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“Viktor, have I mentioned how much I love you lately?” I said, catching his eye in the rearview mirror. Even though I could only see part of his face, I could tell that I’d just made him melt.
I felt a sense of relief wash over me once we walked into the penthouse. It was nice to be home. Anywhere with Adrik felt like home, but this penthouse and the house both felt like they were just as much my space now as Adrik’s. I smiled to myself thinking about how happy I was to be home again.
As soon as we walked into the penthouse, Andrei walked to the kitchen to make coffee. “We haven’t had good coffee in so long. It’s been so long, spider monkey,” he said dramatically.
Adrik checked his watch. “That works out well. You can take your superprofen. The caffeine will help it take effect quicker.”
Viktor’s phone beeped. “Food is here. I’ll be right back,” he said.
“I’m so happy right now,” I said. My stomach growled loudly, just for emphasis.
We were quieter than usual as everyone ate and guzzled as much good coffee as humanly possible. I knew the guys were at a clear disadvantage since I could basically sleep whenever I wanted to, but they needed to get back to work. They were going to need all the coffee today.
“How’s Dario?” I asked, still slowly finishing my food. Breathing was still laborious, so everything I did was much slower than usual.
“The guards on him say he’s been quiet, but that he seems happy. He’s always grateful when they give him anything. He says to thank Boss all the time. He’s been asking if he can have an update occasionally. I think he wants to know when he can leave,” Viktor said.
“I would like to know how he knew about Armando’s first wife. And why he didn’t tell anybody that Sal was trafficking girls,” I said.
“We can talk to him again soon. I don’t like the thought of bringing him out during the day. He’s well-hidden and I’d like to keep it that way. I don’t want Armando to see that we have Dario. Yet,” Adrik said. “I’d like to have another discussion with Armando before he sees Dario.”
“And by ‘discussion’ you mean you’re going to make him wish he jumped off the roof when I told him to?” I said. I couldn’t help but feel some satisfaction at that thought.
“To put it mildly, yes,” Adrik said, a small smile on his lips.
“Okay, well, don’t hurt your knuckles too much. I’m in no shape to take care of you very well right now. Only one of us is allowed to be hurt at a time,” I said. When he looked at me, I felt that pull in my chest that he gets when he thinks about how much he loves me. I winked at him. “Do you think he’ll tell you anymore about Ricardo?” I asked.
“We’ll see. I’m curious to see how he reacts. I think he’ll be different with me than he was with you. He clearly thought he had the upper hand with you, although it still stuns me that he thought he was smarter than you. He’s always pretended to defer to me. Never once argued with anything I’ve told him. I don’t know if that was an act or if there’s legitimate fear there, but I intend to find out,” Adrik said.
“I love a good mystery,” I said, putting the last bite of bacon in my mouth.
Ivan’s phone beeped. He took it out, looking at the text. “The acupuncturist can be here this afternoon, princess.”
“Good. Did you tell her you need it too?” I asked.
“I did not,” he said. “I’m fine. You took the worst of it this time.”
“Fine. I will tell her then,” I said. I wasn’t angry with him, but I wanted to mess with him just to see what would happen. He started to argue with me, but I looked at him, trying to make my eyes go as dark as possible. I wasn’t sure how to do it, but since he’d told me they changed so quickly in the hospital, I wanted to see if I could control when it happened. The look on his face told me I was getting control of it. I didn’t let him suffer for very long before I laughed weakly at him and tried to change them back to normal.
“You were trying to control it that time, weren’t you?” Ivan asked. I nodded my head, still smiling at him. “That’s impressive. It worked.”
I suddenly felt Adrik’s desire for me come on very strongly. I could tell he was trying to hold it back because I was in no shape for, well, anything, but I knew he was thinking about me changing my eyes the next time we had sex. I felt my cheeks flush.
“Do you have enough energy for a shower, solnishko?” Adrik asked. He sounded innocent enough, but I knew he was struggling to hold it together in front of everyone.
“I think so. But that means I’ll probably sleep for like four hours after. Everything is exhausting right now,” I said, trying to hide the grin I knew was growing on my face.
“Let’s get you cleaned up, then you can sleep until your acupuncture,” he said. He looked at the guys. “You guys should get cleaned up as well. Come back when you’re done. I want to see what else we can find on Ricardo and Lorenzo before tonight.” Everyone’s head nodded in agreement. They set about cleaning up the kitchen as Adrik picked me up, carrying me to bedroom.
Once the door was closed, I grinned at him. “You’re so excited for my new trick, aren’t you?”
He exhaled loudly. “You have no idea, solnishko.”
The shower was much more painful than I was hoping because of my arm being out of the sling. I tried to hold it against me as much as I could, which helped, but I was glad I had Adrik to help me. It was so painful I ended up in tears by the end of the shower. I was trying to hold everything in, so I didn’t push any of the pain to him. While I really enjoyed sharing everything else with him, sharing my pain with him didn’t seem fair.
As he was helping me get dressed before putting my arm back in the sling, he had a smirk on his face. “What are you not telling me?” I asked, watching him.
“The more you try to hold everything in, the easier it is for me to feel it. I know you’re trying to avoid pushing your pain on to me, but the more you fight letting it go, the easier it is for me to feel. I know how excruciating that shower was for you just now,” he said. I was still only in a bra and panties. He had my sling in his hand as he stood in front of me. He gently moved my still wet hair from my face and leaned down to press his lips to mine.
