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He set his bag down on the concrete, opening his arms to her as she got closer to him. She ran the last few steps to him, her arms wrapping around his neck. He held onto her tightly. Everyone still had their earpieces in, so we could hear their conversation.
“Thank you, Stephen. You’re my favorite vampire,” she said as he held her.
“Seph, you don’t have to be scared of your past anymore. Those people … they can’t hurt you ever again. We’ll make sure of that. You survived it once completely on your own, but you have us now. We will never let another bad thing happen to you,” he said.
She was quiet for a moment. I’m positive she was fighting back tears. Finally, she sighed, saying, “Squishiest vampire ever.” We heard him laugh as he picked her up and hugged her tighter for a moment.
It made me happy to see them so close. It was a long time coming. I had my doubts in the beginning of whether Stephen would ever warm up to her, but it was evident that he loved her just as much as the other guys. Almost as much as me.
It was quite late when we finally made it to the penthouse by ourselves. Sephie was sitting on the counter in the bathroom, brushing her teeth. She had taken my shirt almost immediately when we got to the bedroom. I had to admit to loving it when she demanded I hand over my shirt when we were finally alone. As much as I hated putting clothes on her instead of taking them off, I did enjoy taking my shirt off and putting it on her for the night.
“So, you know how you said you could feel my anger without having to look at me now?” I said. She looked at me curiously as she jumped down to rinse her mouth out. “I could feel your anger tonight when Smith got a little too short with me. I knew you were seething before you stepped beside me.”
Her eyes went wide. “Was it like a living thing that you could feel around you?”
I thought for a moment. “That’s a good way to put it. I didn’t have a chance to glance at anyone else, but I’m sure it was visible on your face that you were pissed. Except I didn’t see you or the guys. I was looking at Smith when I felt it. And then there’s the matter of your eyes,” I said, smirking at her.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, pulling me into the bedroom.
“It happened that day with Mike. It’s the only other time I’ve seen it and I, uh, found myself completely turned on by it,” I said, climbing into bed so she could lay across my chest. She climbed on top of me instead, her legs straddling me.
“Well, now you have to tell me more,” she said, a mischievous grin on her face.
I sat up more, so I could look at her. “Your eyes go dark, solnishko. Like the green and blue rings disappear and the brown gets dark. Really dark that day with Mike. Not quite as dark tonight, but it was a noticeable change.”
She thought for a moment, as her fingers lightly traced over my chest. “I remember you looking at me and being confused at what I saw.” She laughed quietly. “I had forgotten about it until now.”
“Yeah, uh, super hot,” I said. I could feel my cheeks flushing. I wasn’t sure she would want to hear how turned on I was in that moment. “I was glad I only caught a glance of it tonight. I didn’t need to deal with that on top of everything else.”
She put her hands on either side of my face, her gorgeous smile across her face. “I’ll try to remember not to look at you the next time I get angry in front of other people,” she said, giggling. She leaned down to kiss me, still laughing.
“You laugh, but I’m seriously considering pissing you off when we’re alone just to see what happens,” I said. She laughed harder, hiding her face against my shoulder. Her laughter was infectious. I found myself laughing along with her, but I was serious. I really had weighed my options on pissing her off just to see if I could make her eyes go dark again.
She wrapped her arms around my neck, pressing her body against mine. She was still laughing, which I loved. “I just love you so much, Adrik,” she said, trying to contain her fits of laughter. I held her close, enjoying the pull in my chest that happened so frequently now when I thought about how much I loved her.
The first half of the week went by quickly. It was filled with reports from the smaller brawn operations that Gus’s people had found, planning sessions, and endless meetings. By the end of Wednesday, I was very grateful we had spent the previous weekend at the house, away from everyone. I was already looking forward to being able to go back.
I finished up my last meeting of the day, looking forward to finally being done and able to go upstairs to Sephie when Viktor walked in with Armando and Giana. Fuck. They’d been gone most of the week. He took Giana to his house after her “episode” the week before where she thought Sephie had been an addict. I had to admit to enjoying some time away from them. Mostly her, but Armando was still such a talker that it was nice to have some peace and quiet without him around. Otherwise, he was tolerable. She was still very hit or miss. Mostly miss after her behavior last week.
I was so tired that I was questioning my ability to be diplomatic. I hoped this was going to be short. “Armando, what can I do for you?” I asked. I didn’t even bother to address Giana. On purpose. I kind of liked it when she was so nervous she couldn’t talk. I was hoping that would happen if I purposely ignored her.
“Boss, I was hoping for a minute to discuss something with you,” he said.
I glanced at my watch, then looked back to him. “I only have a few minutes. Talk.”
“We had a very long discussion over the weekend. Giana was hoping she could apologize to Sephie, but she also owes you an apology for the way she behaved the last time you saw her,” he said. I couldn’t help the smirk that I was sure was clear on my face. This felt like such a childish thing to make a grown woman apologize to someone.
“Let me stop you right there, Armando. I still have plenty of respect for you, but I won’t accept any kind of forced apology from anyone. If she wants to apologize, then she can come to me on her own. If she wants to apologize to Sephie, which she should, then she should go to her of her own accord. It’s entirely up to Sephie on whether she accepts that apology as well.” I looked directly at Giana, finally forced to acknowledge her. “You have no clue what that woman has been through in her short life. You make assumptions about her life based on her extensive knowledge about certain subjects, never considering that she might just be that much smarter than you are. Your insecurity with yourself is no excuse to try and use a falsely perceived fault as a way to bring her down to your level. You have no idea how angry every single one of my men as well as me were last week. You hurt her, you deal with us.” She had held my gaze until the very last, but then her gaze dropped to the floor. “Sephie has been nothing but nice to you since you’ve been here. She put herself through torture just to go shopping with you when she was injured. She could barely walk at the end of that day, but she smiled through it to make you feel more comfortable. She’s listened as you talk endlessly about ridiculous things because you’re nervous. She’s protected you from Mike. She facilitated getting you and Mando together. And you turn around and believe she’s a former addict because she has extensive knowledge about drugs? Did you ever stop to consider it’s because she had to learn how that drug affects its users to survive? No. No, you did not. You chose to think the absolute worst of her to make yourself feel better. So, you’ll forgive me for not wanting your apology right now. When you can grow up and act like a mature fucking woman, then I’ll consider it. But not before.” I could feel my anger rising to the surface as I talked to Giana. I’m sure she was terrified. I hoped she was terrified.
I heard Viktor’s phone ring. He answered it quietly, which meant it was one of the guys. I heard him say, in Russian, “Net, he’s okay. We’ll be up in a minute. Tell her she doesn’t need to come down.” He ended the call and slipped the phone back in his pocket. He glanced at me, a look of surprise on his face.
Armando looked to Giana, who was staring at the floor, then looked at me. I did feel slightly bad for him. He was in an awkward spot. He inhaled deeply while looking back at Giana stare at the floor. “He’s completely right, Giana. You can’t expect everyone to cover for you for the rest of your life. Your parents fixed everything when you were younger, but that taught you nothing. You must learn to be your own person now. I told you this would happen,” he said. His tone was stern but soft. I got the impression that he was trying to get her to finally hear his words.
She was likely trying to hold back tears. She couldn’t talk, she simply nodded her head, but kept her gaze on the floor. He glanced at me, a look of apology on his face, then guided her toward the door. They were going to have more uncomfortable conversations tonight.
Viktor and I gave them time to get back to their floor before leaving my office. Once we heard the elevator doors close, he said, “Sephie knew you were angry. From upstairs. Ivan had to call me or she would’ve come running down here.” He was clearly stunned at what he’d just told me, but it made me laugh.
“You’re going to think we’re crazy, but it’s been happening regularly for a while now. This is just the first time we haven’t been in the same room when it’s happened. It’s like we can feel each other’s anger. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s not just the anger either, but that seems to be the strongest one,” I said.
