Compassion? He had been a force of nature to fuck me.
By the time I reached the foyer space of the guest house, knocks sounded on the front door.
I tensed, assuming the worst.
If it was Adrik, I wasn’t sure what I could say or do now.
No, it won’t be him.
He told me to go and made me leave.
He won’t be coming here to check on me or anything like that.
Besides, his brothers and cousins were probably with him, still talking about whatever had made him so mad with that name I’d pointed out.
Still, there was no chance for me to ignore whoever was at the door. After crossing the marble floor, I opened the door. Wild surprise hit me when I saw one of the cooks from the main house standing there.
“Miss Elena,” she greeted warmly. “You rushed out in such a hurry. I couldn’t give you your package.”
I raised both of my brows. “My package?”
“Yes.” She held up a neatly tied bag. “The boss insisted that I double-check on you, that you’re eating.” Pushing the bag toward me, she smiled again.
It resembled something that someone might get from a takeout place or leftovers from a restaurant. The aromatic smells coming from it teased my nose.
“I’m sorry. I’m… I’m not understanding. What do you mean?”
“The boss has been concerned that you are working so much that you forget to take care of yourself and eat,” the grandmotherly woman in the kitchen uniform said with a smile.
I took the bag from her, still confused about what this meant. If it meant anything at all.
Adrik had no reason to single me out. And it wasn’t like he nagged his brothers or cousins about when or if they ate. Nor any of the guards or drivers.
I admittedly had a bad habit of working without paying attention to the time. Yet, I refused to be so gullible as to think that Adrik could care about me, specifically. Before or after he’d fucked me raw.
The older woman tilted her head to the side as I stood there, staring at the bag like it was a foreign object that I didn’t know how to handle.
“Are you feeling all right, Miss Elena?” she asked.
That’s the question of the century.
Because she was older like a grandmother, which was someone I’d never had since mine all died before I was born, and because she looked completely unbiased, watching me with concern and not judgment, I blurted out my reply.
“I have no idea what I’m supposed to feel right now.” I wasn’t going to blurt how confused I was to have slept with Adrik. But I spoke the vague truth.
“No one is supposed to tell you what to feel,” she chided kindly. “That is somethingyoudecide, something that comes from here.” She tapped her chest, indicating her heart.
I almost rolled my eyes. From the heart? How ironic. Having sex with Adrik wasn’t a matter of the heart. It had nothing to do with love or honest affection between us. I couldn’t trick myself into seeing it as anything but what it actually was. A physical release. It was all the details surrounding the action that confused me so much.
“Forgive me if I’m being too forward,” I said, “but sometimes I struggle to know how to respond to Mr. Volkov. How I am supposed to view him and know how to give him what he wants from me.”
That seemed like a lie. I’d given him my body, and we’d both wanted that.
The cook gave me a small smile. “None of those Volkov men are easy to handle. Take my word for it.” She tipped her chin at the bag I held in my hands. “He does want to provide for you.”
It sounded so strange. I wasn’t used to being the object of anyone’s concerns.
It wasn’t as though I was a guest here, in this house. My father had given me to Adrik as part of a payment for his mismanaging the money.
