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Chapter 15
Sex alleviates all tension. Love causes it. - Woody Allen
Natasha
A lunch date! I am on a lunch date with Anton.
When he asked me to go with him and picked out something reasonable for me to wear, I didn't know what to think of it. He took me out to a little cozy restaurant where we sat in a secluded corner to ourselves, a curtain pulled almost all the way around us. The menu was full of delicious authentic Italian and Greek fare, and it set my stomach rumbling right off the bat.
After I ordered and gave the menu back to the waitress, I found that Anton was staring at me, surveying me.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask him, feeling self-conscious for the first time in our relationship. This is a totally different setting than I would picture us in after all I have learned about him and what he does, and we also just reconnected the night before. Maybe this is what falling in love is supposed to feel like; nerves and butterflies rather than razor blades and death. That's what it felt like with Rusev, though I didn't realize it at the time.
“I was just studying you. I realized that I still know so little about you. I know you said you don't like to talk about your past, but I would like us to get to know each other better, you know, outside of the bedroom,” he says, shocking me to my core.
“Oh, but isn't that the fun part?” I joke. I know he likes my wit anyway.
“There is that smart-ass mouth of yours again,” he says, but he is smiling when he does.
“I think you like this smart-ass mouth.”
“Yes, and everything attached to it.”
I sip at my drink as my smile fades, turning serious. He is right, that we should get to know each other. That is the only way this relationship won't fail again is if we do it the right way. “Okay, so if I tell you something about me, then you have to do that too. This has to be both of us, or it isn't fair,” I tell him. He holds up his hand like a boy scout to let me know he plans on following through. “Then, what do you want to know?”
“What were you like when you were younger?” he asks. That is a vague question, and I think back to a time where I can be honest about it, but also, I don't have to dig into something that is still a sore spot with me.
“I was kind of a really independent lonely kid, I guess,” I say with a shrug. “Like, I wasn't a weirdo or anything like that, but mostly I had nannies, or I was shipped off to a boarding school, so I was like a little grown up and didn't have a ton of friends or a need for them, just a few. That's where I met Bethany, the last school I attended. She is my family, as far as I am concerned,” I tell him.
“I am guessing Sergei does not have much of a fatherly instinct,” he said, and I shake my head. No, he does not at all.
“Or the time to care for a growing girl for that matter. My mother died when I was a toddler, so I guess he was a little lost as what to do with me after that.” Seeing it from that point of view, I kind of get it. He couldn't have planned for that to happen. I do wish he was more involved, though, in some way, friendly phone calls once a month to check on me or something. “It's your turn,” I tell Anton just as the food comes out to us. It smells delicious.
“You are right. It is only fair. I think I was the same way. I mean, I did not make many friends either outside of other Clan children. Most of my upbringing was all about how to take over the Clan for my father when he passed, and I ended up doing that at a younger age than anyone had predicted. I was a tough kid, and I think because of my size and lineage, the others were a bit afraid of me.”
I look at him, and I can totally see that, and I am also starting to understand now what it is that draws me to him. Our family history is certainly similar. We are both involved in criminal royalty and it is not an easy position to be in. It made us both a bit hard to handle.
He reaches out as I am lost in thought and strokes my hand, and I look at his thumb, tracing the back of my hand. I don't think I have ever had a man be both protective and gentle, and it feels a bit unreal to me right now. So, I choose to eat and not say anything, mulling all of this over in my brain instead.
***
After lunch, we ended up in the pool continuing our conversation from before, and now, we are both soaking up the sun with a drink in our hand. This is my idea of a date, really. I could do this any day and just relax.
I am laughing at a time Anton is describing getting in trouble at school when I hear a voice drift through the open doors. It is a voice I know all too well, especially with what he is calling me.
“Milaya?” Sweetheart, in Russian, that's what he is saying.
I try to stand up so I can see him, greet him, but I am immediately tugged back down by Anton who I bet is afraid for my safety right now. My father doesn't do most of his business directly with people, so I would imagine Anton has never seen him up close, of at all. He has no idea who this man is who has entered his home.
I look to Anton, feeling my blood run cold like I have just seen a ghost. My father probably qualifies since I haven’t seen him in so long. Not that I am afraid to see him, but this is an odd time for him to finally show his face here, now that things are a little better between Anton and me. “It's my father. He is there,” I explain to Anton who raises his eyebrow in interest.
“I am sorry, I didn't know. Sergei rarely does his own business. He has proxies doing most of it for him,” he whispers to me like he doesn’t want my father to hear that he didn't recognize him. I don't think my father is that deadly, is he? Maybe so. Maybe I don't know the man who gave life to me at all.
I stand back up and see that my father is standing about 20 feet away from me with my step-mother, Katya and a few of their goons, just inside the house. Anton stands up at the same time, and he ends up practically glued to me, his hand wrapping around my body possessively. I don’t really mind it, and in fact, I pretty much expect such moves out of Anton at this point, However, there is something about this, about the way he holds me and looks at my father that feels a bit different than all the other times Anton has behaved this way, I wonder if I should be worried at all.
I lean into him a bit and just let it go, focusing instead on my father who I have a few words for, obviously. I want to know where he has been and why he has not come to my rescue at all before this, hearing the rumors he must have the way Rusev described them. Surely the man would not want me passed around inside an entire Clan from member to member like a whore, right?
“Hello father, Katya” I say at first, greeting them both while sizing him up. He doesn't look like he has changed or aged much. I wonder if money really does buy things, like everlasting good looks. Despite his age, no one would know he had a full-grown daughter by just looking at him. “It took you long enough to come and find me,” I tell him sarcastically, letting him know I am slightly annoyed but still glad to see him, even if it is a little late.
