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Her breath caught, her eyes showing the surprise at my words. I looked at her, knowing she would need to search my eyes. Constantly searching for what she would never find. It was amusing to me now, but I would allow her to do it as many times as she needed to convince herself that I was never going to not choose her. She eventually smiled, convinced once again. She stood on her toes and pressed her lips to mine, pulling me closer to her. God, I love this woman.
I woke sometime during the night to an empty bed. I was admittedly exhausted by the time we finally went to sleep. I just couldn’t get enough of her right now, especially now that I wasn’t having to hold back as much. She was amazing. She would match my intensity every time, sometimes surprising me with her own intensity. She would regularly test the limits of my endurance and I fucking loved that about her.
I stretched, moving to get up and immediately regretted it. I was sore. I bet she’s sore too. I should calm down for a bit or else she’s going to end up hurt again. I found a pair of pants and slipped them on, getting up to go see where she was. It wasn’t like her to get up in the middle of the night unless something was wrong. It worried me.
I found her standing at the windows, a mug in her hand. She heard me walk out and turned toward me. “I’m sorry, did I wake you? I was trying to be quiet.” She was wearing my shirt from earlier that day and nothing else. There was nothing sexier than seeing her in one of my shirts.
I wrapped my arm around her waist from behind her. “Your absence woke me, solnishko,” I said, kissing her shoulder. “Are you okay? Did your headache come back?”
She put one arm on top of mine that was around her waist, lacing her fingers through mine. “No, it didn’t come back. I can’t get my brain to shut off. I made myself some tea, hoping it would help me relax and go back to sleep.”
“What’s going on in your brain? Did you have a nightmare again?” I was concerned she had gotten stuck in the never-ending loop of the ball again and I didn’t hear her to pull her out of it. That thought was one that terrified me. It seemed like my voice was what could pull her out of that and I was terrified that she would be stuck in that loop and I wouldn’t be there to pull her out of it, leaving her stuck replaying that scene endlessly.
“No. Well, yes. But not the loop at the ball. When we got on the elevator and I smelled Vanessa’s perfume, my mind immediately went to the day that Misha and I were attacked. I could see Misha a step ahead of me and I saw him turn back to look at me just as we were both hit. I closed my eyes and tried to not think about it at the time, but my mind jumped immediately to the night of the ball.”
I tightened my arm around her, cursing quietly under my breath.
“No, it’s okay. I was thinking about when I went to the bathroom. Ivan waited outside for me. There were these two women in the bathroom and they were talking about you. I could hear their whole conversation. They were talking about how there were rumors that you were gay because you hadn’t been seen in public with a woman in years. But then one of them said she knew one of your ex-girlfriends. She said you were always an asshole and would call her the wrong name. That’s when I knew for sure they were talking about you,” she giggled. “She made a comment about how you never told anyone your real name. Then the other one mentioned the guys and said how much she’d like to take a ride on one of them. Ivan told me I had five minutes, but of course I told him I could be out in three, so I couldn’t wait for them to leave. I walked out and told them I could introduce them to the guys, but that I knew for a fact they appreciated boldness so they should introduce themselves as I washed my hands.”
I clicked my tongue. “You know they can’t talk to people when they’re working.”
She giggled. “Why do you think I told them to introduce themselves?”
I kissed her neck. “You’re a little bit evil, solnishko.” I smiled against her neck, biting gently. I felt her sigh as she was lost in her thoughts. “Those two scenes are what you’ve been thinking about instead of sleeping?”
She nodded her head, sipping the tea. “I can’t get rid of the feeling that something is familiar about those two scenes and I can’t figure out why smelling her perfume in the elevator made me think of that. I’ve never seen her before today. At least, not that I know of.”
I thought for a moment. “We can ask Stephen about it tomorrow. He has experience with hypnosis and how certain things can trigger memories. He might be able to help you connect it.”
“Why am I not surprised that he’s the one that can mindfuck you?”
I laughed. “I know, right? You don’t know if he’s just really quiet or if he’s thinking of fifty different ways to kill you.”
She laughed, leaning her head back against my shoulder, giving me complete access to her neck. I kissed down her neck as she said, “I said almost the exact same thing to Misha and Andrei the other day.”
We stood in silence for a few minutes while she kept sipping her tea. She finally yawned and I felt her body relax. “Better?” I asked.
She nodded. “I’m sleepy again. I made that tea, like, triple strong, so I apologize in advance if I sleep until noon now.”
I took the mug from her, setting it down on the coffee table. I picked her up, her head resting against my shoulder. “You can sleep as long as you need to, my love. You’re so much better now, but your body still needs time to heal. It doesn’t help that I’m practically addicted to you now.” I kissed her forehead as we walked back to bed.
She sighed, making the quiet cooing noise that she only made when she was super sleepy and happy. “I don’t mind that part. I love that part, actually. You take all the pain away for a bit.”
I laid her down on the bed. She moved over, so I could climb in behind her. I wrapped my arms around her as she snuggled back into me. I loved that feeling of having her in my arms, wanting to be as close to me as possible. I held her tightly, knowing she was asleep again almost immediately. I smiled to myself, thinking about how much I loved her as I drifted off to sleep once again as well.
I woke up late the next morning. Sephie was still sound asleep on my chest. It never seemed to matter how we fell asleep each night, that’s inevitably where she would end up. It seemed to be her favorite spot and I was not going to deny her. I ran my hands through her hair, expecting her to start to wake up. She didn’t move. Guess triple strength tea really does do the trick.
I laid under her for a while longer, running my fingers through her hair and over her body, enjoying the peace. I didn’t have anything scheduled until after lunch, so I could afford to spend extra time with her this morning. I felt her fingers start to play on my chest. I smiled, knowing she was having happy dreams, at least.
My mind wandered to our conversation earlier and her experience after smelling Vanessa’s perfume. As far as I knew, she hadn’t thought about the attack or the night of the ball for at least a week, if not longer. Once she was able to kick her uncle’s voice out of her head and she broke the loop of the night of the ball, she hadn’t given it much thought. It seemed strange that both incidents would come back over something completely unrelated.
Why had Vanessa come back? Sephie was completely right, Vanessa did try to touch me when she came into my office. I’ve never felt so repulsed in my life. The thought of any woman other than Sephie touching me makes my skin crawl. I couldn’t get away fast enough from her. She sat on the edge of the desk and all I could think about was how she was in Sephie’s spot. I couldn’t stop thinking about Sephie sitting on my desk. I wasn’t even listening to what Vanessa was saying. Her voice was always annoying to me on a good day. And my God, the smell. Her perfume was strong when worn correctly. It was unbearable when she wore it. I didn’t even tell Sephie, but I threw out the clothes we were both wearing that night. Somehow, I don’t think she’ll mind.
I did eventually catch a few things that Vanessa was saying before Viktor and Ivan walked in with Sephie. She said she’d heard I was back and wanted to make sure I was okay. She said she cried for days when she heard I had been killed. Right. Where would she have heard I was back from? As far as I knew, she wasn’t connected to anyone else in my organization. I always checked out a woman’s background before I dated them. Except for Sephie. I didn’t care when it came to her. My usual rules were thrown completely out the window when it came to her. I should have one of the guys put somebody on Vanessa for a few days. Something doesn’t feel right about her just “randomly” showing back up, after almost two years.
I felt Sephie snuggle into me more, still sound asleep, making her cooing noises. I held her tighter against me, glad that she had broken me from my own thoughts. Regardless of whether she was aware of it or not.
I checked the time. I’d been laying there watching her and thinking about everything for over an hour. I needed to get up, so I wouldn’t be late to my meeting with Armando and a few other business owners in the city. We were all working toward the same goal, so I didn’t feel like Sephie’s presence was imperative. All the business owners that were coming were close associates of either Armando or myself. They knew we could help them make even more money. I wasn’t worried about deception with them.
