AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Finally, he looked to me. “Are you up to a quick trip to meet him?”
I nodded my head. “I’m curious to meet him. Especially after hearing how he’s been treating the other bosses. Just promise me that you won’t let Giana go shopping at any point while we’re gone.”
They all laughed. “Deal,” Adrik said, smiling at me.
Misha had time after dinner to splice together the videos, so they would play continuously for at least eight hours. “It should restart when it gets to the end, but I haven’t tested that out yet, so I don’t know for sure if that will work.”
I looked to Ivan. “You were good on the couch earlier, right?” I was worried about leaving him alone again overnight. I didn’t want him to have to go through it again, if we could avoid it. If I needed to sacrifice another night of sleep, I would gladly do it to keep him from having to relive it.
“Yeah, it worked well. Just like it did last night, only it was still playing when I woke up.”
I looked to Misha again. “Okay, we can try it again, but if you hear anything, you come get me right away again. Understood?”
Misha nodded, handing Ivan the phone. “It’s all ready to go. You just have to plug it in and hit play.”
“Thanks, kid,” Ivan said. He put his good hand on Misha’s shoulder. Misha just nodded and left for his room.
I looked to Ivan. “Want me to make sure you fall asleep okay before leaving?” I felt silly asking a grown ass man if he wanted me tuck him in, but I wanted to make sure he was okay.
He smiled at me, pulling me to him and hugging me. “I’ll be okay, princess. Thank you. For everything.”
“You know I love you, Squishy. I just want to make sure you’re good. I need you around and what not,” I said, grinning at him. “And also, your one-armed hugs still suck.”
“Technically, I can give you a normal hug. It’s not like I’d feel the difference,” he laughed.
“Touché. But then I’d have to yell at you for using your bad arm and it would just get ugly.”
He covered his nose and leaned away from me. I couldn’t help but laugh at him. He was so different from when I first met him, and I adored this Ivan. He pulled me back to him, giving me another one-armed hug and kissing the top of my head. “I’ll see you in the morning, princess.”
“You know where to find me if you need anything.” I looked at him seriously. He chuckled, nodding his head as he walked toward his room.
I walked back to the kitchen to find Adrik waiting for me with another cup of tea. I smiled at him, taking the cup from him. “Honestly, I’m so tired I don’t think I even need this, but thank you. You’re so good to me.” I kissed his cheek, turning so I could lean my back against him while he wrapped his arms around me from behind, so I could still sip the tea while in his arms. He moved my hair off my neck, lightly brushing his stubble against my neck as he gently kissed my neck. I closed my eyes, enjoying his touch.
“Are you still happy here, solnishko? You don’t mind staying here another day or two until Ivan and Andrei are better?” he asked.
“Of course not. Why? Are you planning on not coming back one night?” I asked, looking at him sideways.
He laughed. “Why would I ever want to torture myself like that? I just want to make sure you’re not missing seeing other people.”
“You’re very sweet to think about that. With everything that’s happened, I kind of don’t want to see other people right now. Other people are different from you and the guys,” I said, taking another sip of tea.
He turned me around to face him, a curious look on his face. “What do you mean?”
I sighed. “I’m not entirely sure how to explain it. I didn’t even realize it was happening until I spent more time with you and the guys. Other people, other than you guys, take from me without ever giving anything in return. Like Giana, for example. That girl is so insecure that she’s latched onto me anytime she’s around me. Thankfully, she also latched onto Ms. Jackson, so I can have a break. I mean, I’m not mad at her for it, but it’s exhausting to be around for very long. Max is that way too. I just never realized it until I was apart from him for a while. Lots of talking about them, lots of me solving their problems, lots of me giving them support. Rarely the other way around. Normally, it doesn’t bother me, but with everything that’s happened the past couple of days, all the extra I have to give is reserved for Ivan and, to a lesser extent, Andrei. So, now that I’ve gone into way more detail than you were expecting, I’m perfectly happy hiding here for a few more days.” I finished my cup of tea and set it on the counter. Adrik looked at me thoughtfully. He grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the stairs. I was happy to go to bed, hopeful I would get to sleep through the night tonight. I was already feeling the effects of the tea.
“I can leave Mando and Giana here when we go meet Trino,” he said, as we walked up the stairs.
“No, it’s okay. I think you’re right. I need to see him with Trino as well. I didn’t say all that to mean that I don’t want to be around Giana ever again. She’s a nice girl. I’m just happy to have a break right now to get past the last couple of days.”
As we walked into the bedroom, he turned and pulled me to him, his hands finding their way under my shirt. “I’ll make plans for the middle of next week then. You can have the rest of the week and weekend here. That’ll give Andrei and Ivan more time too.”
I smiled at him. “Deal. Although I think Andrei won’t need that much time. He’s healing much faster than Ivan is. He looked much better today. But I think if Ivan can sleep tonight, he’ll start to feel better too.”
“You’ll feel better if you can sleep tonight as well, my love,” he kissed my forehead as he pulled my shirt over my head and threw it on the floor. He untucked his shirt, unbuttoning it, and sliding it off. He held it up behind me so I could slide my arms in the sleeves, then he buttoned it up. The sleeves were always too long, so he took the time to roll each one up, before moving to my jeans.
“We should change your bandage before we go to bed. I think we were supposed to do that last night and I forgot,” he said.
“Clearly, I did too. It hasn’t bothered me much lately, though. Maybe I can leave the bandage off overnight. I’m tired of bandages. I’m going to have a square scar from the stupid adhesive on the bandages.”
