AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Both Alex and I paused for a split second. The silence hung in the air, so loud it was almost deafening. I knew one of us had to say something, or we were going to give this whole game away.
"We do," I replied quickly, offering him a smile. "Thanks."
And, with that, the two of us turned to head out of the door and back to the elevator. Shit, I was practically sprinting, ready to put as much distance between myself and that man as possible. As soon as the doors slid shut behind us, I breathed out a sigh of relief, and closed my eyes, leaning back against the wall behind me.
"Thank fuck that’s over," I muttered. "You don’t think he-"
"Shut up," Alex warned me. "He might have cameras in here. He clearly knew something was up. We don’t need to give him anything more to go on."
I gritted my teeth, knowing he was right. We had to be careful. Because if Maxim found out what was going on between us and his daughter – we were well and truly fucked.
And not in the way I liked.
Chapter Seventeen – Olya
Staring at the door, I pondered on what my chances were of getting out of here without one of the guys stopping me in my tracks.
I knew I was stuck. I knew there was nowhere I could go, not without one or both of them by my side. And I knew, deep down, that it was a good thing – I knew I should have been grateful for their presence, that I should have accepted the help they were offering me. But, deep down, I ached for a life outside the confines of this place, a life that I could live entirely on my own terms.
A life that still had both of them in it, of course. That went without saying. But a life, nonetheless, that wasn’t built around the rules my father had laid down for me – a life that wasn’t dependent on doing exactly as he wanted, whenever he wanted it.
After that confrontation with Alex the other day, I got the feeling they were going to be keeping an even closer eye on me than before. Which was...well, in some ways, it was kind of nice, knowing I was the center of their attention like this, but in others...
In others, I found myself thinking about being back in Budapest, even just in New Ruska, before I had returned and my father had decided I needed to be put on permanent lockdown. I had been able to go out into the world and do anything and everything I wanted – I didn’t have to live in fear, worry that I was going to be caught, or skulk around in the shadows for fear of being busted.
But now? Now, I wasn’t so lucky. And I was starting to go a little crazy, locked down in this place. Not knowing when, or if, this was going to end. I loved spending time with Alex and Solomon, of course, I did – the thrill of finally opening myself up sexually to other people had been intoxicating, almost enough to make me forget about everything that I was missing. Almost, but not quite.
"What’s up?"
I turned, to see Solomon leaning in the doorway to his room, stripped to the waist, just a towel hanging around his hips. I couldn’t help but smile when I saw him like that. He was so freaking sexy to me, that strong, tapered body, the smattering of hair on his chest. He was more casual about walking around the apartment half-dressed, and I liked that – knowing I might open my door and see him, butt-naked, in the living room with a bottle of beer.
"Nothing," I sighed, shaking my head and drawing my gaze away from him. I knew it wasn’t fair to complain to him about all of this shit. After all, this was his job we were talking about. It wasn’t as though he could just back off and let me out of here, without incurring the wrath of my father, at least. And I knew my dad and his reputation well enough to understand that nobody wanted to be on the receiving end of that.
"Yes, there is," he remarked, making his way over to me and slipping his arms around my waist. When he touched me like that, God, it was so tempting to just spill it all to him – so tempting to just tell him that, yes, I felt as though I was losing my mind, and I didn’t know how to put it right. That my attraction to and desire for them was messing with my head because they were basically my jailers here.
"I don’t want to talk about it," I replied. He brushed his lips across my cheek, just the barest touch, but the tenderness made my heart soften. Maybe it would have done me good to actually speak with him about this – I doubted Alex would be able to listen to me without trying to argue, but Solomon seemed a little more chill on those terms.
"Yeah, but what if I want you to talk about it?" he asked gently. "Maybe there’s something I can do to help."
I sighed.
"Unless you’re going to let me go out without either you or Alex with me," I replied. "I don’t think there’s much you can do to help with this."
He frowned, pulling back from me.
"Oh. That."
"Yeah, that," I replied, pulling away from him. I didn’t want him to feel guilty about all of this, but at the same time, I couldn’t just pretend I wasn’t going through what I was going through right now. I couldn’t pretend it didn’t get to me.
"You know we can’t do that, right?" he murmured.
"Yeah, I know," I sighed. "I get it. I do. I just...there’s so much I thought I would be doing now I’m back in the city."
"Like what?" he asked. I blinked. It was the first time, I realized, since I had returned from getting my degree, that anyone had asked me what I wanted to do with myself. It caught me off-guard, even though I had long held these dreams close to my chest.
"I...I thought I would be finding a place to open my bookstore," I replied. His brows shot up.
"You wanted to open a bookstore?”
