“My leg slipped.”
“You lying fuck!”
I shrug, and when Cecily continues squirming, trying to slip out of my hold, I pick her up in my arms and carry her toward the stairs.
“Why did you do that? Nikolai is nice.”
“Shut up, or he’d look nicer in a casket.”
She groans. “Ugh. You caveman.”
Her head falls against my chest and her breathing evens out. She’s started to go to sleep at healthy hours lately. And even I have started to let myself sleep for more than two hours a night.
Once we’re in my room, I lock it with the key, then remove her shoes and cover her. I’m about to search for a remedy for her hangover when her hand grabs mine and pulls me down abruptly.
I nearly crash into her, but I hold myself back at the last second.
Her eyes open, green and glittery, and then slowly, too slowly, she asks in a vulnerable voice, “Am I as dull as a nun?”
That motherfucker Nikolai will die in his sleep for daring to hurt her, even with words.
I stroke her hair away from her forehead. “You’re not. You’re the most entertaining person I know.”
“But you said I’m dull.”
“That’s because I don’t want others' attention on you.”
She blushes, her drunken face becoming all red. “But we didn’t know each other back then.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“If I hadn’t applied to that site, would you have found another girl to chase? Like one of the girls you dated?”
“I didn’t date anyone before you.”
“But Nikolai said—”
“Nikolai was baiting you to get the information he wants. Don’t believe everything he says.”
She grins so delicately and elegantly that I want to pause this moment and tuck it in my heart where no one but me can revisit it over and over.
“What if…what if…we’d never met?”
“We would’ve sooner or later.”
“How do you know?”
“You were always meant to be mine, Cecily.” Nothing else could explain this raging need to own her, keep her, and never let her leave me, even if I have to sacrifice a limb for it.
Even if she hates me because of it.
She calms the beast I spent years hiding beneath the surface. She tames and placates him like no one else has been able to.
I’ve always been shackled by an inheritance to one of the most powerful organizations and that means I’ve needed to count every step. Strategize every plan. Plot every decision.
Not with her.
She’s the only person whose company I feel free in. There’s no sense of duty nor a weight on my shoulders.