"Your grand father sounds like he was a wonderful man", I prompted."Yeah, he was", The ghost of a smile graced her lips, And I knew it wasn't me. It was for the memory of man who raised her, and I was fine with that. As long as she was smiling."You had to sell your car to pay bills? That must have been hard", My tone remained low, gentle but probing, hoping to get Rhea to open a little more. Her eyes flickered to me briefly. A quick glance before looking looking away again, as if she found it difficult to look me in the eye right now.Yet, she trembled, and I hoped to ease her inner turmoil by rubbing the back of her hand with my thumb more. Rhea's lip trembled and her breath as she fought a fresh wave of tears. "Yeah, I did. After my grandma passed away, papa got sick. Too sick to take care of himself any more. The medical bills were expensive, I had to sell their house to help me pay them. The car wasn't that bad since I was living in the city for the ballet by then, but the house

I faced the door at the sound of Aleksander's voice. He was just standing there with the glass in his hands."I didn't know what else to do, so I got you a glass of ice water", He spokeWhen l heard his words, I froze for a moment. I was now sure that Aleksander came after me and brought me back here because he genuinely cared."Rhea are you alright?", His eyes widened when he noticed the fresh tesrs that were spilling down my cheeks. He set the glass of water down on the bathroom counter and crossed the chasm that was separating us quickly.At that moment, I made up my mind. To find my happiness where I could and take what I wanted for myself. And I wanted Aleksander. To find my happiness with him, even if it was only for a limited time. Even if we only had right now. I was going to take it.Taking a step, I wrapped my arms around Aleksander before he could close the distance first. "Stay. Please stay with me", I whispered.He paused only for a second. Then I felt his shuddered brea

Even with the smell of bacon, pancakes and coffee, all I could think about was Rhea's sweet scent and the softness of her skin. I finished cooking, watching her make coffee from the corner of my eyes the entire time. My eyes were drawn to her like a magnet. Maybe some part of me worried. Maybe some part of me worried that if l looked away she would vanish away."Do you want to sit at the island or dining table?", I asked her. There was a small smile on her face as she stirred cream into her coffee cup. I hoped that smile was for me."Let's sit in the dining room, The sky is blue today", When she looked at me, my only thought was that her eyes were the only blue I needed to see in my life."Anything you want baby", My tone dipped a tad lower than I meant it to be. A hint of pink tinted her cheeks, causing her to bite her lip and reach for the coffee mugs as a distraction. I cleared my throat and followed her with our plates.We fell into our usual seats, following our pattern from our

James got the message, I left him. He sent a message back before Antonio pulled the car onto the highway. At first I hesitated to call Nikolai. However I was using Makalov resources. Nikolai would realize eventually what I had done and I would rather let him know now, compared to trying to cover my ass later.When I tried calling him, the line just continued to ring but without any response. "Shit", I cursed and dropped my phone onto my lap. It was almost noon on a work day now. Nikolai Makalov would be waist deep in meetings and phone calls were probably muted. Best I could do now was to send a vague text message in Russian and hope he understands what I was going to do.I didn't care about what prior relationship he had with Dax and their family. It didn't matter to me what the consequences for my actions might be. I suppose many people in my situation wouldn't. When the concept for asking for forgiveness after the fact existed. I wouldn't stop now.Dax wanted five million dollars f

The young hostess with dark hair swept into a tight bun noticed me enter. She took me in from head to toe and didn't miss the cigarette hanging from my lip as I scanned the restaurant."Sir you can't smoke in here", Her tone was polite but I didn't bother looking in her direction."Is Dax here. He is expecting me", He wasn't and I hoped she didn't notice that."Oh", Her olive completion went pale as I said his name. Though now she looked at me differently if at all. She tried to keep her eyes on the floor instead of making direct contact. "He's in the back", She responded."Perfect", Luck was in my favor, it seemed. I didn't want to beat him in a pulp in the middle of his family's shady restaurant. After all that wouldn't look good for the Makalov family. I had just enough good sense left to contemplate what was going to happen and the potential consequences.Anton was waiting in one of the black cars on the street. If his Intel was correct, Dax was here and he was alone. That's what