Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Anastasia
D inner was a silent affair. The tension was so thick in the air that you could cut it with a knife. No one spoke, the only sound that could be heard was the clinking of the cutlery against the plates. There was a frosty chill in the air. Every time I looked up, Savina would be looking at her husband while he was momentarily distracted. Then, when she looked away, Andres would be looking at her.
You could quite literally feel the tension between them. I guess that was what marriage was at times: you would fight with your spouse and not know how to communicate. Well, at least for healthy marriages. There weren’t many of those in the world, today. You didn’t even need to look far within the normal world. Love had become such a tainted thing. It had been twisted and corrupted into something that was never intended to be what it was.
Love was not hardships and strife. It was meant to be soft, warm, and kind. It was meant to be a safe haven, not a battlefield.
I poked at my steak, my appetite forgotten and my mind hyper-fixated on the man before me. I had been stealing glances at him every so often, and not once had I caught his eye.
It shouldn’t bother me, but it did. I was used to his gaze following me.
I had crossed a line. That bathroom moment was a big no that I should have never let happen. I had told myself repeatedly to keep my distance. But I had let that man put his mouth on my…
“No,” I gasped before I slammed my fork down. The intrusive images played in my mind like a movie on repeat.
All eyes at the table turned to me. I could see the varying looks. Savina looked concerned, Andres looked like he couldn’t care less, and Valerio… well, he looked passive.
There was no emotion in his eyes. I didn’t know what it was, but something was different about him.
Something was off. I just couldn’t quite place what it was.
He had not looked me in the eyes since he had sat by the table. I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss his constant gaze. In the beginning it was unnerving, but over time, I had started to find comfort in his stare. It was as if I was never alone.
“Are you okay?” Savina asked.
I nodded, the heat rising to my cheeks as the embarrassment seeped into my blood. “Sorry, I think I just got a chill.”
“Okay.” She didn’t look convinced, but she let the matter go. “I needed to talk with you, and I guess now is as good a time as any.”
I waited for her to continue.
“Sergei wishes to visit.”
My blood turned to ice. “Oh. When?”
“He said within the coming weeks. He has some business he needs to attend to in Moscow with your brother, but he wants to see you when he returns. There is also the business of the upcoming wedding. It seems your brother is moving the upcoming nuptials?”
My heart clambered to a halt. “To when?”
“Two months from now.”
My heart sank to the floor.
I heard the screeching sound of the chair legs against the white marble. We all turned to look at Valerio, who just got up and left the room without another word. But before he had made it through the archway, his brother called after him.
“We’re not done with dinner.” The quip in his voice told me that this was more than just the dinner.
“I’m not hungry anymore.” The younger Valdez brother looked over his shoulder.
“Don’t care. Sit.”
“I don’t want to.”
They went back and forth like children.
“Enough of your childishness, Valerio. I have allowed you to do as you pleased for long enough. You will sit here and enjoy the family dinner as we always do.”
Valerio swiveled back and threw his brother a cool gaze. “I’m not a boy anymore, Andres. You cannot scold me into submission. If you want me in that chair, then you’re going to have to put me in it.”
Andres pushed his chair back and went to stand, but his wife grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.
“Enough, you two.” She leveled them both with a stare. “Let him go, Andres.”
Andres tore his gaze from his brother and looked at his wife. His shoulders eased and the heat behind his gaze quelled. It was astonishing to watch just how reactive and responsive they were to each other. It was as if an invisible tether pulled them to each other. They were one.
“Yes, let me go, Andres.” Valerio mocked his sister in laws voice. “Your balls are nonexistent at this point, brother.”
“Enough.”, “Quiet,” The King and Queen said in unison. Valerio rolled his eyes and pivoted out of the room without another word.
The room fell silent after his departure. The rest of the dinner became more awkward than it was before.
Something was definitely going on with the youngest Valdez, but it was not my place to ask. I was the one who had told him to keep distance, and I should be glad that he was doing that now. I shouldn’t yearn for his attention.
We are inevitable . His words rang loud and true in my head. He had been so sure of his words before, but his actions now spoke far louder than his confession.
Why did this man have to have me in such a chokehold? I needed to sort this shit out quickly before my soon-to-be husband arrived and a whole new problem arose.
I tossed and turned in my bed for two hours until I finally gave up on sleeping. My body was awake and frustrated.
Not only was I plagued with the idea of Sergei returning, but Valerio was a reoccurring thought in my mind.
I wanted that man, and I hated admitting it to myself.
Ever since the whole bathroom scene, I had been weak for him. All I could think about was his mouth on my pussy. And I wanted to taste him. I wanted to taste him so badly. I had seen the bulge in his pants, and I knew that he was big.
Fuck . I could imagine just how well he would fit inside of me. He would stretch my walls, and I would take every last inch of him.
“No.” I shot up from the bed. I fanned my face, trying to calm the inner sex demon that I had awakened. I needed to calm down. “Keep it together, Anastasia.”
I needed to think of Sergei and the fact that he would murder me without care if he found out what I had done.
I pulled the blanket off my body and walked to my bathroom. I opened the water and splashed my face. I did that a few times, as if to try and douse the fire that had found its way into my body.
But it was pointless. I had reached my breaking point, and the bottle was finally popping open.
“Fuck, man.” I braced my hand against the counter. “I need to get this man out of my head.”
But it was a pointless attempt. He was embedded into my grey matter, and now he was stuck. I had always been a woman of calculation. I knew my boundaries, and always moved with great caution. The red flags were all there, so why was I so persistent on this matter? I needed to walk away from him before it was too late.
For years, I had colored in the lines and had allowed the men in my life to dictate everything. I had been merely a pawn in the grander game they were playing, and I never got to move freely. It was only that night that I decided to make my move and run from this life, only for me to be dragged right back to the depths of the ocean.
I was tired.
“Fuck this.” I pushed away from the marble and looked myself in the mirror. The look in my eyes was clear.
I. Didn’t. Care.
I walked out of the bathroom before I could second-guess myself. I walked to the bedroom door, pulled it open, and then stilled. I stared into a pair of ocean eyes that had been haunting the back of my eyelids.
“Valerio,” I breathed his name softly. “What… what are you doing here?”
He observed me for a moment. “The same thing you’re about to do.”
How did he know?
“I can see it in your eyes,” he answered my unspoken question. “I see how you want me, and you can see that I want you just as badly.”
I gulped. I had been so sure of myself only a few seconds ago, but now, as I stood in front of him, I was locked in place. My eyes roamed the length of his body, drinking him in.
“Tell me, cielo .” He stepped forward with molten eyes. The heat in his gaze raised the temperature of my blood. “Will you take that leap? Will you throw caution to the wind for once and take what you want?”
My lips parted, and a soft and desperate whimper left my lips. There was a gentle hunger that hummed just beneath the surface of my skin. It was the kind of hunger that left me yearning for him.
He stepped into the room, and I drew back. He shut the door behind him, caging me inside the four walls.
“I won’t take a single step your way, cielo . It needs to be you this time. I need to be sure you want this, because once you take that step, I will not stop. I’ve held myself back for months. From the moment I saw you at the gala. It’s your move, now.”
Silence descended on us.
It was now or never. My mind wrestled with my body, lust versus logic, sense versus recklessness.
I had always done as I was told and, for once, I wanted to do something for myself. I wanted to give myself this slight reprieve before I was banished to life imprisonment within the coming months.
So, that only left me with one option.
I took one small step, but that was all he needed before he closed the distance between us.