Chapter Five
Roman’s POV
My study was unusually quiet. I poured myself a whiskey.
Bourbon to be precise, with a few iced cubes which had already melted.
I wasn’t totally intoxicated when I saw my PR manager’s draft of the press release announcing Liza and me as a Merger/Engagement.
Whatever they had in mind before placing that title in bold was definitely not my concern.
It didn’t bother me; it only made me wonder what sort of crook Liza’s father was, and the reasons behind his absence.
“This could backfire,” Stepan warned. His hands folded into a fist.
“It already has, Stepan. Now, we own the narrative.”
This becoming a family affair was something I would not have initially imagined.
Taking Liza was the best option, although I never expected her to be a hot head.
Not every lady knows how to stand their ground when they come face to face with abductors.
Liza proved she wasn’t every lady. Her defiance overshadowed the situation.
I still recall the way she patted her black hair and adjusted the collar of her furry coat right before she started to walk ahead of my men.
She held her head up high, and her lips shimmered.
I didn’t know why she wore so much red gloss, but at that moment, her calm and easy demeanor gave her a striking beauty that I had never seen on any lady.
I didn’t find her attitude to be just attractive; I found it to be seductive as well.
Damn, I think she’s getting the best out of me.
I had never taken the time to figure out any woman the way I did with Liza.
I mean, the way she carried herself during the press conference, she didn’t just speak, she controlled the environment around her, an epic move of genius.
Regardless of the way I treated her, forcing my will on her and eventually marrying her, she still stood firm and composed. Unmoved by the situation.
That’s a real woman right there.
Maybe that’s why I found it hard to get into her head. Liza was effortlessly smart. Something about her made me want to treat her better. She didn’t just stand for herself before the press release. She stood for us, and it only meant that I should do the same.
It made me realize that I couldn’t treat her like a chess piece anymore. It would take more than that to get the required information from her. No more trying to force anything out of her. Besides, she’s a Russian princess. Patience might be my best shot, but how long could I wait?
“No,” I said to myself while my teeth bit the center of my bottom lip.
“I need a new strategy, and fast.” But what?
It was easy to torture and threaten. The world, to me, was just a ball filled with interesting people that I could control.
Liza was the only one I was sure I didn’t want to feel pain of any kind.
She never asked for anything that wasn’t hers.
She had a high sense of fashion, spoke like royalty, and lived like the princess she was.
And that was the very reason I wasn’t going to underestimate her.
**********
I headed back to my mansion and walked up the staircase, which was a longer route to my room, before arriving at my suite. The minute the door opened, I saw Liza reclining on the bed wearing a silk robe. She didn’t smile, not like I expected her to, but she turned to look at me.
The mansion was a little bit noisy. The clank of plates and pots and people communicating orders in low tones that travelled on the breeze through the window until they reached me.
She tried to ignore me with her silence until I walked in and sat next to her on the bed. Her eyes looked at me with keen awareness, and I knew I had to put her at ease.
“How are you?”
“I’m fine,” she said plainly.
“What have you been up to? What happened?”
“Nothing interesting happened, so I tried reading some magazines, which I found boring.”
Silence ensued for half a minute. I sighed, turned to look into her eyes, before adding, “Now that we’re married, there are some things you’ll need to know.”
“Things like?”
“Rules. I’m going to lay down some rules you need to follow at any cost.” Liza smiled, and it bothered me a little bit that she found this funny.
“What do you want me to do?” She asked. I took a deep breath and exhaled.
“First and most important, you should never walk around without the guards’ protection.”
“Yes, my Lord.” She smiled, and it burned me from the inside that she didn’t take the conversation seriously. “Sorry, I thought you’d like it if I called you Lord.”
“Don’t fucking mess with me, Liza.”
“I’m not,” she said. Yet her eyes warned me to expect more. So I sighed and continued.
“You’re to accompany me to a charity gala tomorrow, as my fiancée.”
“Does that mean that I get to accompany you everywhere you go as your fiancée?”
“You’ll find out.
“Anything else?” She asked.
“Yes. You’re to keep your mouth shut until I tell you not to. That means you don’t utter a word to the press when they question you. These aren’t too hard, are they?”
“Yes,” she shrugged. “I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else. I’m not the type to play by the rules.”
“If you mess up, you’re as good as dead.”
“Oh, I don’t mind. I think if you were capable of killing me, you would’ve done it already. Admit it, you only desire to use me, and when you get whatever it is that you want from me, I’ll be nothing to you.”
“You’re crazy,” I hissed, and she stood up to walk closer to where I stood until we were only a few inches apart.
“Define crazy,” she said.
“You’re out of your head. Mental.”
“Then tell me, Roman, what do you call people who kidnap women and forcefully take them to their home, giving them rules as though they’re slaves without any reason to live but to satisfy their every desire?”
Liza’s breath tickled my face, and I felt my hands ball into fists. Her lips shone in their neutral gloss, her eyes flickered at mine, and all I wanted was to grab her by the waist and kiss her into submission.
Instead, I take a step back while keeping my eyes on hers. Liza definitely needs to be broken, but she isn’t ready for that yet.
She moved a little to the side and sighed. “I need my things from Russia, including my phone.”
“I can arrange for your things to be brought from Russia tomorrow.”
“And the phone?” She asked inquisitively.
“I don’t think I can trust you with that yet.”
She walked a little bit closer to me and looked me in the eyes.
She always looked me in the eyes and didn’t break eye contact.
“Look, I know that you forced this marriage on us, but I’m not asking you to punish yourself or me for anything.
I willingly gave myself to you. Trust me, I have no intention of sabotaging you, nor do I mean harm to the rest of the Lobanovs. ”
“I’ll need time to think about it.”
She stood up, pacing to and from the bed, trying to look unconcerned.
“We both know what you’re capable of doing, Liza. But you are also aware of the consequences. We are not saints here.”
She stopped and faced me. Our bodies are only inches apart, close enough to read every small movement in the other’s face. Close enough for the kind of tension that makes people do stupid things. The air stiffened between us, and I felt it. I only wondered if she wanted me the way I wanted her.
“You’re not the right person to tell me about consequences,” she said.
“And why’s that?”
“Because you act as though you are the law. Only those who break the law can speak of consequences. But you…I wonder if you’ve had to live with any consequences yourself.”
I didn’t think I owed her an explanation of the many things I had done that made me feel regret and shame.
I’ve had to face countless consequences in my life, she being one of them, but she couldn’t know this because her mind was clouded by judgment.
So I stepped closer, and for a moment the urge rose from my ankles to my loins, reaching the peak of my head.
The urge to press my mouth to hers, feel her skin on mine, and kiss her intensely.
But no. That would only make me look submissive to her, and that could never be.
I stopped, not because I was incapable of losing my control around her, but because I knew my duty to her, and I honored my reputation more than anything in the world.
Liza’s face lit up. Her lips curled, and it made me suspicious of her. She seldom smiled, and now, it felt oddly weird.
“What are you hiding behind that smile?”
She smiled even more before she replied in a calm tone. “Nothing,” she said. “I’m dangerous when I don’t smile, Roman.”
“I know you’re up to something. I also know that you’re hiding something,” I said.
“All I know is you’re the one who loves control more than anything in the world, and I’m not your puppet.”
“I never said you were my puppet, Liza.”
“But you’re clearly treating me like one,” she said with her arms folded across her chest. “Here you are giving me rules to satisfy your ego, but you don’t even seem to care about my life.
All I ask is for my things to be brought back to me from Russia, including my phone.
I’m not a threat for crying out loud. I’m your fiancée.
And when you’re not always around, I’d like to have people to talk with. ”
“I’ll think about it.”
“No, Roman, there’s not much time to think about this. All I intend to do is call Emilia and Isabella and ask them to come around. They’re my only friends, and I miss their company.”
“Both Emilia and Isabella are aware of your situation. Don’t worry about contacting them to come over. They’ll come to see you themselves.”
To my amazement, she didn’t plead with me or insult me as I expected. Instead, she said thank you in a sweet voice, and it made me think as though she was up to something. This was a different Liza.
So I walked up to her, and she tried to maintain eye contact.
“I know that this attitude isn’t you. It’s just a facade, and we both know that when it comes to both of us, we always disagree.
You’re not easy or amiable. Sooner or later, you’ll have to tell me about all your father’s dealings, Liza, every single fucking detail.
You want to be cooperative, then cooperate, or else I’ll torture the truth out of you. ”
Liza’s face carried emotions that I couldn’t read.
I couldn’t tell if she smiled or frowned, but I believed that my words got to her because she stood still as though she didn’t know what to do or where to go.
I thought this was it. The moment when she’d reveal at least a tiny detail of everything her father has kept secret.
Then she blinked, right before turning around.
“You can do your worst, Roman,” she said, and then she climbed into bed and lay still as though sleeping.
It was this moment that brought me clarity.
She really was testing my patience, and I knew I couldn’t tolerate it much longer.
Maybe Liza was truly the match for me. Or maybe, just maybe, she wanted torture, and she was daring me to.
Whatever Liza looked forward to, I was ready to make sure that she wouldn’t see it coming, no matter what. This was already a game for her.
She didn’t sleep like someone who was afraid.
She lay on the bed like someone completely at ease.
Ungrateful as she was, I knew I couldn’t deny her the comfort she needed because of the kidnapping.
She’s not only watched by me. She’s watched by the entire world, so I knew protecting her was my responsibility.
But for how long could I keep up with her before she reveals the truth?
The truth of all the secret things her father had going on that none of the Lobanovs have a clue about.
There was no way he’d run away from the Lobanovs and go free, and I vowed to bring him to the limelight in the worst possible way.