Chapter Twenty-One
Olivia
I knew by the tension in Maximus’ body there was something wrong. Even at home, he paced the house like a lethal predator stalking an unseen prey. I had caught him checking the window locks on more than one occasion, and he had double checked the door security several times.
“Everything okay?” I asked, fiddling with my earring, and watching him through the mirror in front of me.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be?” He flashed me a look, before returning to reading his phone.
“There is now a gun behind your bedside unit,” I replied. “You check the doors and windows constantly, phone to check in with me every hour when you’re at work, and several new security cameras have appeared outside.”
I turned in my seat to face him, and his gaze came up to meet mine. “You’re very observant,” he commented.
“Hmmm.” I continued to watch him, waiting for him to let me in on whatever was happening.
“You always knew marrying me would put a price on your head,” he eventually said, his expression guarded.
“Has that price gone up?” I queried.
The small muscles bunching at the side of his jaw told me the answer.
“I should be impressed that I’m worth more as a married woman than I was single, although back then I was valued at twenty million.” My joke fell flat as he continued to stare at me. “Maybe I should hand myself over and claim the reward?”
Maximus’ eyebrows shot up at my suggestion. “A bounty isn’t about the money,” he replied. “It’s about death and destruction, and claiming the alpha title.”
“That is either incredibly terrifying or the start of an exhilarating adventure,” I said, suppressing the shiver that threatened to ripple down my spine.
“I tend to win,” Maximus commented as if we were having a conversation about chess.
“The queen tends to sacrifice herself to protect the king,” I said.
He walked across the room, his fingers under my chin lifting my face so he could look into my eyes.
“I designed this game,” he replied. “I tend to win because I created the rules, and know every player and their moves before I even step onto the board. I don’t intend to lose, and that includes keeping my queen safe.”
“The last time a man promised to keep me safe, my brother threw him off a balcony, and wiped his hands on his trousers,” I said.
He tutted lowly, his eyes darkening dangerously as he pulled me to my feet.
“I should put you over my knee, and spank that curvy ass of yours for even daring to compare me to Dale.” His hand slid around to squeeze my ass and reinforce his point.
“No one will be throwing me off a roof, or even daring to look in your direction without me putting a bullet in their head. Understand?”
When I didn’t respond immediately, he dragged me closer to him with his hand on my ass. “Livvie?”
“We live in a world whose currency is human souls, and the language is pain, Maximus. We should have been allowed to fall in love naturally, and marry those people. Instead, I tied you into matrimony to save me from being sold to a sadist.” If life was fair, Maximus would feel the same way about me as I felt about him, and that knife of realism was starting to twist in my stomach.
I was beginning to want more than the protection of his wedding ring.
He tucked my hair behind my ear. “You should know by now that I never do anything I don’t want to do,” he replied. “Maybe having you as my wife was my plan all along…” His voice trailed off when I laughed.
“Be serious, Max,” I chided, pushing against his chest, but he refused to budge. “Your life was always filled with glamourous women desperate for your attention. You could have snapped your fingers, and any of them would have willingly become your wife.”
A slow, sensual smile curved his full lips. “If I wanted to snap my fingers and get obedience, I would have gotten myself a dog. It would appear that wives are not so easy to train.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, and he reciprocated the gesture.
“You are impossible,” I muttered.
He shrugged. “Maybe you should just believe me when I tell you that I’m not a good man, and have no problem manipulating events to get what I want.”
He was the head of the Rossi empire, and lesser families trembled at the mention of his name.
They had thrown their daughters at him for years with promises of huge dowries and business deals.
Maximus didn’t get a penny for taking me, and had a constant headache from my brother for his troubles.
He was being kind to me in the same way he had all those years ago when he entertained a little girl running away from her difficulties.
“You’ve saved me too many times for me to believe that you’re a demon ascended from Hell. If that were true, you’d have horns and smell of sulphur.” I wiggled free of him, and continued to get ready for our date to the opera.
“My horns only come out on solstices, and the sulphur wears off when I’ve been up here for a while.
” He bent down and pressed a kiss to the junction of my neck and shoulder, sending tingles rippling down my spine.
“All demons deal in souls, and have no problem sending those souls directly to Hell for our own personal gain.”
His eyes met mine in the mirror, and I wanted to look away, but his blue gaze held me hostage.
“And if there is a higher level demon out there who wants my soul?” I asked. “Bullets are fast, Maximus, and none of us can live forever.”
He lowered so his face was beside mine in the frame of the mirror. “You’re mine, Livvie. I warned you what would happen when you said the magical words I do. If someone is stupid enough to try and take you from me, I’ll present you their heart as a keepsake.”
“Packaged with a bow?” I queried.
“It wouldn’t be romantic unless it was wrapped in a bow,” he replied, kissing the side of my throat before straightening.
His words should be disturbing, but I had heard talk of death, misery, and demise for most of my life, and knew the majority of it was just men talking shit.
No one made a gift out of the heart of their enemies, yet a niggling voice whispered that Maximus was different to everyone else I knew, and that included his romantic gestures.
He held his arm out to me, his cufflink in his hand.
“What’s the stone?” I lifted the cufflink to the light.
“Black obsidian,” he replied. “The volcanic glass is so sharp that scalpels can be made from it, making it both beautiful and deadly.”
“That suits you,” I said as I attached it to the cuff of his shirt. “Since you’re beautiful, dangerous, and deadly.”
His laugh rumbled over me. “No one has ever called me beautiful before. Can a demon be considered that?”
I glanced up at him “Lucifer was a fallen angel.”
One side of his mouth lifted in a half smile. “You’re so strange.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Why?”
He pulled his right arm back and held his left arm out for me to attach his other cufflink. “You see the world differently to others. I’m used to only seeing the dark side of life, but you see the light.”
I sat back, and stared up at him. “You just need a different filter, because everyone around you can see how much you do for your family and friends.”
The look on his face when he had regarded Lucio after he had disrespected his sister was enough to have refrozen the polar icecaps.
There was a part of me that wished that expression was for me since it meant he fiercely loved his sister.
Maximus’ love reminded me of the radiant sun, shining warmth onto everyone he shared it with.
Maximus returned to his own world in his head, shutting me out, and leaving me to feel so alone that I wrapped my arms around my waist. To hide my feelings, I wandered into the bathroom, closing the room before staring at the woman in the mirror.
She looked like the woman before the wedding, but the person I had become inside was completely different.
I gripped the edge of the sink, breathing deeply to steady my emotions as panic threatened to overtake me. Maximus had done so much to help me, and I didn’t want to risk what we had by asking for more in case it pushed him away.
With Dale, I had planned for a life of solitude, and accepted my fate. Maximus was a different person, and he had awakened something inside me I didn’t know was there, a need to belong.
Tonight, I was dressed in a deep crimson dress with a fitted corset top covered in diamantes, and a flared skirt as I didn’t like my legs restricted.
My shoulders and arms were covered with a fine deep red embroidered lace so I didn’t feel so exposed since my breasts bulged over the top of the revealing corset.
The necklace I wore was part of the set my grandmama had given me for my twenty-first birthday.
She insisted that all her grand-daughters would receive their inheritance early so she could watch us enjoy it.
The diamond pendant sat between my breasts, the matching earrings adorning my ears.
It had been part of a collection, my sister claiming the tiara years ago on her birthday.
Mama taught me that ladies should show their assets but be classy about it. My hair tumbled around my shoulders in loose waves to allow me to cover my face when I dipped my head, as I tended to hide behind my hair when I was stressed.
A rap at the door jolted me back to the present, startling me.
“Everything okay?” Maximus called through the door.
“Yeah, I was just fixing my mascara.” It was a white lie, but men tended not to comment on make-up.
Every day, my life spiralled more and more out of control, while I desperately tried to keep my emotions hidden. I straightened my dress, smoothed my hair, and pulled my shoulders back.
“You can do this,” I muttered, meeting my eyes in the mirror.
Maximus stood outside, his gaze running over me, and his lips lifting in that half smile that made my heart race.
“Do you approve?” I asked, lifting my arms and turning three-hundred and sixty degrees.