Chapter 27
Viktor~
Even though I’d been adamant about not having children with Aurora, I couldn’t lie and say that it still hadn’t stung to hear her confirm how she didn’t want to have children with me, either.
My hope had been to be able to get past our toxicity for it to be a probability in the future, but my wife seemed just fine with never sharing that experience with me, and I didn’t like it.
I also didn’t like how she had referred to her condo as home, which was further proof that she wasn’t giving this marriage everything that she had.
At my place, she still never ate anything from the kitchen, she still never left the bedroom, and she was like a ghost to the staff and guards.
Her condo was her safety net, and her father had given her clear permission to use it whenever she felt like she needed to, and it was time to finally draw the line in the sand.
It also didn’t help that walking into her condo had left me with an immediate sense of loss. Even though the place was decorated tastefully, it was clear that she had money, and the sleekness of the place suited her personality perfectly.
However, along with the expensive décor, there were pictures of her and her family hanging on the walls, there were bookshelves lined with books and knickknacks, and there was enough life scattered around to show that she had lived here comfortably.
“Why didn’t you pack any of this stuff?” I asked as I stood in the middle of her living room.
“What stuff?”
“Your family photos, your books, your favorite coffee mug...your fucking stuff, Aurora?” I bit out, past the point of being just frustrated with her and our situation.
“I packed what I’d needed, Viktor,” she replied calmly, and that in-control disposition of hers was really grating on my nerves.
“But nothing that would make my home yours also,” I pointed out. “You still live here.”
To her credit, she didn’t deny it, nor did she try. Besides, I knew that I was being unreasonable. If the roles had been reversed, I honestly couldn’t say how I would have prepared for sleeping with the enemy, especially in their own territory.
Aurora cocked her head, those dark eyes of hers seeing too much. “Do you have something against baby steps?”
“Yes!” I roared, fed the fuck up with her logic.
Instead of trying to talk me down, Aurora just eyed me, probably wondering if I’d finally lost my goddamn mind, which I was pretty sure that I’d had.
I didn’t care that she made perfect sense.
I didn’t care that I was asking too much of her right now.
I was in love with her, and so baby steps weren’t working for me.
“I’m going to ask you something, and having kids will depend on your answer,” I told her, finally drawing that line in the sand.
Aurora’s back immediately straightened as she stared at me. “Okay, what is it?”
“Where were you that first night?” I asked. “The night when you lied about your phone dying and losing track of time.”
“I had a job,” she answered, and she answered so easily that my knees almost gave out on me.
“Astaroth,” I surmised,
Aurora nodded, and I tried not to get my hopes up too high, but that attempt vanished as she continued to talk. “Santino called me about...about something that could only be handled by me, and after learning the details, I couldn’t say no.”
“Why couldn’t you say no?”
She immediately shook her head. “No matter where we go from here, I will never tell you any Marchetti business, Viktor. If there’s truly a line between us, that’s it. You can never ask me about my family’s business, and you can be assured that I’ll never ask you about yours.”
“Even when their business involves my wife?”
“Even when their business involves your wife,” she asserted. “Because I can’t promise you that I’ll say no if my family ever calls because they need me.”
“And I’m supposed to just let you run off into the night, not knowing a fucking thing?” I bit out. “Is that it?”
Aurora walked over to me, then placed her hands on my chest in a bid to calm me down. “No, that’s not it.”
“Then what, Aurora? What?”
“Then I tell you that I have a job to do, and you trust me,” she answered easily.
“And if something goes wrong?” I asked, already feeling on edge over something that hadn’t even happened yet.
“Then you’ll end up getting a call from my father if I’m unable to make the call myself,” she said, making it sound all so simple, which it very much the fuck wasn’t.
I took a step back, needing some breathing room. “I’ll tell you what...I’ll start trusting you when you finally pack up the shit that actually matters to you and decorate our house with it. I’ll start trusting you when you begin to actually live in our house, not just the bedroom.”
“Viktor-”
“I can’t be the husband that you need if you refuse to be the wife that I want,” I told her. “Just like I can’t have it both ways, neither can you.”
“You never explained why we can’t take things slowly,” she said, eyeing me like either one of us might pull out our guns at any moment.
“Because I’m already in love with you,” I answered honestly. “It’s too late for me to take things slowly.”
“And because you’re already in love with me, I no longer have the option of taking it slowly?” she asked. “I’m not allowed the luxury of time? No adjustment or grace period? It has to be all or nothing because that’s the way it is for you?”
“It has to be all or nothing because, given the choice, you’d give me nothing, Aurora,” I replied, my voice hardened again. “And please don’t insult my intelligence by claiming otherwise.”
“Have you even once considered what it’s like for me to live in Korolev territory?” she asked, and I hated how even her tone sounded. This was our life that we were discussing, and she sounded just so unaffected by it all.
“Yes, I have,” I informed her. “Have you ever considered what it’s like for me to love someone who doesn’t love me back?”
“And you think that if I love you back, then everything will magically fall into place?” she asked quietly.
I stepped to her again, taking her face in my hands, desperation superseding the anger that I’d been feeling all fucking day.
“No,” I answered truthfully. “Loving me back will only complicate matters further, but not for us. It’ll complicate matters for our families, but given the choice between them and you, it’s always going to be you, Aurora. ”
That’s when it happened.
Her face softened, and her eyes no longer held that defiant look that they always had about them. If only for this one moment in time, Aurora was letting her guard down, and just when I’d thought that she couldn’t be more beautiful, this Aurora Marchetti was fucking breathtaking.
“Baby, I need you to love me back,” I said, not caring that I sounded close to begging. “Hell, I’ll settle for you even just liking me at this point.”
“The day that we become more important to each other than our families is the day that they should kill us both,” she said, and she wasn’t wrong about that.
I ran my hands from her face to her shoulders as I said, “They can try.”
“You only get one chance at this, Viktor,” she said, and my heart started beating with hope again. “If you want me to be your everything, then I need the same thing in return.”
“Aurora, that’s all I’ve ever fucking wanted,” I told her, my voice sounding foreign to my own ears. “I’ll take you any way that I can get you, but if you think for one second that I’m going to fuck up after you give yourself to me wholeheartedly, then you’re crazy.”
She gave me a terse nod before saying, “I’ll continue to do jobs for my father if he needs me to, though I’ll do my best to keep you as informed as I can.”
Everything in me wanted to argue against that, but I knew that I’d lose her if I did. “Okay...is there anything else?”
“I want back on the prostitution project,” she answered, and that was an easy give.
“Okay, I’m fine with that,” I assured her. “Anything else?”
“If you ever bring up another woman again-”
My lips on hers stopped her from finishing that sentence. Even if I deserved it, I was suffering from that mistake enough as it was, so all I could do was show her how she really was my everything.