Page 79 of Surrender: XXX Maxim
“Okay!” Ainsley merrily skips off while Maxim returns to my side.
“This is one small feature I attended to,” he says while tucking a loose curl behind my ear, “I hope you aren’t too offended.”
Am I? I can’t tell. The sun is shining, painting the property in shades of emerald with a pop of silvery blue marked by the water. It truly is a beautiful place. A private stable may not have been in my original list of requirements, but I can’t muster the energy to truly care.
“She doesn’t even know how to ride, though,” I admit. “She just wants a pony because every girl her age is genetically programmed to want one.”
“Even you?” he wonders, his voice uncharacteristically soft. When I nod, a rare smile creeps into the corner of his mouth. “Then I will have to ensure the stable is big enough for more than one pony. As for the riding, I can teach her. I would like to teach her.” He frowns as if that simple phrasing surprises him—namely the intensity with which he says it. The man with a tortured past, forced to ignore his humanity, wants to teach a little girl how to ride a horse. He wants to live in a house overlooking the water. More importantly, he wants to shed his name and finally become someone different.
Himself.
“It’s getting late,” Maxim murmurs. As he speaks, he entwines our fingers. “I’m eager to see what surprisesmyroom might contain.”
I shiver at the innuendo. It’s the one room in the entire house that we’ve yet to tour. My cheeks burn as I look back at the field. “Ainsley?”
“She probably already ran to tell the others news of her impending pony,” Maxim says. “You go. I’ll look around just in case she went further up the path.”
When I reenter the house, I find the others on the deck in the back, observing the view of the water.
“This place is perfect,” Daisy murmurs as I draw up beside her. “As perfect as you can get outside of a private island, but…perfect.”
“You always gotta quantify shit,” Mikie taunts. “It’s amazing, Frankie.”
“Yeah, amazing,” the twins chirp in unison before scurrying off.
I can’t ignore my smile anymore. It strains the corners of my mouth, making them ache. I’m not used to the expression—painful happiness.
“Maybe this Maxim guy isn’t all that bad,” Mikie adds. “Eh, Daisy?”
She stiffens, her eyes darting to me and away again. “Yeah,” she says softly. “Maybe. Frankie…” She faces me, her eyes downcast, her bottom lip skewered between her teeth. “I’m sorry for what I said. I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay.” In some ways, can I even blame her for being suspicious? After everything we’ve been through, I can’t.
She smiles, her posture relaxing. It’s only when I register the lack of a distinctive, girlish bit of laughter that I remember my task. “Where’s Ainsley?”
Daisy frowns. “I don’t know. Last I saw her, she was with you.”
“She’s probably upstairs screaming inside her new room,” Mikie suggests.
But when I enter the house, I don’t find her in any room. Not near the waterfront either. Or outside. When I head back out by the stable, Maxim is walking to meet me, but Ainsley isn’t with him either. Something in my expression makes him stop short.
“She wasn’t at the house?”
“No!” My throat thickens as I race past him. “Ainsley? Ainsley?”
“I’m sure she hasn’t gotten far,” Maxim insists. “She’s probably just playing—” He breaks off, frowning. His hand dips into his pocket, withdrawing his cell phone. Whatever number he finds on the screen makes his eyes narrow.
“I’m going to look for her near the shore,” I say, starting for the dock. “God, I just hope she didn’t go near the—”
“Francesca…”
I look back to find Maxim watching me with the cell phone pressed against his ear. Slowly, he offers it to me, his expression stone.
“What’s wrong? Is it Lucius?” I take the phone warily. “Does he know where—”
“Did you give her the phone?” a man wonders, his accent distinct. “Ah, you did! I can tell from her breathing. Hello, Francesca!”
“D-Dima?”
“Yes, yes!” He chuckles playfully. “I’m afraid little Ainsley won’t be coming home anytime soon. Though do not fear, Maxim alone knows what must be done to ensure her return—if he cares to, that is. In the meantime…I will show her every courtesy my brother ever showed me. Every last one. And just to give you a taste—” He breaks off just as a loud, high-pitched scream resonates through the receiver. “Adieu!”
I don’t even know what I do next. What I say. My only coherent recollection is just…screaming. And someone holding me so tightly it hurts, his voice a persistent, echoing bellow.
“We’ll find her.”
