Page 42 of The Tsar's Obsession
Mia waited, something akin to anger blazing in her eyes. "Why don't you tell me who you really are first? Have we met before?"
She threw the question out and surprised me immensely. But we were here now. In a way, she was correct—I had no right to demand answers when there were things I was keeping from her. Slowly, I nodded.
"Yes."
Her plump and delicious lips parted, shocked that her suspicions were being proved correct. "Wha– when? Where?"
Fuck. In my little game, I somehow lost my way.
"You've remembered, haven't you?" For some reason I didn't want to tell her. I didn't want to pronounce the words and admit that I'd been keeping an eye on her for close to a decade. That I changed my whole self to come here. That I became who I was so I could have the chance to see her again.
"You're that man. From that club. With the beautiful eyes.That man I kissed...all those years ago.” The bar buzzed with Saturday night jovial laughter, and her words were barely above a whisper, but I heard every word.
I had to get closer—to smell her, to feast my eyes on her, to touch her. I grabbed my chair and moved to sit right in front of her, her shoulders shaking as she looked on at me in naïve disbelief.
"Smart girl," I confirmed quietly, her naked knees trapped between mine. This was intoxicating. After the night we'd lived through and how abruptly she disappeared out of my life, this felt like a resurrection.
Being so close to her again, getting a mere trace of the smell of her skin, and looking into her eyes, I knew that no matter what kind of excuse she would produce, I'd make her see the only truth: we would be together.
"Why...why did you get in touch with me? Why did you barge into my life like that?”
My hands on her thighs, I leaned in just enough to pass the message along.
"Because...I want you. I've wanted you from the moment I saw you, Mia, all those years ago." I took a small pause to enjoy her stunned expression. "I've waited a long time to see you, Sunshine. Many years. I've escaped prison to get to you. I've killed and robbed, cheated and lied, just to get my hands on you. And now. Now I have everything I've ever wanted in life. But I still don't have you."
There, I finally fucking laid it out into the open, not feeling lighter in the slightest. Mia’s cheeks flushed red, her bottom lip between her teeth as she considered my words, blinking through the shock.
Her lips were so close to mine, I felt the heat she radiated. Dazed, her eyes lost in mine, she searched for any hint of a lie or a prank, but there was none. This was the most important and serious thing I’d ever been involved in, in my life.
“Kirill…” Every time my name left her lips, my whole body zinged with oxytocin, demanding another dose immediately. “I– I don’t know what to say…what to think…what to feel.” She confessed a small part of what was on her soul.
I was alive. Beside her, I wasn’t a zombie, not just a mere corpse moving through the motions in the world of the dead. Life had color and taste, smell and sound, both loud and subtle. My lips on her soft and delicious cheek, I closed my eyes and breathed her in again.
"How did you find me?" God, she sounded so innocent, not truly understanding who was sitting in front of her and what I was capable of. "You didn't know anything about me, just my– just my name.” She pulled away, virtue and a plea for the truth mirrored in her eyes. I contemplated what to tell her.
"I can do lots of things, Mia. I knew who you were the day after I saw you. And I kept my eye on you...all this time."
Her eyes wide, her whisper pleading, she couldn’t believe it. "W– what?"
A sudden swoosh of air sounded beside us and ripped through our private little moment. And then, a wave of beer flew between us and hit right into her chest, spraying me and everything else in the process.
Mia gasped in surprise while some wasted punk began his apologies. "Oh my God! I'm so sorry, are you okay?" He quickly leaned in between us and reached for her breast, but before he made contact, his neck was already in my hand, dragging him away.
"Don'tfucking touch her!" The words spilled out of me, his scared little eyes apologizing for the mishap.
"Just trying to help, man!” A few of his buddies came to the rescue, but I had no intention of engaging and turned back to Mia—only to see an empty chair.
Fuck.
19
So Complicated
Mia
Theadrenalinerunningthroughmy blood was replacing all my oxygen. In this loud bar, filled with a rowdy crowd, I finally confirmed all my groundbreaking suspicions. That kiss, that little fun and flirty thing I did a decade ago, caught up to me with the force of a tsunami, obliterating everything in its path.
The past week had been pure hell. He called; I didn’t pick up. Like a fucking teenager. Like I was an immature brat, not the woman I knew I was. I hid away—at home, at work, at Viv’s—anywhere and everywhere trying to occupy myself with something.
