Chapter 44 Electric Bond
Julian’s bedroom here was larger than his room upstairs. It was darker, his magnetic scent everywhere…
She was still looking around, wondering why he even had another space here when Julian spoke. “I’m going to take a quick shower. You should settle down.”
She didn’t turn towards him, she just nodded.
She heard his retreating footsteps, and finally exhaled. His presence was too much. She had never perceived anyone that strongly before.
She finally settled down on the king-sized bed, covered with black and white sheets. She thought about her son who was upstairs, watched over by the boy Julian hired for him.
Her head was anything but calm. What if Julian hadn’t found a way to take Phoenix’s videos off the blogs? What if Julian hadn’t saved him from the people Maris was going to sell him to? She felt like she failed her own son. Her son had been with Maris for years- with who planned to sell him.
The thought of it alone sent a chilling cold down her body. If not for anything, but for the fact that Julian helped save their son, she was grateful to him.
She indeed, met her baby’s father again at the right time. She wondered what fate was trying to teach her or where all these were going to lead to. Because right now, her life surely did seem like a movie.
She just hoped that in the end, she would be able to claim back her father’s wealth, and be free. She craved freedom more than anything else she had wanted in life.
Julian wasn’t back from the shower- she wondered what was keeping him longer in there. She finally curled beneath the sheets, waiting for him.
The room was too quiet and Seraphina couldn’t sleep. She had been on the bed for more than thirty minutes and he was yet to come up. The moment she heard the bathroom door click open, she closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep.
Her back was to the door, but her ears caught the subtle click of it closing, and the soft shuffle of feet across the plush rug.
She turned her head slightly, and that’s when she saw him.
Julian had a towel wrapped low around his waist, hair still damp, chest bare—cut with hard lines, the muscles of his torso shifting with every movement. She concluded that he must have been spending a lot of time in the gym. But her eyes caught on something more…etched onto his right pectoral, near his heart, was a tattoo she hadn’t seen before.
A bird. Sleek, dark wings outstretched like it was flying into a storm.
It didn’t look like a decorative choice. It looked like a story.
She didn’t mean to stare, but she did.
Julian paused halfway to the closet and turned his head just enough to catch her gaze.
A smirk tugged at his lips.
“I thought you’d be asleep by now,” he said, pulling on a black pajama shirt. When he removed his towel, she looked away, heart beating fast. He didn’t even ask her to look away. ‘The audacity of this man’ she thought silently.
“I’m clothed now, you can look.” He murmured casually. She cleared her throat, looking back at him to see he had a pair of black pants on now.
“I wasn’t sleeping,” she said softly, propping her elbow up. “I was just… thinking.”
He raised a brow. “About?”
“I don’t feel like talking. Not in your bedroom,” she added, slightly sharper than she meant to.
He held her gaze for a beat, then nodded. “Okay.”
He didn’t press further. Parts of Seraphina had hoped he would push, but Julian as usual, was unpredictable- stoic. He just walked over to the other side of the bed and pulled the sheets back quietly. He didn’t climb in, though—just sat on the edge, rubbing the back of his neck. Then he stood and left the room.
Seraphina became disturbed. She had been watching him closely, and something was certain- he wasn’t alright.
She waited for what seemed like ten minutes before bailing out of the bed to find him. With quiet steps, she walked through the hallway and navigated her way to the living room. He was there, his back to the living room space, his front facing the floor-to-ceiling window as he spoke on phone.
Curiosity made her lurk behind the velvet curtain, straining her ears to listen to his phone call.
“Two more days is all I ask for, Balto. You will get the kid. I am close.”
Seraphina panicked silently. Balto. She had almost forgotten about the man that gave Julian forty eight hours to bring a kid. She had no idea what was between them- it was Julian’s personal business, but… now that she knew what Julian was worried about, she was overly worried too.
“Like I said, leave my fiancée out of this. It’s me you are dealing with. Play fair, and I will be loyal to you till the deal is over.”
Sera’s stomach plummeted. It was true- the man had threatened to get her instead, if he didn’t bring the kid. Her hand went to steady her heart. This was more serious than she thought.
Just then, she saw him end the call. She had no idea if the man concurred to Julian’s terms, and hell, she was so close to appearing out of hiding and clear her curiosity. But knowing Julian and his obsession with boundaries, he would probably be mad at her.
So instead of making things more complicated than it already was, she retreated to his room silently, her heart aching with the need to be there for him, and also know what the actual issue was.
The room was dim, the only light a soft amber glow from the lamp on the nightstand.
Time passed like a soft tide as she waited for Julian to enter. He didn’t come. But nature finally called, and she found herself slipping into the dream world amidst her chaotic mind.
One moment, she was sleeping peacefully, breathing evenly into Julian’s cotton pillowcase, and the next, she was standing in the middle of a dusty road. Her father was beside her, taller than she remembered, laughing about something. She reached for him, but he was already walking away, crossing toward a car parked in the distance.
Then came the crack of a gunshot.
Blood sprayed across her vision.
She screamed, screaming out of her sleep.
“Phine?” She heard Julian’s voice, but couldn’t separate her dream from reality.
She was thrashing, kicking the covers away, gasping out‘Dad’ like she could wake him from the dead.
“Hey—hey. It’s okay. You’re safe. You’re okay—” Julian was beside her in seconds, pulling her into his arms, holding her tight against his chest as she trembled.
“Don’t let them shoot him…” she cried into him, her voice high and cracked. “I couldn’t stop it. I watched them…he was right there…I…”
“Shh.” His hand was on her back, the other cupping her head gently. “It’s a dream. You’re here. With me. No one’s hurting you. No one’s hurting him anymore.”
Her fingers clenched into his shirt.
Her own shirt was soaked with sweat. She buried her face deeper into his neck as she tried to regulate her breathing, slowly calming herself with his scent.
Julian didn’t say more. He just held her tight and steady.
Eventually, her sobs softened. Her breath began to slow.
“I dream about him a lot,” she whispered. “About the day he died. But it’s always different. Sometimes, someone is shooting, other times, he’s gasping after eating a meal cooked by my mother. I wonder if…the dream is trying to tell me something.”
Julian didn’t try to fix it. He didn’t give her a cliché about trauma or therapy or time.
He just said, “You can keep talking about it. And it’s fine, you don’t have to continue talking if you don’t want to.”
“I do.” Her voice was quiet now. Raw. “I feel…safe in your arms right now.”
Julian stiffened for a second. She felt safe with him- someone as dangerous as him. He thought she hated him. And just like that- his heart did a mini flip against his will.
He ran his fingers along her spine, a soothing rhythm that anchored her against the memory. “You are safe with me. I will shield you away from harm like I promised. You have my words.”
There was silence again. But it was warmer this time. Safer.
His palm rubbing her back to sooth her was doing more to her than what it was actually meant to. Then the flicker surfaced—the blurry night when they had sex.
It hit her like a spark catching on dry skin.
His body over hers. The sound of the fake name he gave him ‘Zeus’ in her throat was what she remembered the most. Her legs wrapped around his hips, breathless, reckless, lost in grief and desire and something that had no name at the time.
As the memory surfaced, she felt his breath shift as if he could access her thoughts. Then with subtleness, his arms tightened around her.
Their faces were only inches apart now. The air between them shifted. Heated.
Her fingers flexed slightly against his hard chest—just above the bird tattoo. His shirt wasn’t buttoned.
Julian’s thumb was still drawing circles across her back, slower now. Lazier and more deliberate.
“You remember that night…?” she asked before she could stop herself, her voice almost inaudible.
He looked at her, eyes darker than they had been all evening. He didn’t need to ask which night. “Every second.” He answered.
Seraphina didn’t say anything else. She just looked at him, not bothering to hide the intense admiration in her eyes.
And he looked back with the same intensity.
But neither of them moved closer.
They just stayed there. Breathing in tandem. Her legs tangled with his. His hand still pressed between her shoulder blades. The only sound was the silence between heartbeats.
“Sleep, Sera.” He muttered to her, voice thick like he was fighting to suppress something in him.
But Seraphina’s desire was trespassing past her logical reason. Before she could have time to rethink her decision, she closed the space between them and kissed him on his lips.