*Sephie*
“Kind of. Adrik appreciates you and Misha talking me into telling him about it,” I said. I took a deep breath, looking at him. “He’s always been fine with me being around you guys and I never want that to be an issue. With me being hurt for so long this time, he’s feeling a little jealous at having to share me with everyone for the first time. But at the same time, he’s also excited that you’ll be able to catch the things I can still get past him. It’s complicated.”
Andrei glanced around, then put his hand up to stop me from saying more. “You don’t need to explain it to me, spider monkey. I don’t want to cause problems. Like you leveling up Misha, I think it works best with you right now, but that’s just because I need more practice. I’ll make sure Boss knows I won’t be nosey,” he said, smiling at me.
“I did tell him he shouldn’t worry too much about you, since you’ve known about Ivan’s past longer than I have.” It was my turn to glance around to make sure we were still far enough away from everyone else that we wouldn’t be overheard. “I am slightly worried about Stephen when it comes to both you and I. He’s very nervous about us finding out anything he doesn’t want us to know. I don’t want to make that worse,” I said.
“I did notice that. I’ve tried to assure him that I’m not going to drop in his head unannounced,” he said.
“He’s definitely one that needs to come around in his own time. I think he’ll tell us whatever it is eventually, but I don’t think it will go well if he’s forced to have to tell us something he’s not ready to,” I said.
“You mean the way you’ve been forced to tell us everything you didn’t want to before you were ready?” he asked, giving me a sly smile.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend it. I mean, it’s effective, but it hasn’t been ideal,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Also? Can we talk about how frustrating it is for these simple exercises to make my shoulder hurt this much?” I noticed Adrik on his way to us and wanted to change the subject before he made it all the way to us.
“Your shoulder is still healing, spider monkey. It’s a delicate balance of taking it easy and challenging it enough that it keeps getting stronger,” he said, looking at me apologetically.
“Is she complaining she can’t do much still?” Adrik asked Andrei as he walked toward us. He walked to me, still breathing heavier than normal from his last set, the beads of sweat prominent on his forehead. He caught me staring at him, my mouth slightly open, as he walked to me. His sexy smirk on his face, I felt the pull in my chest that meant he was thinking about how much he loved me. He slid his arm around my waist, pulling me to him so he could kiss my temple. My mind wandered to the night before and how I still felt like I couldn’t get enough of him.
“She might be,” Andrei said, laughing. “But I’m guilty of doing that anytime I’ve been hurt, too. I think we all are.”
“Don’t give me shit for it. It’s frustrating,” I said, defensively.
Adrik’s wide smile stretched across his face. “What? I might like extra spicy Sephie the most, too,” he said, holding me tighter against him.
“You boys better be careful what you wish for,” I said, letting my eyes go dark as I looked at both of them.
Adrik needed to go to his office the following day. I offered to go with him, but he said he only had a few meetings, then he would return. “I think we’re all enjoying being here so much that I don’t want you to have to leave just yet. This should be the only time I need to go back to the building for the rest of the week,” he said that morning while we were getting ready after they’d all hit the gym and I had lifted my five-pound weight a few times under Andrei’s watchful eye.
I felt my own nervousness at the thought of being that far away from him. He’d been away from me since I was taken, but only a few floors away. We were still in the same building. Now, I was facing having to be completely away from him for a few hours. My body was clearly not happy with that decision. I felt the shaking start almost immediately. He noticed I was quiet and walked from the closet to the bed where I had sat down, asking what was wrong.
“I don’t like the idea of being away from you,” I said before he made it all the way to me.
He chuckled, saying, “I don’t like the idea of being away from you either, but it’s just for a couple of hours.” He sat next to me, putting his arm around my shoulders. As soon as he touched me, he felt my body shaking. His eyes went wide as he looked at me. “Oh, you really don’t like the idea of being away from me,” he said. He pulled me closer, rubbing my back to try and help the shaking calm down.
“I know it’s not healthy and I know at some point I need to get over it but the thought of not being in the same building as you terrifies me right now,” I said quietly. The more I thought about him being gone, the harder my body started to shake.
“It’s okay, Sephie. You’ll come with me. We’ll just come back here after I’m done. I don’t want to be apart from you either. I just didn’t want you to have to follow me around today,” he said, his hand alternating between playing with my curls and rubbing my back.
“I tend to get seriously hurt when we’re apart and I’m kind of tired of it,” I said. I could feel the tears starting to well in my eyes as he tightened his hold on me. I heard him inhale deeply, then curse under his breath.
“Sephie, you’re right. You’re absolutely right. I never put it together until now,” he said. He reached over and moved me into his lap in one motion. “You still need to eat more, for the record. That was way too easy,” he said, giving me a small smile. I tried to return the smile, but my body was still not happy with the thought of him being gone for any amount of time. He held me tighter, saying quietly, “don’t worry, love. You can even come to my meetings today if you want to. You can always come to my meetings. Neal is one of them. He’ll be excited you’re there.” I knew he was trying to make me laugh. They all knew that making me laugh helped me get a handle on my out-of-control emotions.
I wiped the tears that had managed to escape from my cheeks, looking at him. The look of surprise on his face when he looked at my eyes was enough to finally make me laugh. “What color are they now?”
He cursed in Russian. In fact, he said every curse word there was in Russian. I looked at him, confused. “Sephie, they’re a completely new color,” he said.
“Shut up.”
“No, go look. They’re kind of blue, but it’s not your normal blue color. It’s like ice blue now. Almost white, love. This is scarier than your demon eyes,” he said.
I got up from his lap, walking quickly to the bathroom. I wasn’t sure how quickly they changed, so I was trying to beat them. When I looked in the mirror, I saw exactly what he had described. The normal three rings of color were gone and my eyes were almost white, with just a hint of blue. Adrik had followed me into the bathroom to see my reaction. I just stood and stared at my reflection, almost like I didn’t recognize myself. “I’m gonna need contacts. I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to hide this if it keeps happening every time I have an emotional reaction.” I turned to look at him, trying not to smile. “Have you met me? Do you know how insanely emotional I am?” I asked, trying to be overly dramatic for effect.
He just laughed at me, pointing to the mirror again. When I looked this time, my eyes had changed to green. But it was the normal green that was there all the time. The green had just overtaken the brown and blue rings. It was much easier for me to recognize myself this way.
“Apparently, white means fear and green means sarcasm,” he said as he wrapped his arms around me. “I can also have contacts made for you, if that’s what you want.”
“I don’t know how else to hide this. I don’t know it’s happening. I was only just starting to be able to tell when my eyes go dark and now they’ve just gone completely rogue and are out here freestyling. I said my stomach was untamed, but clearly it’s my eyes that are untamed,” I said.
Adrik pulled me to him, laughing. “We’ll talk about it more later. I said I didn’t want to tell the guys about it because I was feeling selfish when it comes to you. I never mind you around them. It’s not that. I only just got you back completely though. I didn’t want to share. We might not have a choice with that, though.” He took a deep breath, still thinking out loud, he said, “I don’t mind the guys knowing about this eventually, but I don’t know how I feel about anyone you talk to being able to see this. Contacts might be necessary in certain situations.”
“You mean so I don’t scare off all your business partners?” I asked, grinning at him. “What about Ghost? Didn’t he used to be the wealthiest guy in the city? Well, yeah, until he fell in love with this stone-cold weirdo who couldn’t control her emotions and scared everyone away. Now, everyone is afraid to do business with him.”
“That won’t happen, love,” he said, shaking his head at me. He grabbed my hand, pulling me with him out of the bathroom. He stopped briefly to send a text to Viktor, then grabbed my hand once more. He walked to the closet and grabbed my coat. “You’re going to need this,” he said. “It’s colder on the helicopter.”
I grinned at him. “You already arranged for the helicopter so you’d get home faster, huh?”
“Guilty,” he said, holding my coat up for me so I could put it on. He adjusted the collar, moving my hair out of the way, then pressed his cheek gently to my neck. “I’m secretly very happy that you’re coming with me today. I was not looking forward to being apart from you,” he said as he wrapped his arms around me, holding me tightly against him.