THE SOLDIER

When I get up to the penthouse, I’m stupid with jetlag and exhaustion.

Natasha comes out of Dima’s room, blushing. I’d be happy the asshole finally hooked up with her, but I’m too dead to feel anything.

I walk into the kitchen to raid the refrigerator, and Sasha launches herself from the couch and comes at me.

“What in the hell is wrong with you?” she demands. She stalks into the kitchen and gets right up into my face. “Kayla is suffering, and you won’t even call her back.” She points a finger in my face.

I catch her wrist. “What do you mean, suffering?” I demand, alarm sharpening my exhausted brain.

Maxim enters the kitchen and stands behind Sasha. “Let go of my wife,” he growls.

I release Sasha before I get punched in the face.All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

“Ashley called me to say she won’t get out of bed. She hasn’t eaten. She cries all the time.” Sasha gives my chest a poke. “I told you not to hurt her.”

The alarms in my head have turned to full sirens.

I can only stare at my furious suitemate as the thoughts connect and disconnect in my head. And then I’m out the door and heading for the airport.

Kayla

After Sheri, Ashley, and Kimberly forced me out of bed and into the shower, I left the apartment to go on a drive to be alone.

Last night when they tried to get me to eat by plying me with ice cream, I broke down and told them the whole story-about what Blake Ensign did. Pavel’s solution. The part I got as a result. How I broke up with him and then later found out he was planning to move here to be with me.

If I weren’t so depressed, I would have a bitter laugh over the irony that they turned Team Pavel after hearing the story.

At least we’re all in agreement that I fucked up.

I don’t have a destination in mind, but I find myself down at the pier. My thinking place. The place I go when I’m ready to give up.

I guess that means subconsciously I don’t want to give up on my relationship with Pavel. And yet, I have to. I find a place to park and walk down to the end of the pier. A bench is open, and I plop down onto it.

I listen to the sound of the waves and the seagulls. The din of voices around me. My face grows wet with quiet tears.

Breaking you was always my worst fear, Blossom.

I hear Pavel’s voice in my head and lean into the sound.

What is he saying?

The person on the bench beside me reaches out to touch my shoulder, and I jerk my head up to tell them I’m fine.

“Pavel?” I wipe my tears, blinking rapidly. “You’re here?”

He picks up my hand and pulls it to his lips. “I’m here, beautiful.”

“Are you taking me back?” I realize how pathetic and desperate I sound. “I’m sorry–I… what are you doing here?”

“Come here.” He reaches for my waist and pulls me to straddle his lap, my shins resting on the bench, my arms tangled around his neck. “I told you I wouldn’t lie to you, Kayla, but I did. I lied when I said I’d let you go.” He shakes his head. “You’re mine, blossom. Nothing can change that.”

“I thought…” The lack of food and sleep in the past week is doing a number on my brain. I can’t seem to understand what’s happening. “Did you move to Russia?”

“No, little flower. I moved my mother to Chicago. I’m sorry, my phone was off the entire time I was there, and I didn’t get your messages until today.”

“You moved your mother…” I clap a hand over my mouth and laugh hysterically. “I thought you were gone forever.”

“I intended to stay away, beautiful, but I just can’t. I meant it when I said you’re everything to me. There’s just no reason to exist except for you.”

“Pavel.” I choke on a sob and strangle him with my hug.

He rubs my back and presses a kiss on my neck.

“I was wrong to doubt us. I love you, Pavel. I’m scared by how much I need you, but rejecting your help where I most needed it was cutting off my nose to spite my face. The truth is, I don’t even care about my career anymore. You’re what’s important to me.”

“No,” he says sharply. “I won’t allow that. Your career comes first. That’s why I’m moving here, so I can support you better.”

Now I cry like a baby. “I want you here,” I agree. “I really want that.”

“You’ll have it. You’ll have everything you want from me. I promise.”

“I don’t want safe words for this relationship,” I tell him.

He arches a brow.

“No exits. No outs. Neither of us gets to call red.”

His lips slowly stretch into a smile. “I won’t let you go again, little flower. You belong to me, and I’ll never release you. Not even in death.”

I kiss him. “Promise?”

His gaze is a warm caress on my face. “I promise,” he murmurs.

EPILOGUE

Pavel

We close on the apartment building on a beautiful June day. Sasha and Kayla both look like movie stars in their short shorts, high heels, and sunglasses snapping a selfie in front of it for Sasha’s Instagram. I stand back and watch, hardly believing it’s all real. That it happened so easily.

That’s what life with Kayla is like-easy. She makes me feel like a god with her total surrender, her belief in me, her bright, happy smiles any time I’m near.