Chapter 334
Chapter Three Hundred Thirty-Four
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’splicated “
Andrei nced around, then put his hand up to stop me from saying more. “You don’t need to exin 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 nce 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 ites to both you
and 1. 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 toe 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 rmend 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 bnce of taking it easy and challenging it
enough that it keeps getting stronger,” he said, looking at me apologetically.
*Is sheining she can’t do much still?” Adrik asked Andrei as he walked toward us. He walked to
me, still breathing heavier than normal from hisst set, the beads of sweat prominent on his forehead.
He caught me staring at him, my mo uth slightly open, as he walked to me. His s*xy 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,ughing. “But I’m guilty of doing that anytime I’ve been hurt, too. I think we
all are.”
“Don’t give me shi t 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.
1 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 bepletely 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’lle with me. We’ll juste 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 ying 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.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDra/ma.O(r)g!
“Sephie, you’re right. You’re absolutely right. I never put it together until now,” he said. He reached over
and moved me into hisp 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 evene to my meetings today if you want to. You can alwayse to my meetings.
Neal is one of them. He’ll be excited you’re there.” I knew he was trying to make meugh. They all
knew that making meugh 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 meugh. “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 apletely new color,” he
said.
“Shu t up.”
“No, go look. They’re kind of blue, but it’s not your normal blue color. It’s like ice blue now. Almost wh
ite, love. This is scarier than your demon eyes,” he said.
I got up from hisp, 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 wh ite, 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 justughed 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, wh ite 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 gonepletely 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,ughing. “We’ll talk about it moreter. I said I didn’t want to tell the guys about
it because I was feeling selfish when ites to you. I never mind you around them. It’s not that. I only
just got you backpletely though. I didn’t want to, ire. 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 cor, moving my hair
out of the way, then pressed his cheek gently
!
to my neck. “I’m secretly very happy that you’reing 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.