psychiatrist, as I put in a le velheaded voice :
“ Well, two years ago I found my mother hacked to death in a hotel room. They killed her and sliced her up to show my father that he shouldn’t do business on their patch. He sells guns and other weapons to gangs and terrorists, you see.”
Hearing steps approach the kitchen, I looked up to see Alex enter, muttering something to himself. He did that a lot. Usually in Russian. Curses mostly. His vocabulary was hideous most of the time, but when he spoke his mother tongue, well... he got really creative then. Other than that, I’ve never heard him speaking Russian. Except when he was fighting with Nikolai over the phone, of course.
While he was passing, on his was way to pour some coffee from the pot, I noticed that his movements were slower than usual and that it seemed to cause him pain to put his weight on his right leg. He brought his cup to the table and sat down in a chair across from mine, a pained expression catching his features for a second before they settled into a sort of sulk; that, at least, wasn’t unusual.
“Something wrong?”
“Nothing. Why?”
“What happened to your leg?”
“I have a cramp.” he barked and looked away. “And you? I hope you feel better than you look.”
This was wonderful. First thing in the morning and he’d already started showering me with compliments. I’d seen my face in the mirror and knew I looked washed out and upset, but no girl likes to have her suspicions confirmed. But, I had a feeling that he did that on purpose to change the subject.
“You’re intolerable, really.”
“Good to know.” he shrugged and continued to sip his coffee. “Do you want to talk about what happened last night?”
“No.”
“OK…”
“But thank you. ”
“For what?”
“You know what… for staying with me up all night, on the floor. You didn’t have to do that.”
“Any time.”
I was really hoping, for the sake of my sanity, that there wouldn’t be a next time. I didn’t exactly like this feeling I had when he was that close to me. It was too plain unsettling being drawn to him so forcefully, when that was obviously such a dangerous road to travel.
When he’d finished his coffee, Alex went to the hallway and came back with two sets of keys in his hand.
“I'm going to crash for a few hours. When I wake up we can go wherever you want, but till then you have to stay here.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that I can’t do my job if I’m dog tired, and since I won’t risk you sneaking out, I’m taking these with me.”
“You can’t keep me locked up here like a prisoner!”
“Take some of those gossip magazines to read and time will just fly by. It’s for your own good, Princess.”
“Screw you. St op calling me that!” I shouted and thundered to my room.
Slamming the door behind me, I went to sit on the side of the bed, all the while asking myself what on earth was going on. One moment he was holding me tenderly, and then next he seemed hell bent on driving me nuts. Irritated, I grabbed a pillow and sank my face into it, letting out a loud but muffled scream. Feeling at least a little better, I let myself lie flat on the bed and looked over to the window, wondering whether I might be the irrational one after all.
This is not normal.. .
I’d never been so attracted to someone that I’d gone off the rails and acted stupid. Nor had anyone ever made me so angry. The fact that Alex worked for my father was really just the icing on a cake made from all the worst possible ingredients; he was ill mannered, rude, stubborn, aggressive, morose and arrogant. And even if I hated when anyone called me Princess, I literally melted every time when Alex did.
“You need to sort yourself out, girl, or you’ll go cuckoo,” I mumbled and covered my head with the quilt.
Maybe it’s unusual for a girl, but I had a pretty good collection of sci-fi books on my shelf and eventually I spent some time
“ Well, two years ago I found my mother hacked to death in a hotel room. They killed her and sliced her up to show my father that he shouldn’t do business on their patch. He sells guns and other weapons to gangs and terrorists, you see.”
Hearing steps approach the kitchen, I looked up to see Alex enter, muttering something to himself. He did that a lot. Usually in Russian. Curses mostly. His vocabulary was hideous most of the time, but when he spoke his mother tongue, well... he got really creative then. Other than that, I’ve never heard him speaking Russian. Except when he was fighting with Nikolai over the phone, of course.
While he was passing, on his was way to pour some coffee from the pot, I noticed that his movements were slower than usual and that it seemed to cause him pain to put his weight on his right leg. He brought his cup to the table and sat down in a chair across from mine, a pained expression catching his features for a second before they settled into a sort of sulk; that, at least, wasn’t unusual.
“Something wrong?”
“Nothing. Why?”
“What happened to your leg?”
“I have a cramp.” he barked and looked away. “And you? I hope you feel better than you look.”
This was wonderful. First thing in the morning and he’d already started showering me with compliments. I’d seen my face in the mirror and knew I looked washed out and upset, but no girl likes to have her suspicions confirmed. But, I had a feeling that he did that on purpose to change the subject.
“You’re intolerable, really.”
“Good to know.” he shrugged and continued to sip his coffee. “Do you want to talk about what happened last night?”
“No.”
“OK…”
“But thank you. ”
“For what?”
“You know what… for staying with me up all night, on the floor. You didn’t have to do that.”
“Any time.”
I was really hoping, for the sake of my sanity, that there wouldn’t be a next time. I didn’t exactly like this feeling I had when he was that close to me. It was too plain unsettling being drawn to him so forcefully, when that was obviously such a dangerous road to travel.
When he’d finished his coffee, Alex went to the hallway and came back with two sets of keys in his hand.
“I'm going to crash for a few hours. When I wake up we can go wherever you want, but till then you have to stay here.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that I can’t do my job if I’m dog tired, and since I won’t risk you sneaking out, I’m taking these with me.”
“You can’t keep me locked up here like a prisoner!”
“Take some of those gossip magazines to read and time will just fly by. It’s for your own good, Princess.”
“Screw you. St op calling me that!” I shouted and thundered to my room.
Slamming the door behind me, I went to sit on the side of the bed, all the while asking myself what on earth was going on. One moment he was holding me tenderly, and then next he seemed hell bent on driving me nuts. Irritated, I grabbed a pillow and sank my face into it, letting out a loud but muffled scream. Feeling at least a little better, I let myself lie flat on the bed and looked over to the window, wondering whether I might be the irrational one after all.
This is not normal.. .
I’d never been so attracted to someone that I’d gone off the rails and acted stupid. Nor had anyone ever made me so angry. The fact that Alex worked for my father was really just the icing on a cake made from all the worst possible ingredients; he was ill mannered, rude, stubborn, aggressive, morose and arrogant. And even if I hated when anyone called me Princess, I literally melted every time when Alex did.
“You need to sort yourself out, girl, or you’ll go cuckoo,” I mumbled and covered my head with the quilt.
Maybe it’s unusual for a girl, but I had a pretty good collection of sci-fi books on my shelf and eventually I spent some time
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