She turns her eyes to mine, and I see it then: the strength that’s been on reserve. The resilience that she’s not sure she possesses. It’s all there in spades.
It just needed a little coaxing to emerge.
“I get it,” I say. “You’ll protect your brother like he’ll protect you.”
She nods.
“It’s a beautiful sentiment to live by,” I tell her, leaning forward. “But there’s one problem.”
“Which is?”
“None of you were prepared for me. I am not your run-of-the-mill family drama, your little bump in the road. I am not some problem that can simply be overcome with a little strength and perseverance and elbow grease, Olivia.”
“What are you then?”
“A fucking hurricane,” I growl. “And I will destroy everything in my path if you make me.”
“He’s my brother,” she whispers.
“And why should I care? You aren’t anyone to me.”
She flinches violently. Her face floods with hurt. It’s the only moment in my life that I can remember coming close to feeling regret.
“Why did you pick me?” she asks suddenly, once the silence has festered into something distinctly heavy. “Mia was an option, too.”
“I think you already know the answer to that.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
“You were the better target,” I explain bluntly. “Young. Naïve. Easy to manipulate.”
She knew exactly what I was going to say, and yet she cringes at each word. She lets me see just how much my opinion scalds her.
Mistake after mistake, kiska.
“Did you always intend on sleeping with me?”
“Is there an answer that will make you feel better?” I ask.
“No.”
“Then why ask?”
“Maybe it will help me… to know.”
I smirk. “Help you resist me? Or help you feel okay succumbing?”
She stares at me with a desperate look in her eye. Then she turns away fast to stop me deciphering it.
I just want to grab her and shake her. I want her to unravel right in front of my eyes so I can see all the broken pieces she’s trying to hold together.
“Please don’t tell my brother. He won’t understand.”
“Don’t force my hand, Olivia,” I say. “It’s that simple.”
“Have you always gotten your way?”
The question is asked without judgment. She’s just curious about me. How I operate, how I’m put together on the inside. Much the same way I’m curious about her.
“I don’t get my way. I make it.”
“How can you maintain any relationship like that?”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“I mean exactly that. Relationships, romantic or otherwise, require compromise. Give and take. If you’re always getting your way, surely that means everyone else gets the short end of the stick.”
“I’m the don.”
“So?” she scoffs. “That means that everyone just yields to you?”
“When they don’t, I fight. Unfortunately for everyone else, I’m very, very good at it.”
She takes a deep breath. “I don’t think your mother is happy, you know.”
I’m already uncomfortable with the liking that my mother has taken towards Olivia. Her statement only makes me more so. “Oh? Did she tell you that?”
“Of course not,” Olivia covers up quickly. “But I can tell.”
I nod. “Interesting.”
She leans forward on her elbows, her eyes searching my face. “Don’t you care?”
“If I can’t do anything about it, caring is a waste of time.”
“But she’s your mother.”
“And?”
She blinks at me before shaking her head. “I don’t understand you.”
“I’d advise you not to try.”
“Do they beat it out of you young?” she asks, her tone flickering with ice. “The humanity? The compassion?”
I smile. “More like they train the cruelty into you. But they didn’t have to do much work with me.”
“And that makes you proud?”
“It doesn’t make me anything. I am what I am.”
“And you’re happy with that? With who you are?”
“I am what I am,” I repeat with a grimace. “This is my life. This is who I was born to be. If you’re upset with the turn of events, turn your disapproving look to your brother. His need for vengeance made my life more difficult. I can’t just ignore that. More to the point, I won’t ignore that.”
“Has he tried to contact you?”
“Constantly. My phone is practically ringing off the hook. Your brother wants you back badly.”
She blinks in alarm, processing this tidbit. Interesting—did she truly fear she’d been abandoned already? Perhaps I’m working on her faster than I expected.
“What have you said to him?”
“Nothing. I haven’t answered yet.”
“But—”
“He has to know I mean business. Otherwise, he won’t play ball. And I’ve wasted enough time on the cockroach.”
She leans forward and grips the sides of the table. “Aleks, please, let me speak to him. Just to let him know I’m okay. Just to let me know they’re okay.”
A refusal is on the tip of my tongue. But then she leans forward. The string lights above our heads turn the scene golden and gauzy. Her skin practically glows.
And another idea hits me.
“Maybe we could do more than a phone call,” I say.
She inhales. “What do you mean?”
“I could orchestrate a neutral meeting ground. A face-to-face meeting.”
Her eyes are as big as the lily pads floating nearby. “Are you serious?”
“I’m always serious.”
“And you’d take me with you?”
“That remains to be seen.”
Her knuckles turn white as she stares at me, muscles knotted tight from head to toe with fervent hope. “Please, Aleks, take me with you. I’ll… I’ll do anything.”
I smile. This is just too fucking easy.
I lean back in my seat and regard her with a cool gaze. “Prove it.”
Her chest is rising and falling hard now. I imagine running my tongue between her breasts. Sucking each nipple into my mouth and savoring the soft moan it would coax from her lips.
She’ll tremble like she did in that plane bathroom. Her body desperate for the release only I can give her.
She knows what to do, even if she hates to admit it. And she knows what she wants to do. She hates that twice as much.
Slowly, Olivia rises from her chair. She smooths out the edges of her dress with trembling fingers. Then, steeling herself, she rounds the table toward me.
She pauses a foot short and meets my eyes for a moment. I see so many things in that look. Fear. Uncertainty.
But also determination. Fire.
She traces a hesitant finger along the rim of the table. I watch it, transfixed. The sensual swoop of her thin wrist. The soft rustle of the tablecloth.
Every other sound around us seems to mute itself.
There is only this.