Page 61 of Sold to My Ex's Brother
“And you... you said...?”
“I’m giving her a chance,” he replies steadily. “Need to make sure she knows what she’s doing, and that she’s not going to cause me too much trouble in the process, but she’s right. I need someone who understands this world. These women. Everything they’ve been through.”
I bite my lip. Do I point out to him that it’s exactly what I offered him before, or is that skating too close to the line? I want to tell him that this is exactly what I have been saying to him, that I can help because I understand on a visceral level everything these women go through.
“And it got me thinking,” he goes on. “About what you said to me the other day. About how you—how you felt as trapped here with me as you did with Artem.”
“Anton, you have to understand, I didn’t mean it, not like that-”
He shoots me a look, quieting me in an instant. “Don’t take it back,” he tells me. “You were right. I might not have been selling you to someone, but I... I kept you here like you were myproperty. And it’s not right, Maya, I can see that now. Not when you want so badly to help. To live your own life again.”
I don’t say a word as I listen to him, not wanting to cut him off, not wanting to spook him into changing his mind. I feel like we are circling the point now, drawing closer and closer to the possibility of him actually seeing what I’m talking about, and I’m not going to ruin that, not a chance in hell.
He locks eyes with me again, but this time, there is none of the doubt, none of the same anger that I saw in him before. No, it’s something closer to understanding, as hard as that might be to believe. Like he is finally seeing me as the woman sitting before him, the person, not just the vessel for his child that must be protected and locked away at all costs.
“And you deserve that chance, too,” he continues. “Not just to help, but to live your life as you see fit.”
I let out a breath I didn’t even realize I had been holding, and I bite down hard on my lip to keep the smile from bursting out across my face. I can’t believe what he is saying to me. It almost seems like it must be coming from someone, somewhere else, but as he looks at me, I know this is real, as real as they come, and that I must do everything I can to cling on to it.
“Thank you, Anton,” I whisper to him. Not that those words are even close to enough to express to him how much it truly means to me to hear him speak like that, with such certainty and sureness, with such passion, like it is the only thing that matters to him at all. But they are a start, and I will take whatever I can get right now.
“No, thank you, Maya,” he replies, his voice rising slightly as he speaks with even more certainty. “You could have given upon me when I tried to keep you here the first time. Or when I took you to the safehouse, when I said that you couldn’t go back to your apartment, all the fucking times that you tried to free yourself and I turned you down...”
There is a note of bitterness in his tone, not aimed at me, but aimed at himself. It almost hurts to hear him speak about himself in that way, but if this is what it is going to take to get through to him, then so be it.
He falls silent for a moment, letting the words percolate in the room before he continues.
“When I spoke to Luna, I could see how strong she was, how resilient,” he explains. “And I know you have that same strength in you. I just haven’t wanted to see it, because that means you might not need me in the way that I need you, Maya.”
There it is. I catch my breath, the vulnerability of his admission making the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
I can’t believe it. He needs me.He needs me.It’s more than just words, but sureness, the promise of a future, the promise of him finally coming to see me the way that I see myself.
“And I wanted to ask you, even if I don’t keep you here, if I don’t make this happen,” he goes on. “Will you stay with me, Maya? Will you be with me?”
I feel my heart swell at the sound of those words. And I know the answer at once, but they are not the kind I can deliver from the other side of the table, so far from him, so removed. I rise to my feet, and make my way towards him, his gaze tracing me every step of the way. And I sink down into his lap, winding my arms around him, resting my hands on his shoulders as I gaze down into his eyes.
“You know,” I tell him, brushing his silver hair back from his face. “I think I’d really like that.”
And, finally, we kiss—the kind of kiss that feels like a seal, like a promise, like a heaven I didn’t know I needed. His arms circle around me, dinner on the table forgotten, and I pull him even closer, this man I cannot stand to be apart from. Now that he has given me the choice, now that I know he is allowing me to choose my fate, I wouldn’t be anywhere else in the world but at his side.
And, as I lean my head against his and breathe in the scent of him, I find myself smiling. Because this is where I belong. Where I need to be. With him, with the man I love, the man who has protected me for so long, and now, the man who is offering me freedom alongside his intensity.
As hard as it might have been to get here, now that we have found this compromise, I can feel something unfurling within me, as though a creature that has been keeping its wings tucked away is finally able to take flight.
He kisses me again, more intently this time, and I know that this man is deep within my skin. More than just the father of my children, he is my world; but a world that I will not be limited by or trapped in. I can’t think of much more important than that.
30
ANTON
Dinner is forgottenas I lift her into my arms and carry her through to the bedroom – I have given the guards the night off, keen to have this place to myself, and even Maria has been dismissed by now, allowed to take some rest for the evening so I can pass it with Maya.
I didn’t expect it to be so... simple. Not easy, because it’s far from easy for me to admit to myself that I have been keeping too tight a leash on her and that I need to allow her to live her life how she wants to. But simple.
I’m a damn lucky man, that she is so willing to forgive everything that I have done to land her in this, to put behind us the mess that has tangled with our relationship for so long.
And I’m never, ever going to forget just how lucky I am. I swear that to myself as I carry her over the threshold, her legs wrapping around me, her smiling mouth brushing against mine. Her nails dig in to my back as I climb on to the bed, pushing down on top of her without once untangling our bodies.
