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“I need to make sure you don’t run away again, sweetheart.”
FORTY-ONE: ALWAYS THERE WITH ME
F uming, I strode to the door and tried to open it.
But his pair of strong arms snaked around my midriff and hauled me to the middle of the office.
A shriek left my mouth.
“What the hell, Valencian!
Put me down right now!”
“I will.
Once you hear everything I have to say.”
His calm tone made me boil.
I didn’t let him explain things, so he would keep me captive in his office, in his arms?
I can’t believe this man!
“No!
I won’t hear anything!
You’ll do what I want, and then let me go!”
I said, putting on the scariest face I could manage on my face with a stern voice.
But he ignored me.
He was too busy roaming his gray eyes across my every feature.
As if he hadn’t seen me in years.
Not tolerating being disregarded like that, I stomped on his feet with my five inches heel.
A hiss left his mouth.
His orbs that were filled with adoration a moment ago, now watched me in shock and confusion.
But I didn’t see any anger in there.
Nor did his arms loosened around me.
“Do not ignore me when I’m talking!”
His rough palm caressed my cheek with the gentlest touch.
“I could never ignore my Rosebud.
But I won’t let you go anywhere until you hear everything and forgive me.”
“That would never happen!”
My eyes narrowed.
I wiggled in his hold, but as always, I failed to escape.
My gaze flickered to those stupid bulging muscles underneath his sleeves.
“It will.
I’ll make it happen.
Now what did my Rosebud want from me?”
Leaning in, he took a desperate sniff of my hair.
His heady scent was messing with my senses.
Leaning back from him, I said, “I want you to terminate the contract.
I want to leave.”
The mention of leaving had him tense.
His arms tightened around my waist and jaw clenched.
The old Achilles Valencian was back in full force as his features hardened.
I saw the storm swirling inside him through the windows of his soul.
Those stormy gray orbs.
“You’ll never leave me, Rosebud.
Never again.
I won’t let you.”
The coolness of his voice sent shivers down my spine.
“Well, it was you who let me go.
I didn’t leave on my own.
I was pushed away,” I said, holding his gaze.
His stony features softened.
“I didn’t want to, Rosebud.
No sane person would push the only light away from their life.
But—“
“But you had to.”
I completed for him, gulping the thickness of my throat.
“Tobias told me everything.”
Surprise etched on his face.
“I had no choice, Rosebud.
Trust me, I kept meeting you and spending time with you even after knowing how I would affect your life in a bad way.
I was too selfish to let you go.”
Pain flashed across his eyes.
“But you did,” I whispered.
My heart clenched.
“You left me.”
Shaking his head, he pressed his forehead against mine, letting out a trembling breath.
“I never left you, Rosebud.
I could never.”
“What do you mean?”
“Yes, I separated you from me.
But I was always around.
Though I couldn’t touch you, my eyes always did from afar,” he said, stopping my heart.
Raising my left hand, he kissed my wrist, gazing at my bracelet.
A soft smile tugged at the edge of his lips.
“This looks more beautiful on you than I imagined.”
A gasp slipped through my lips.
My eyes widened.
The anonymous person who gifted it to me was… him?
“It was you?”
He nodded, kissing my forehead.
“But… how?”
I was shocked.
All the time I wore it on my wrist, and I didn’t have any idea it was him who left the box that day outside of my door.
“How could I not give a congratulation gift to my Rosebud on her graduation day?”
“You were there?
Y-you saw my graduation?”
My voice came out like a meek child.
“Yes, I was there.
I was always there for my rose.”
He cupped my cheeks.
“I always had my eyes on you, even if I was far away from you here in LA most of the time.
But I was there on your every special day.
I was there whenever I thought you needed me.
And trust me, it wasn’t for you.
It was for my own sanity.”
“That means, that means… you were there all these years?”
I asked, tears rolling down my cheeks.
He didn’t abandon me.
He was there all this time when I thought he didn’t even care to call once.
He nodded, wiping my tears.
“Yes, I never left you alone.
I could never leave my Rosebud alone.”
A flare of fire again lit inside me.
“Then you saw how much I suffered!
You didn’t consider confronting me.
Didn’t once come before me.
Why did you do that?
Why?”
My struggle began again, but he held me firm against him.
“I know you suffered.
And I’m extremely sorry.
But you have no idea how much agony I went through staying away from you, Rosebud.
Especially when…” A muscle of his jaw ticked as his nostrils flared.
“Especially when I had to see my girl dating other men.
I had to endure it all.
Trust me, they were lucky I took it as my punishment for pushing you away from me.
Otherwise, they’d be dead right now.”
Surprised, subconsciously a blush crept up my neck remembering those guys I dated back then only for some days.
I couldn’t even stretch them for a week.
Because all I felt towards them was nothing.
Not even a bit of attraction.
And then my temper rose.
Jabbing a finger in his chest, I gritted out.
“Do you know how guilty I felt to date them?
Even after I thought you wanted nothing to do with me, even after I was single, do you know how much it hurt me to feel like I was playing with others?
Just to get a little distraction.
Just to forget my heartache for some time!
And all because you were being too great by keeping me away from you!
And now that I’m finally with a guy who is great, you appeared all of a sudden declaring me as yours?
The nerve of you!”
His lips pressed.
“I know you were hurt.
And seeing you in pain only doubled my agony.
But it was for your own good.
And I didn’t just appear out of nowhere.”
Greek accent was dense.
“You were always mine.
I was waiting for you to finish college and for me to be stable enough to be worthy of you.
Though I was stable for a long time before you finally graduated.”
To be worthy of me?
Something tugged inside my chest at his words.
“It wasn’t your life to decide what I would do or not.
How did you know I wouldn’t fall for anyone else and accept you back into my life just like that?”
My tone was hard.
“I didn’t need to know you wouldn’t fall for anyone else.
Because my Rosebud loved me enough to keep me in her heart forever.”
That was ridiculous.
But my eyes burned as waves of emotions slammed into my chest.
I let out a shaky breath, not denying him.
“I also knew how stubborn my little Rosebud was.
I knew you wouldn’t forgive me so easily.
But I couldn’t give up.
After all, I’d waited seven fucking years to have you back in my arms.”
His thumb brushed my lower lip.