Zenovia
The same time as I got my period, which was quite disappointing, Maksimillian received a call. He looked at me with pity while eyeing the heat bag he placed on my abdomen before he took the call. He was holding my hand while talking to Rurik. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, while I was lying on my back and wearing only a flimsy white nightshirt. He, on the other hand, wore a blue shirt and black jeans. Whatever he wore, God! He just looked effortlessly smashing!
“How is it? Feeling better?” He gently caressed my cheek and jaw with his knuckle.
“So-so,” I answered, giving him a forced smile. I really hated it when it was the time of the month. Even though it was less painful after the surgery, I still had dysmenorrhea. It was awful! This whole thing was my own personal calvary. I really prayed hard it’d give me a nice breathing space in the future.
“Why don’t you take a pill?” he suggested.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to get addicted to it. Remember I already took some when we… you know… to be sure it’d be painless.”
He sighed, bearing my burden, too. “I’m so sorry.” He cupped my cheek, caress my lips with his thumb.
I stared at him for a full minute before saying, “No, don’t be. I’m the one who’s sorry for binding you to me with that deal.”
“Zenovia…” His tone was of protest. The slight scowl he had told me everything that he disagreed with me.
“It’s the truth. I was really selfish for doing it, Maksimillian. Whether it was with you or someone else.”
I noticed how the jaw muscles of his work when he ground his teeth. “Zenovia, I’m grateful it was me you chose to approach then. I can’t imagine you with another guy, okay? So, don’t tell me that again and again!”
“But I could’ve been with anyone, Maks,” I countered. “That’s the reality!”
“Alternate reality, but it’s not!”
I just closed my eyes, didn’t want to see the rage in his eyes. He was ticked off by this subject just as before. He was just too sensitive about it. Was it because he really cared?
“Why did Rurik call?” I changed the subject, opening my eyes at last to see his reaction.
Now, he looked away and sighed. “I need to be at the scheduled board meeting in Moscow.”
“Then? What’s the problem?”
“I can’t leave you like this. I want to be here for you, to be with you.”
My heart jumped at his being so thoughtful and caring. “I’m fine, so you can just go. What happens to me is not new to me. It’s every month, if you want to know. Besides, I think you need to do a lot of catching up in your office. I don’t think Rurik is handling everything for you. Not that he’s not competent or whatever because I don’t know. But I believe he’s great since he’s your cousin. However, I think you have to do your share of the work, too. Right? I suppose it’s time for you to go back to Russia. We both know you must do that, don’t you?”
“Zenovia—”
I turned my face away. “Just leave, Maks.”
“I can just have a video conference with them while I’m here, Zenovia,” he insisted.
I turned my head to look at him again. “I can’t get used to this, Maks. I can’t let you start to care for me like this. Don’t you understand? We just have a deal to make a baby! The agreement didn’t bind you for you to take care of me! I can handle this. I was able to endure this in the past, so there’s no reason why I can’t do that now. Besides, you’ll be useless around here while I have my period. I certainly wouldn’t want to have sex with you!”
I knew it was sort of harsh, pushing him away like that, but I thought it was necessary so that he could function the way he should before he met me. I didn’t want him to just leave his every responsibility to his cousin.
Well, what did I know about their arrangement? Nothing.
Still, I couldn’t just be in the way of his work. As per Marisha, Maksimillian loved his job so much, and he cared about the company a lot. I guessed it was because he inherited the company from his beloved parents and uncle. So, when he went to Finland, that’s when I understood very well.
***
Maksimillian
I didn’t want to go home. But here I was in the conference room where the board meeting was being held. There were at least a dozen of board of directors (BOD), with me at the head of the light brown-coloured executive conference table. It was a large oval table made of wood with a set of metal legs. It was the same for the twenty seats, which had cushions for butt and back comfort.
I was half listening to what they were saying while I checked on Zenovia, emailing her.
“Hey. How are you?”
“I’ll be fine, Maks. Stop worrying! Just concentrate there, will you?”
“How can I when you’re in pain?”
“Well, it’ll go away eventually. It’ll be a lot better tomorrow, I assure you.”
“And then what? I’m not there. You shooed me away. Just you wait and I’ll come back for you, all right? We’re not done making that baby!” I smirked. Thinking about driving in and out of her body got me a boner right now.
Fuck.
I was in the middle of a board meeting for heaven’s sake! But all I could do was to let my mind drift away towards Zenovia.
It was really against my will to go home, but she threatened me to not see me again if I remained stubborn. Well, she did know how to threaten me. My ass was back in Moscow within that day. Yesterday.
Now, I missed her terribly. I wanted to see her face, hear her voice, see how her eyes blink, how she breathes peacefully when asleep and most especially the way she moans when I romp her hard.
I even played the recorded hot moans of hers before I went to bed last night. It did make me feel aroused, so I called her and had phone sex with her in spite of her period. Oh, how I wished I was there with her instead of being away from her over a thousand and hundreds of kilometers away from her.
Aunt Marisha, being part of this meeting eyed me. “Maksimillian?” She brought me to where I should be.
“Huh?” I realized just then that they were all staring at me and at the cell phone that was in my hand.
Rurik, who was seated opposite me, slightly grinned. He looked at me with admonishing eyes the next moment, though.
“We’re talking about the next real estate project to be planned by early next year,” he informed me.
I smiled at him and nodded. “Why not?”
“Instead of late this year?” Rurik stressed.
Everyone was still looking at me.
I cleared my throat before speaking slowly, “Well, if we can’t help it, then there’s nothing we can do about it, is there?” My eyes went back to my gadget again, to see Zenovia’s reply.
“Looking forward to it. ;-)”
My lips were torn into a huge smile that weirded the BOD.