Wild Billionaire Romance - Chapter 22: Chapter 22

ADRIK
Before my private plane even touched the ground, I was unbuckled and waiting at the door. Ten days. I’d spent ten days across the world from Zaika moya and I felt like a caged animal.
I knew I should have called. I stared at the texts she’d written me while I was gone and frowned heavily at the last one. It was dated two days ago.
Sofia
It’s been eight days since you left, I pray you are safe, and Marat assures me you are. I wasn’t going to text you anymore, but I didn’t want you to think I was a coward. And I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye. Thank you for everything.
P.S. I told you staying was a mistake.
She was gone. Zaika moya had left my home, my life, just like that. She could not even wait for me to get back to say it to my face. Anger and rage and disbelief coursed through me, and I felt like a wild thing. That last line, though. That P.S. at the end, that was the killer. That was the bullet straight to my heart.
It was that line that had me wanting to jump off this plane and head right to North Bergen where I knew she’d returned from my brother. That asshole had driven her. I warred between applauding his efforts to keep her safe—yes, he had a guard on her night and day without her noticing. And yet, I was still going to punch him in his stupid face.
Sofia was gone. Fuck. She did not take a single thing from my house. Not one of her new outfits or accessories I’d purchased. But she wouldn’t, would she? I’d tried to build a cage to put her in, to keep her with me, but she refused to stay trapped. And I needed to know why. I needed to know what I had to do to make her mine forever. Not this fucking one month bullshit I had her promise to give me. And if that failed, I would still drag her back. She owed me four days. I had four fucking days left from our original agreement.
Then I would tie her to the damn bed and fuck her till she was too weak to refuse me anymore. I would have my Zaika. She would be mine. Fuck the state of the country I just left.
Fighting to keep our claims on the rare earth metal mines we had in numerous countries required bribes, fights, and murder. My hands were far from clean, but I would do worse to keep Sofia with me. Before I’d gone to my private jet, the morning I was pulled from the bed we’d shared, I’d had one more thing to do to avenge the woman I was crazy about.
I still could not believe she had finally agreed to stay with me for the entire night. It was everything I wanted and more. The feel of her soft body nestled against mine, seeking comfort from me. The Dark Wolf. As if I were somehow worthy of her. If I closed my eyes, I could still feel her warm breath tickling my skin.
But then, the shit hit the fan, and I had to leave to protect what was ours. But first, I went to the place to avenge her. That was what we called the warehouse we owned just outside the Lincoln Tunnel. Marat met me there with Josef, of course. Matthew Castle was already dead, his body disposed of, and Missy, well, she was in an unfortunate accident at her home estate. The fire had left her alive, but barely coherent. Poor thing.
Charles Manheim, Matthew’s right-hand man, was hanging upside down from a metal hook, blood seeping from his many lacerations onto the cold, concrete floor. I called the cleaners beforehand, letting them know where to come take care of the mess.
They were good at that sort of thing. Getting rid of any trace DNA and disposing of corpses. That was all Charles was at the time. A breathing corpse. But that had changed soon after my arrival.
“Did you get everything we needed?” I asked Marat.
My brother nodded, and Josef had handed me the blade he already had out.
“Normally, I would drag this out for what you did, you piece of shit. You touched what was mine.”
“N-no. P-please,” he whispered hoarsely.
“Nyet. There is no please for you,” I told him, and stood up, slicing his femoral artery with one swipe of the knife through his pants and flesh. “Let him bleed out. Then Bury him with the rest of the filth.”
“Yes, boss,” Josef said, his wide grin telling me he would see to the job personally.
He had gotten off lucky. As for the business overseas. We were back in control, and the people who needed the reminder the Dark Wolf was still afoot got it. Tenfold. But I did not give a fuck for them or any of it. In fact, the whole fucking world could burn for all I cared if I did not have her.
“Adrik! Damn, you look fucked up!” Marat shouted as I raced down the runway after disembarking from the plane.
“Where is she? Is she safe?”
“Yes. She is at her grandmother’s. Her father is with her. They are painting,” Marat said.
“Painting?”
“Yes. The hallway. Vince reported earlier, she insisted on helping.”
I growled and got inside the waiting SUV. Josef was driving and Andres was in the back. I glanced at my assistant, but he was looking down at his tablet. When Marat slid in beside him, he started talking to my brother about business, and I was stunned. Marat was the face of Volkov Industries, but my brother hardly took an interest in things.
“I hope you do not mind, Mr. Volkov, but your brother has been taking care of some of the more pressing matters involving our takeover of Castle Corp, and more importantly, CoreTech, while you were occupied,” Andres explained.
“Is this true Marat?”
At my brother’s nod, I grinned. It was about time he stepped up.
“Then it is fine, Andres. You have my complete permission to do anything my brother says, he is half-owner and co-chair of Volkov Industries, you know,” I replied.
“I am?” Marat asked.
“For fuck’s sake, don’t you read anything I make you sign?” I asked exasperated.
Josef snorted, covering his laugh with a cough. We spent the following forty-five minutes discussing business. But then we were there, and I could not put off what was about to happen anymore than I could stop a hurricane or the tide.
I took the stairs to the building two at a time, approving of the way they and the sidewalk were cleared of snow and salted. Couldn’t have her grandmother slipping on any slick out there, could we? The smell of fresh paint permeated the air, and I walked down the hall, impatient to see her.
Imagine my shock when I came upon her right outside her grandmother’s door wearing a tight pair of leggings and a baggy t-shirt while climbing a ladder. Her hair was in a ponytail, and she had on a cap. Paint was liberally smeared across her clothing and my heart squeezed painfully in my chest. She was so fucking beautiful.
“Adrik!” she squeaked, turning around far too quickly.
The ladder shook, and she started to fall, grabbing onto the top and spilling the gallon of paint onto the floor. It splattered the shit out of me, ruining my shoes and suit. But I did not give two fucks. I grabbed her before she could follow it down, pulling her into my arms and crushing her soft weight against my chest.
“You have a lot of explaining to do, Zaika moya,” I growled, kissing her desperately before she could respond.
I backed her up against the wall, not caring about the wet paint or the fact we had an audience. I just kissed her, and kissed her, and kissed her some more.
“Um, Sof? Are you okay?” a man asked.
I looked up ready to fight, but it was her father. So, I nodded and allowed her to slide down my body till her feet hit the floor.
“Oh, um, yeah, Dad. I’m okay. You, uh, you know Adrik?”
“Yes. Hello. Um, you got some paint on your, uh, suit there, buddy,” her father pointed out, his eyebrows raised all the way to his hairline.
I looked down and shook my head.
“Yes, well, I will fix that once I get Sofia back home,” I said.
“What? I am home,” she whispered, her velvet eyes tearing up as she tried unsuccessfully to retreat.
“No, no Zaika moya. This is not home. This is your family’s home, yes. But not your home.”
“You said one month. It’s over, you were gone⁠—”
“Technically, I have four days left.”
Her tears spilled down her face, and they were killing me. God, she was killing me. So beautiful. So perfect. How did she not know? She struggled against my hold, but I pressed her harder into the wall, getting paint all over her back.
“Is that what you want, then? Four days? Then I leave and have to feel all this again? No. You can’t ask me to do that,” she said, hiccupping on a sob as she tried to turn away from me.
“No, I don’t want you for four days. I said this is not your home, and you know damn well it isn’t.”
“What are you talking about? Can’t you see how much this is hurting me?”
“I see it, Zaika, and I don’t understand why you don’t know what I am saying.”
“Because, you fuck, you haven’t said anything yet!” Sofia yelled and kicked at me with her sneaker clad feet, her velvet eyes flashing molten fire at me.
“What do you want to know?” I asked.
“Where were you? What happened? What the hell is going on?” she asked.
I couldn’t help myself, I kissed her again, loving the feel of her ready submission as she melted in my arms and tangled her tongue with mine. Of course, a second later I was cursing roundly when she bit me. I grinned, licking my lip, and tasting the blood she drew. My cock throbbed with the need to have her.
There she was. My spitfire. My moonlight goddess covered in paint. My fierce little bunny. Zaika moya.
“I had to go fix things with the company. When I was gone, I discovered the truth about everything. You see, Castle was technically the owner of CoreTech, but really, it was Missy’s project. She promised the company to many people, many companies with foreign interests,” he explained,
“So, she is the real power and Matthew was just the figurehead,” Sofia said.
“Was the real power. Volkov Industries initiated a hostile takeover after your attempted kidnapping. Word of that had already spread, and I could allow no one to think that was acceptable. Still, it didn’t sit well with some friends across the sea, my takeover of Castle Corp, and they attempted to steal several of my mines from me. I had to get them back to assure my place as head of this company and to let my enemies know that anyone coming after what is mine will not have a happy ending.”
“I see. So, do they know that now? Your enemies?” she asked.
I nodded my head. They knew. The men I had killed myself were still being delivered around the world. In pieces. A message to my enemies not to fuck with the Dark Wolf or anything he claimed as his, and that included Zaika moya.
“So, you’re safe now? Your company, and everything,” she asked, and I was touched by her concern for me. Not many people asked if I was okay. In fact, no one did. It was new and different, and part of the reason this woman had bewitched me so.
“Come home with me,” I whispered, brushing my nose against hers. “Not for four days,” I added, when I felt her reticence. “I don’t want four days, Zaika, I want forever. This is not your home. I am.”
“What?” she asked, eyes filled with tears and her voice laced with wonder.
Fuck, she smelled so good. Beneath the paint, her jasmine scented skin tempted me, called to me like a siren song.
“You belong with me. My Zaika. My Sofia. Come home. Come back. Stay with me. I want you with me, to be mine always.”
“What are you saying?”
“I. Am. Your. Home. Zaika moya, I am your home, and you are mine. Don’t tell me no. Tell me yes. Say yes,” I begged.
No, I didn’t care that we were covered in paint inside a cold building in North Bergen while I confessed just how obsessed I was with this woman. And I didn’t give a fuck that my brother and Josef, Andres, and her father had front row seats to all my pleading.
“Yes,” she said, and I blinked, thinking I hallucinated. “Yes, Adrik. I’ll stay with you. I love you.”
I crushed her to me then, kissing her long and deep. I picked her up, put her over my shoulder and shouted in Russian, a victory cry. I put her in the car, buckled her up and jumped behind the wheel.
“Where are we going?” she asked, eyes wide as she held onto the dashboard.
Silly Zaika, I would never hurt a hair on her head, especially not while I was driving. She was so fucking adorable. I couldn’t wait to get her home, and naked, very naked—which was where I planned to keep her for a very long time.
“Home,” I said.