prefer it halfway

Leslie POV 

I excused myself from the meeting to make a call.

Richard confirmed that everything was set.

He tried to inquire why I asked for an additional clause for the contract presented by pearl jewels to Austin.

I promised to explain everything to my grandfather when I got home.

Richard didn't push further.

Before returning to the room, I opened my phone and typed a message before hitting send.

A reply containing a venue arrived almost immediately.

I shoved my phone to my purse and made my way back to the meeting.

When I returned, Austin had just finished signing the contract.

He looked up at me with a satisfied smile and I returned it effortlessly.

He had just signed his own ruin and didn't even know it.

The meeting wrapped up quickly after that and Marcel walked us out personally.

He was always the perfect professional even when we worked together.

At the door, his eyes met mine briefly and I looked away first.

Austin was in a good mood throughout the drive back home.He went on about expansion, about what this deal meant to Cox enterprises.

I nodded and made sounds of agreement.

By the time we got home, I was exhausted from pretending.

Austin changed his jacket almost immediately.

"The guys want to celebrate. Stephen is hosting." He said, checking his phone. "You don't mind, do you?"

How could I mind? Who was I to mind anyway? 

I was just a wall flower meant to decorate his house.

"Go ahead." I said. "You deserve to celebrate."

Yeah, he better celebrate enough because soon, I will be the one celebrating his downfall.

Austin kissed my forehead and grabbed his keys.

I stood at the door and watched him drive away.

Then I grabbed my phone and car keys.

Thirty minutes later, I pulled out at the address I was given. I recognize the hotel. It's the same one we met last three years ago.

I made my way inside and was shown to the private room.

The lady ushered me inside before walking away. 

After taking a deep breath, I stepped inside.

The man standing by the window with a cigar in hand hadn't changed much.

Mikhail Volkov, heir to the Volkov Mafia family.

He moved from the window slowly, the way a man moves when he has never once needed to rush for anything.

" You came back, Princess? Did you realise the only place you belong is by my side?”

That's his first set of words to me again after three years?

I fought the urge to roll my eyes and maintained my composure.

“ I am here to discuss business with you.” I replied.

Mikhail's smile didn't drop.

“ Discuss business? What if I am not interested in your business talk?”

He was teasing me now.

I fought hard to stay calm and not lash at him. I needed him. Only he could help me regain my position in my family. 

" Let's get married.” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

Mikhail’s smile dropped, replaced by something that looked like surprise.

“We will draw a contract that will last five years." I added before he could misunderstand.

The surprise from earlier disappeared, replaced by something devil -like.

" Leslie, you owe me three years of blue balls and two babies. You think you can bribe me with a contract marriage?"

Mikhail not only sounded angry, he looked angry too as he glared at me.

" What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

What does his blue balls have to do with me? And what babies do I owe him?

" It means that if we are getting married, I want an actual relationship.” Mikhail declared.

“I want you by my side, in my bed, pregnant with my babies and ruling my empire alongside me.” Mikhail declared, the look on his face telling me he was not bluffing.

“ Mikhail…” I started, ready to make it clear that what he was asking for was impossible.

“ I am not negotiating that part with you, Princess.” He declared before I could even launch my protest.

“ Tell me something, Leslie,” he started, moving to stand behind me. Slowly, he lowered himself until his breath was fanning my neck.

“ Does your husband know that you are here? Proposing marriage to another man or he is balls deep inside another woman?”

The small hairs on my neck stood and goosebumps spread all over me.

He was asking about Austin, but why did it feel like he was seducing me?

Shaking my head to clear those thoughts, I straightened up and clenched my fists.

“ That's none of your business.” I snapped, trying to regain the control I could feel slipping away.

Mikhail straightened and walked to sit opposite me, his gaze piercing.

“ None of my business? That's where you are wrong Princess.

Everything about you is my fucking business. It has always been since the moment I laid my eyes on you.”

Mikhail didn't wear that smirk on his face and that meant he was being serious.

" I never stopped thinking about you for the past three years." He confessed.

“Everytime I thought about that man touching you in ways and places only I deserved to touch, I felt like hunting him down and chopping him for touching what's mine.” He continued, possessiveness bleeding in his words.

" He never knew what he had but I do. I know your value Leslie. A woman like you deserves the best, to be worshipped and fucked to submission."

I felt my cheeks heat up.

"Mind your language, Mikhail." I warned him sternly, trying to hide the fact that those dirty words did something to me, something I never would admit out loud.

" What? Are you already imagining it? You spread before me as I make you scream my name in ways your ex husband never did?”

My cheeks warmed against my will and I hated that.

How could I have such a shameless reaction to such nasty words? And from Mikhail of all people? The man I spend ten years keeping my distance from?

"We are here to discuss a contract." I straightened. "Nothing else."

Mikhail looked at me for a long moment then he smiled.

“ I already told you Leslie, it's either we are married or we are not.

I don't do things halfway. I prefer going all in.” Mikhail declared.

My cheeks burned with embarrassment as his words triggered a not so holy image in my mind.

God! What's wrong with me? How could I think about…

“ So tell me, are you all in or do you prefer it halfway?”