“Are you sure you want me to keep going? It’s not the fairy tale I wish I could be telling you before bedtime.”
“I’ve never liked fairy tales.”
He heaves out a sigh before continuing. “I thought I did, but there’s no such thing as love where I come from, Aurora. It’s snuffed out with money and power, so I resented those things, and my father tried to beat it out of me because he had no use for an heir who was weak. I remember it as early as four or five years old, he used anything from physical to psychological methods. But still, I was naively holding onto the notion of love. So, he thought of a better way to show me how it is for us…forthe Minaevs. At first, he took my mother out of equation. Making her so preoccupied with vacations and the glim and glam of our life she simply didn’t have the time for me. He then took away the only friend out of my life.”
“Denis?”
“Yes, Denis. He was my nanny’s son, and we were thick as thieves until my father offered him a job at sixteen with a salary that would keep their family well off for generations. Denis took it, betraying me. It continued in the same manner for a few years until he planted Nastya in my path, making me believe I finally found the one person who loved me. She was very convincing, sliding into my veins like poison until I was drunk on it and gave her what they both wanted. My last name.
“The final blow was the hardest because it hit from all the sides at once. Nastya and I already lived in the US, and I was playing in the NHL when I learned that my wife had been sleeping with my father from the beginning, and not only that but she was in love with him and that both my mother and Denis knew. He made sure I knew that everyone who could possibly love me, care about me, betrayed me. Not that I had much left inside of me to care at that point, but it still shredded the last bits.
“I didn’t cause a scene. I didn’t scream and was overly surprised, I simply filed for divorce, but he wouldn’t have it. He wouldn’t allow Nastya to sign the papers because divorce didn’t exist in our family. We were Russian Orthodox Christians. We are the main ruling family in our country after the president. We hid the ugly truths under a blanket of pretty lies and had whores on the side. She died half a year later and that was the best thing she’s done in her life.”
“Oh, Sava…” I mold myself into his side, throwing my right arm and leg over his body as if I can somehow shield him from the old memories. From the hurt he was dealt.
“His methods were so effective, that for the longest time, I didn’t know how to feel anything. Anything at all. Until you. With you I feel. With the others, I pretend.”
Severin rested his chin atop my head. “Sometimes it feels like I’m still lost. That I’m not loving you the way I should, and I want to love you the right way, Aurora. Am I?” The broken note in his voice pierces through my heart.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as vulnerable as Severin is right now, trusting me with his past, his secrets, and the dark corners of his mind.
And the place where his truth pierces through fills with something new. Something stronger and headier. A love I’ve never felt before.
“How…how does love feel to you? What do you feel toward me?” I look into his stormy eyes.
“Obsession,” he says without pause. “Utter, irrevocable obsession. From the moment I laid eyes on you, I wasn’t able to get those green ones of yours out of my mind. It almost felt like a plague. Still does, sometimes. It feels like I can’t breathe when you’re not here and when you are here, you’re not close enough. There’s no warmth without you, and I’m left alone with my darkness consuming me. The one I hide from the world, but you seemed to see through from the first day. Is that love, Aurora?”
“It must be because that’s what I feel. Every day. Every hour. Every minute. You’re my breath and my heartbeat.” I hadn’t noticed how close we’ve gotten, drawing toward each other like magnets until my lips brush against his in a soft caress. “I love you, Severin Minaev.” My palm lands on his cheek and his mirrors it on mine.
“I love you, Aurora Johnson,” he says, stroking my cheek with his thumb as he seals his lips over mine.
Straddling his lap, I throw my arms around his neck, lacing my fingers through his hair I hold him. And I kiss him. And I love him with that every kiss.
SEVERIN
“Your mom really knew all of it?” Aurora asks.
“Mm-hmm.”
“And she’s still married to your father?”
“Mm-hmm,” I repeat.
“Do you still keep in touch with your family?”
“Mother calls here and there when she needs me to appear at a function or something along the lines. Father shows up at my playoff games because he’d never miss the chance to boast about his NHL star son. Even if he despises me for it. I hadn’t seen Denis for five years before tonight, so there’s your answer. But I do have a cousin I adore and keep in touch with.”
“Does it make me a horrible person that I want to see them all suffer from what they’ve put you through?” she mutters fiercely.
“Seeing as I killed a few people for you, I’d say I’m not the most reliable person to ask, but nope, not in the slightest.”
“You sound pretty reliable to me,” Aurora responds flippantly, and my chest shakes with a chuckle.
It’s the last thing I expected to be doing after sharing bits and pieces of my past with her, but I’m not surprised she could make me see light even through the darkest of storms.
Everything feels better when she’s with me.
“I didn’t scare you away with my stories?” I ask quietly, the storm outside almost hiding it completely.
