“Oh,” her face fell.
“Hey,” I shuffled closer, suddenly aware of our nakedness in all this madness. I cupped her face in my hand and met herwatery gaze. “You did what you had to do and it was the right thing to do. There is zero bad will here. I wouldn’t have spent the last two nights with you, having sex with you over and over, if there was a problem between us over the article. But like I said to you back in Seoul, this is my career. I have to go and do some damage control. Can you understand that?”
She nodded but didn’t speak. Her lip gave a small tremble. I leaned in and kissed her swift and chaste.
“I needed this time with you. More than you can possibly understand. And I hope you needed it too. It’s been heaven, Elena. Thank you for letting me stay. But it’s time for me to go.”
She nodded again and watched me as I moved off the bed.
“I did need it. I need you, Aleks. This isn’t the end of us, is it?”
I stopped, looked at her and shook my head. “Not a chance. I’ll call you as soon as my phone is charged. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said with a weak smile.
She sat there watching as I dressed in the same clothes I’d arrived in on Tuesday night. I scooped up my dead phone, my wallet and keys and turned to face her again. She sat in the middle of the bed with her knees drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them. I had never wanted anything more than to scoop her up and whisk her away to a private island where we could just keep on fucking and talking and hiding together. But it couldn’t be. Not now.
“Elena,” I said, my voice soft, steady. She looked up at me. “A quote for you, for real… ‘This has been a huge shock and it’s going to take some time to set things right. I’m grateful to my fans, my friends, and especially my girlfriend, who has been a rock these last few days.’”
“Girlfriend?” Her eyes were wide, her lips puffy and her cheeks flushed. Exquisite and mine.
“Girlfriend. Officially. And you get to break that to the whole world. Maybe don’t admit that it’s you though. Not in the same article.” A small smile skimmed my lips and she returned it with a bright beam of her own.
“Got it. That’s probably smart.”
“I’ll call you later today, I promise.”
She nodded and finally peeled herself from the bed. She scooped up her discarded bath towel and wrapped it around her body. I stepped towards her, wrapped an arm around her and kissed her, deeply, with heat and promise.
When I left her flat, it was with a heavy weight pressing on my shoulders. Now came the hard part. But I had faith I could get through it, because Elena had my back.
Chapter Thirty Three – Oxfordshire
Aleksandr Volkov – Obsidian HQ, Thursday Afternoon
Obsidian Performance Headquarters sat at the end of a winding drive like it had something to be proud of.
Glass and steel curved into a pristine dome beside a man-made lake, the whole place designed to soothe the nerves and impress the sponsors. On a normal day, the quiet grounds and flawless landscaping felt like a temple to order and control.
Today, it looked like a war zone.
The first sign was the traffic. Media vans everywhere—branded with every major outlet, some double-parked, some blocking the approach entirely. Cameramen loitered at the gate. Security guards looked overwhelmed, their walkie-talkies crackling like fireworks.
Then they saw me.
The shout went up.
“Volkov!”
The swarm descended, microphones like bayonets. Cameras, phones, shouts I couldn’t make out through the glass. They beat on the windows. I kept my eyes on the road and eased the car forward, creeping through the chaos.
Security waved me through, parting the crowd enough to squeeze the car into its usual space beside the main entrance. I killed the engine and sat for a beat, gathering my breath.
The moment I stepped out, the circus surrounded me.
Reporters shouted over each other, jostling for position, throwing questions like darts.
“Did you know about the mapping?”
