Chapter 30: Chapter 30

"Women are made to be loved, not understood. "

-Oscar Wilde-

***

Phoebe's P.O.V

"I deserve a reward for helping you, don't I?"

He wraps his arms around my waist and slowly moving one of his hand toward my hips.

"No, Edgar, I..." he turns my body around to face me and slowly moves his face closer to mine and he begins kissing me, almost roughly, but not violently. This action takes me aback, and I have to pull away to take my breath.

"I love you, you know that, and I was trying to make you happy, to make you forgive me, so I brought your sister here, and now, I want your love in return."

"How can I love you when I am basically your hostage, and, we barely even know each other on a personal level."

Well, at least he doesn't know me on a personal level. Anna has told me almost everything about his background, important parts of his past, and his characteristics in general. But still, he doesn't know me and how can I expect him to love me with all his heart, when his heart and mind is still filled with strong desire of vengeance.

At least I hope he doesn't know EVERYTHING about me, because I have watched things like this in movies before where the bad, rich people do background checks on their victims / enemies.

Great, now I'm thinking about such an oblivious thing.

"Do you still see yourself as a hostage, then, what about Stockholm syndrome? Maybe you should catch it so that you can love me."

"Why are you so desperate, Edgar? I have never seen you like this, are you playing games on me? Why do you want me to love you when you have countless amounts of beautiful women falling in their knees for you, so why me? Why can't you just let me go back home?"

"I can't, you are the first ever woman to make me so weak, and desperate like this, no one else can satisfy my craving for your love. Love me back, Phoebe, I swear, you are making me..."

I am not going to lie, I am kind of crept out by him at this point. How? Such a cold hearted man who has no mercy in his dictionary, turns into a slightly possessive man in love? I didn't even do anything like seducing him or trying to get his attention. It's like I am in some sort of drama.

But his eyes, the way he stares at me, I can see honesty somewhere within him, is he telling the truth?

He stares at me and somehow, I have this weird feeling inside my chest, I can feel my heart beating so quickly and loudly, I am almost scared he can hear it, and take it the wrong way, but it doesn't take it for him to notice for I can already feel warmth starts spreading on my cheek as I blush, not sure if it's out of embarrassment or something else.

Okay, am I falling for him as well?

No, it can't be.

He moves his face closer to me once more and slowly kisses me again and as he does this, his hands begin trailing my bodies. He moves one of his hand to my hair, and his other hand to my chest area, and this is making me feel really uncomfortable. I can't stand this anymore.

"I... I am a conventional woman."

He stops, and I can hear him chuckle as he covers his mouth with his palm, I know, that is such a silly reasoning, but it is not a lie no matter how silly it sounds.

"Excuse me, what?"

"I don't do this kind of thing outside of marriage, so, please..."

He moves his hand back toward my waist, and he puts his head on my shoulder as he begins to sniff my neck, I can feel myself shivering from his action.

"You are so unique, it almost amuses me, wait, no, it already amuses me." He says as he lets go of his hand on my body and takes his time laughing.

"Is it really that funny?"

"Yes, it is, and Phoebe, are you a virgin?"

"And if I am?" I say with a slight blush on my face, like how can he ask such an embarrassing question to a lady like that? Oh wait, yes, he is Edgar Romanov. I almost forgot about that.

"It's simply perfect, it means no one has touched you and I can completely call you mine."

He turns to face me again and holds out his hand to caress my cheek, before kneeling on one knees and holding out one of his hands and takes one of my hand on his.

"Edgar, what are you doing?"

"You said you cannot do inappropriate thing outside of marriage, fine, I will do it your way then."

"What?"

"Will you marry me?"

I cannot fathom his words as he spoke out those words, I stare at him and all I can think is how unbelievable this man really is. Is this for real? Is he really asking me to marry him? Or am I imagining things.

I try to pinch myself in the cheek with my free hand but it hurts. That is how I know this is real.

"Are you-"

Before I can finish my sentence, there are some rushed steps entering the room and I can see Viktor rushing in and he has a serious facial expression, very unlikely for him. To the best of my knowledge, this man only does so when something serious happens. Like, legit serious events.

"Ed, there-" he stops mid-way when he sees what Edgar is doing and his facial expression turns into a surprised one, but to be honest, I wouldn't blame him, I feel the same way.

"Edgar, are you being serious right now?" He speaks out loud and Edgar stands up and walks toward him.

"Do you really have to disturb me on such an important moment, I'm proposing to her right now!"

"Well, sorry to ruin it, but we have an emergency."

"This better be more important than this, tell me what it is."

"Those damn Beneventi's men are attacking our mansion, and we need you to come and help us, because you are basically in charge here" he says with slight sarcasm, but Edgar doesn't seem to notice that as he continues on and grabs his anti-bullet best and put it on himself.

"Dammit, Pietro is trying to pick a fight with me at such bad timing, I will definitely kill him soon."

After he is done with his vest, he approaches me and gives me a slight peck on the cheek and whisper on my ears.

"I'm sorry, we'll continue later."

We, continue, what?

"Phoebe, get in your room and make sure everything is locked tightly, don't get out before I say so!"

With that, he gets outside and I do as he tells me, I quickly run into my room, and on my way there, I can see a man getting inside from the window, he has a gun and he tries to shoot me, but before he can do so, a bullet already hits him and I turn around to see Viktor with a gun.

"Are you alright? Hurry up, get inside, can't get you hurt or Edgar will go insane."

I nod and get inside my bedroom and I lock the door and the window as I was told and I pull the curtain and cover the window with it, I also take a chair from the vanity and put it in front of the door.

The window's glass is supposed to be bulletproof, as expected from a mafia's mansion, but the door is not, so I have to cover it with something.

I search through the drawer in my bedside desk to find something to defend myself, and on the very bottom, I see a gun and a bullet refill, so I insert the bullets inside the gun and hold it close to me as I sit on the edge of my bed while pointing the gun toward the door.

I feel extremely scared right now, I have experienced this kind of emotion several times since coming here but so far this is the scariest.

But I am not just scared, no, I am more than scared, I am worried, but not for myself, I am worried about Edgar and the other men's safety, about Anna and the other maids, and mine comes the least.

Without realizing it, I began to care for them and somehow, they seem to take a part somewhere in my heart. Even though my brain can't think very clearly right now, I just know that I don't want any of them to get hurt, and that's that.

I'm scared of losing Edgar, even though I can't simply believe what just happened roughly ten minutes ago, something inside of me wants him to be okay.

Maybe it's because his attentive actions these past few days.

Or maybe because of his slightly twisted loving words he spoke to me somehow made their way inside my mind,

Whatever it is, I know that don't want to lose him right now.

Edgar, please be safe.