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"Where's your off button?"

- Sergey
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Chapter 28 - Just Let Go

▪️N A T A S H A▪️

If I said that the rest of the engagement celebration went off without any further distractions, I would be lying.

After all, this was a room full of gangsters and psychopaths.

Watching Sergey pretend to be cordial with Karl in front of the various guests was comical to say the least. Now that I knew of the history between the two men, I was able to pick up on subtle nuances I had previously missed whenever I witnessed them interacting.

Like the way Karl would purposefully lean into Aleksandr when he was retelling a story while impishly looking at Sergey, who would then reply with an inconspicuous curl of his upper lip. It looked like it was taking every ounce of self-control Sergey possessed not to reach across and stab the German in his neck.

I shuddered to think of what would happen if Jade and Karl teamed up.

Although, as much as Sergey detested Jade's meddling, I knew that she was coming from a good place. I supposed in a way, it was the same with Karl as even though I believed that he wanted me to be happy and by extension Sergey as well, I also knew that Karl took great pleasure in harassing his childhood friend.

While I was grateful for everything Jade has done for me, sometimes I wished that she would give me a little space to try and figure out things on my own.

I hated having to hide what was going on with Sergey especially as I had no one to talk to about it. I would have loved to hear what Litizia and Jade would have to say about the situation, but I realised that, at least for now, this was the right decision for me.

From the way Sergey behaved tonight, a part of me acknowledged that he did not seem to care if people knew about us. Even if a part of that was due to his possessive male pride to claim ownership, it warmed my heart nonetheless.

At this point, I resigned myself to the feelings I had for Sergey.

As far as my emotions were concerned, I had decided to just let go; there seemed to be no point in lying to myself and holding back on what I felt. But just because I had decided to do such, did not mean that I would go shouting my feelings out for everyone to hear.

Plus, if I was being honest with myself, there was an extra thrill in having to sneak around.

My mind kept going back to Sergey's offer.

He wanted me to quit my job as an escort, even going so far as to take care of my financial needs. I guessed he really was not joking when he said he was selfish and greedy. Sergey did not want to share me and truthfully, had the situations been reversed, I probably would have asked the same of him.

I could acknowledge that it was a very tempting offer, after all, being a kept woman had its perks. But having been locked up for most of my life, I craved a certain amount of independence and I was glad that Sergey realised that and also gave me the option of doing something else for work.

Having him as an investor for my dance studio would not be a bad idea. But knowing him, he probably would not take the money back, so that was also something I needed to think about.

Although, as I took a sip of my champagne, I figured that I could always find a sneaky way to get the money back to him with the help of Aleksandr or Litizia.

It was still so surreal to me how much had changed between Sergey and myself within the last few weeks. Never would I have thought that the man I had been dreaming about all these months would have agreed to having an intimate relationship with me. It was clear that there were emotions involved on both sides, but for now, at least on my end, I was content with taking each day as it came.

I could only imagine my friends' reaction when they found out.

Unlike Aleksandr and Sergey, we did not have decades of friendship between us, so hiding things from Jade and Litizia had been easier.

It was hard for me to focus on what was being said at the table.

Being sandwiched next to Jade and Quin, I was not able to steal as many glances across to Sergey as I would have liked. He seemed to be in a sourer mood than usual, which I attributed to Karl's presence. I did get a few text messages telling me that he was eager to leave and that he would have if it were anyone else's party.

In fact, there was a text message waiting for me as indicated by the vibration I had felt a few moments ago.

Actually, I was surprised that he was even messaging me right now. Particularly since he was sitting around a group of men talking and smoking cigars. I would have thought that he would have preferred to give them more of his undivided attention.

Of course, Sergey managed to keep a straight face as he read my texts, however, the same could not be said for me. Thankfully, I was able to blame the constant redness of my face on the spicy Algerian dish that Litizia had me try earlier.

In fact, both Aleksandr and Litizia had just excused themselves to go take a little walk on the beach.

While Jade and Quintin huddled closer together to whisper something to each other, I used this opportunity to sit back and pulled out my mobile phone. Not wanting to make things obvious, I made sure to keep the screen angled in a way so that no one could see anything.

Sergey:
"What's with those dainty
bites you've been nibbling on?"

Natasha:
"What do you mean?"

Sergey:
"You should eat more;
you're going to need your energy later..."

Not wanting to blush even more, I hastily looked at my unfinished dinner in front of me and cut another piece of the delicious meat-filled puff pastry. The excitement I felt about what was to come later had curbed my appetite a bit, but I knew that Sergey was right, I did need to eat some more.

After putting the fork into my mouth, I felt my phone vibrate in my hand. Looking down at the screen, I almost choked.

Sergey:
"Come on Nat, I know your mouth
can open bigger than that..."

Slamming the phone down against my lap, I forced myself to swallow. I quickly reached for my glass of water while Jade gently patted my back, a look of concern etched across her face.

"Are you alright?" Jade asked.

I could only nod as I continued to drink.

Sneaking a glance over at Sergey, he had the audacity to wink at me and I was just about to blow our cover by smiling back at him. However, I was grateful for the sound of Jade's voice, as it caused me to shake my thoughts clear as I focused back on her.

"You seem a bit off tonight, you haven't even eaten much. Do you want to go home?"

"No, I'm alright," I answered.

"Are you sure?" Jade probed before adding, "If you want to leave early, you can, the important parts are over anyway. Do you still want Sergey to take you home? I heard that he dragged you behind one of the half walls. Did he yell at you? I'll go over there right now and punch him in the throat!"

Before I could answer, Quintin let out a sigh and said, "I told you to stop meddling in things that don't concern you. When are you going to stop forcing things, Jade? You know how volatile Sergey can be when backed into a corner."

Scoffing, she replied, "Please, Quin, I know he likes her, he just doesn't realise it yet!"

"Wow..." Quintin ran a hand through his hair before he shook his head. With a smile he said to his best friend, "Your confidence really knows no boundaries, does it?"

"Excuse you! If you haven't seemed to notice, I'm usually right about these things. I mean, look at what happened between Aleksandr and Litizia."

"Sergey isn't Aleksandr though..."

I remained quiet as I watched the two of them speak.

Flipping her purple hair over her shoulder, Jade said, "No, he isn't, but trust me on this, if Sergey really didn't want to drive Natasha around, he wouldn't have. You know what he's like, if you think I'm stubborn he's in a whole other playing field."

Quintin chuckled softly, "True, I've never known Sergey to do something that he doesn't want to."

"Exactly! He clearly has a soft spot for Natasha and I'm going to do everything in my power to exploit it."

At Jade's words I could not help but internally cringe.

"Now if you'll excuse us..." Jade grabbed my hand as she pulled us both up from the table.

I quickly put my mobile phone back into my clutch and straightened myself while silently hoping that Jade would not cause too much of a scene.

Looking back at Quintin, he mouthed "good luck" to me before exhaling deeply. He then slowly stood and stretched out his limbs before he began walking towards his boyfriend Vincent.

Pulling my attention back to her, Jade said, "Now, before we go over there, I want to know if you really want Sergey to drive you home. I don't know what happened between you two earlier, but you can tell me anything, you know that right?"

"I promise, nothing bad happened, what people saw was just Sergey pulling me to the side to talk about Karl, he wanted to spend some personal time with me–"

"What?" Jade's exclaimed, her green eyes lighting up as she added, "Looks like Karl and I need to have a little chat, seems I'm not the only one that's playing matchmaker."

Shaking my head, I implored softly, "Please don't... I fear that it would only blow up in everyone's faces."

Huffing, Jade pouted, "Fine, I'll try to behave, after all, I don't want to embarrass you or make things more awkward. I know that I've been pushy lately, but I just want to see you happy and Sergey as well if you can believe it, we're all one family."

I smiled at Jade's words knowing how badly she wanted to help, I replied, "I wouldn't mind getting a drop home from him. But if he's being too much of an idiot about it, I don't want to force anything."

Knowing that Sergey told me earlier that he would continue to play his part of being the disinterested asshole, I wondered if I just screwed myself out of a ride home.

Nodding, Jade said, "Deal, but I will ask him about what happened earlier, I just want to make sure that he's not being too rough with you. These men don't know their own damn strength at times!"

With my hand still firmly held by Jade, we walked across the room.

Glancing up, Sergey saw us coming over and immediately excused himself from the group. After outing his cigar, he walked over to a secluded table, no doubt to give Jade and himself some privacy so that they could whisper yell at each other some more, continuing where they left off from earlier.

Letting go of my hand, Jade marched right up to Sergey.

"You've got some real big balls hanging up the phone on me like that! Not even my husband dares to do such a thing!"

Arching a brow, Sergey retorted, "I'm not your husband."

"Indeed!" Jade spat before continuing. "And what's this I'm hearing about you manhandling my girl earlier?"

Sergey had taken down his top knot and I could not help but watch as he ran his thick long fingers through his hair. To me, he was so gorgeous that it was almost too painful to look at him. My breathing deepened as I remembered what those fingers of his could do and how much pleasure they brought me.

Thankfully, the sound of Sergey sneering at Jade pulled me from my thoughts.

"You need to get better spies, Jade. I don't know what the fuck they think they saw but they're wrong! And why the fuck have you been riding my ass all day anyway? Where's your off button?" Sergey asked.

Jade's nostrils flared and her eyes narrowed, "Ugh! You're so fucking rude!"

Sergey grinned at her, the action causing me to bite the inside of my cheek. It was such a devious smirk, one that let me know he was about to say something really uncouth and I braced myself for it.

His grey eyes glanced at me briefly before looking back to Jade, he ran his tongue over his teeth then said, "You think I'm rude? You should hear the voice inside my head..."

"You should hear mine!" Jade snarled as she got up in his face.

Not backing down, Sergey looked down at her, their noses nearly touching as he replied softly, "Fucking psycho..."

Hissing in a low voice, she retorted, "And don't you fucking forget it!"

Stuffing his hands into the pockets of his black pants, Sergey enquired, "Is there a reason that you're up in my face right now? Because I have a half a mind to go tell Dominic that you've been harassing me, you know what he said about playing nice..."

To my amazement, I could have sworn I saw a slight blush creep up onto Jade's cheeks.

"Can't fight your own battles?" Jade taunted.

"You know I can, but I don't think your husband would appreciate me tying you up to teach you some manners. That's his area of expertise after all..." Sergey goaded in reply.

Holy crap!

Their little exchange reminded me of what happened the night that Litizia and Aleksandr had their first date. Dominic had purposefully tied Jade up and kept her busy so that she could not meddle. The fact that Sergey was openly teasing her about such a thing made my own face flame.

It was clear that even though Jade and Sergey constantly argued and aggravated each other, there was obviously a level of respect hidden between the layers as the way they spoke to each other, no one else would dare to.

"Look, I just came to ask if you're willing to drive Natasha back home or–"

"Sure."

Sergey's quick response shocked both Jade and myself.

Glancing up at him, my eyes silently conveyed my curiousity as to what he was up to. This seemed to be the opposite off what he said he would do. There was no resistance or anything, hell, he had not even let Jade finish her question before he cut her off with his reply.

Frowning slightly, Jade asked, "Wait a minute, why are you being so cooperative?"

"Honestly? I've had enough of your nagging for one day. Plus, I need to finish talk to Natasha about rearranging some of her appointments," Sergey said calmly.

"I wasn't nagging! Anyway, come find us when you're ready to leave then," Jade said as she took my hand in hers once more and prepared to walk away.

Sergey stepped forward and reached for my other hand, tugging me towards, causing Jade's fingers to fall away as he stated, "I'm ready now."

Jade's green eyes looked down at our entwined fingers and with a small smile she said, "Alright, have fun you two!"

Keeping my hand in his, Sergey led me out of the restaurant.

When we got into his vehicle, I watched him text Aleksandr that he was leaving, and when he put down the phone, I gasped at how dilated his pupils were.

"You do realise the way we left just now was not exactly subtle right?" I asked softly.

"I'm sorry, but I think I've been patient enough tonight. People are going to talk regardless, and right now, I really don't give a fuck!"

My mouth opened to ask him what he meant, but before I could even get a word out, Sergey lunged and pulled me in for a heated kiss that had me immediately embracing him. The way he held on to the back of my neck while he groaned made me shiver.

I whimpered as his tongue and mouth hungrily devoured me, my body coming alive as I eagerly anticipated the night ahead of us.

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A/N: Hey everyone, so I have a bit of an eye strain, hence only one chapter update this week.

I will do my best to post 2x a week when I can, but for now, I'm just trying to rest my eyes as much as possible, which means cutting down on screen time 😞