Chapter 293: Give You All I Got, Always

[FROLO]

"Holy shit, Romanov, what the hell happened to you?!" Svet screeched the moment the video call connected.

"Did he hurt you? I knew that barbarian was good for nothing," Mr. Romanov huffed from a distance as he walked to where Svet and Andre were.

"My baby is awa— well, shit, Michka, you look... healthy," Masha Romanova smiled like she knew something that her husband didn’t.

"Why are you all having mixed reac—" Mr. Romanov said, coming closer only for his wife to drag him away.

"Let the kids catch up first. You and I need to finish gardening."

"But I want to see Michka too."

"You will after the kids are done."

"Fine. But if that crazy psycho hurts my son, I’ll kill him."

"Yes, yes. I’ll help you hide the body. Now come along," Masha insisted before making sure her husband was out the door.

"Can you walk?" Andre snorted once the Romanovs had stepped out.

Katya looked... ravished.

That was the only way to explain what he looked like at the moment.

"Is it that bad?" Katya wondered as he tried to look at himself in the small video square on the call.

He looked fine if he was being honest. He had fixed his hair into a messy bun. He had straightened his clothes and even managed to pull the covers closer so he would be presentable.

So why were they acting like he’d been attacked?

’Maybe because you were eaten?’ his subconscious teased.

"Did the senator do that?" Svet asked, playing coy, and Katya ran a hand down his face as if he had just remembered that he had an actual boyfriend he’d not seen in four days.

Sergei had told him he had been out for four days.

Four days since the explosion.

Katya didn’t know much, and honestly, he hadn’t had time to ask because one moment he was awake and the next he was on fucking cloud nine with the beast of Frolo.

"Alek is too modest to do that. My vote is on a particular barbarian who’s been holding back for so long and finally got the chance," Andre teased, and Katya’s cheeks turned pink like he was not ready for that conversation.

Would he ever be, though?

"No way. Sergei did that?" Svet asked in earnest.

"No one would maul Romanov like that," Andre laughed.

"I am not mauled, that’s an exaggeration," Katya defended, and Andre looked at him, raising a brow as if to ask Katya if he really did know what he looked like at the moment.

"Did you consent to it? Did he force himself on you? Did he blackmail you into that?" Svet asked, and for a moment, Andre, who had been laughing, stopped too.

Sergei was the Devil of Frolo.

Katya was in the devil’s house.

They may have had access codes, but if Sergei wanted to keep Katya prisoner, there was nothing they would be able to do immediately without storming into Moskowsky Holdings first.

"Romanov... Did he force himself on you?" Andre asked, his voice stiff as if to tell Katya that one word from him and they would be packing and going to war. It wasn’t that hard to gauge what they would do, but still, they wanted to know.

"Why are you guys making my first kiss weird... Vladimir would never force himself on me. Besides, he asked me to stop him if I didn’t want his touch...

"...and I didn’t stop him," Katya complained, making his friends look at each other like this was the first time in their lives they were hearing this. Maybe they were well behind the Sergei salvation arc, but what the fuck?

"Is there a mirror in the room?" Andre asked, and Svet stared like this was certainly not what they had thought Katya waking up would be like.

"Yeah. He has a wall-to-wall mirror," Katya said before adding, "Why?"

"Do us a favor and set the phone on the bed and go look at yourself in the mirror, Romanov," Andre said, and Svet stared like this was certainly not any of the things she had ever thought possible.

"Fine. But I’m telling you, whatever he did, he did with my consent," Katya said as he got off the bed, set his phone down, and walked to the mirror.

The reflection in the mirror had him staring back at his friends on the call, mouth agape like he couldn’t even recognize who it was anymore.

"That freaking barbarian!" Katya screeched before he rushed to lock Sergei’s bedroom door before the barbarian could come into the room just because he screeched.

"What the hell? I look like I was attacked by a bear! How can a man be so gentle and still turn me into whatever this is?" Katya grumbled, shocked, almost forgetting his friends who were waiting on the call, laughing at how he was staring at himself.

They were right.

Katya Romanov looked ravished by a hungry beast. He had agreed to a kiss.

Or maybe kisses, he didn’t know.

Because he was marked all over his face and neck.

Sergei had definitely kissed the living shit out of him. Now he understood why his friends didn’t believe he was okay with the way his hair was in a bun. The hair was so knotted that it was impossible to make it appear proper.

"And he still called me BEAUTIFUL?!" Katya wondered, offended.

"In his defense, you could look like shit and still be the prettiest thing he’s laid his eyes on," Andre said, and Svet smacked him on the arm as if to remind him that this was a serious case. But was it?

"What? Remember the dinner we forced him to have with us?" Andre chuckled, and Katya sighed, getting back into bed as if that was supposed to make him feel better that he had almost been eaten alive by a beast.

He couldn’t help but remember Sergei’s gentle hold on him through it all, even when the man was ravishing him.

What a shameless barbarian Sergei had grown into... right?

"You guys never told me what happened at the auction dinner," Katya remembered, and they just laughed.

"I have never seen a madman squirm through dinner like that day. It was almost like we were the principals and he was just a student caught misbehaving.

"It was hilarious seeing him terrified when we told him he’d never get to see you again if ever he hurt you," Svet laughed like the memory was a fond one, and Katya couldn’t help but wonder what had gotten Sergei that protective.

"It wasn’t even a threat per se. We just told him to keep you safe and ensure you were never hurt. He smiled at us like the world was suddenly bright and everyone was sinless in the very city he terrorized by his existence. That man is crazy," Andre added.

"In love, you mean... I was so ready to shoot him in the head, only for him to turn into a wuss in love," Svet mocked like that dinner was the one thing that still confused the shit out of her even to this day.

How a man as powerful as Sergei would feel threatened by the idea of never seeing Katya again was still beyond her. And she still believed that the man needed psychiatric help before he ever got together with Katya.

But who was to tell Svet that all the terrorists of Frolo would choose death before they sat with Sergei on the other side of their table?

"What?" Katya asked, as if his brain finally caught up.

"I’d still kill him if you want me to," Svet said in earnest, like that was the one constant she wasn’t opposed to. Especially after what had happened in the company.

Katya had been hurt, and there was no way to smooth things like that out. Not without getting to the bottom of this.

"Ignore Svet... tell me, did you like it?" Andre huffed mischievously, and again, a confused Katya broke into a sheepish grin like he had remembered the greatest memory of the day.

"Remember Theo from middle school?" Katya asked.

"He was your first kiss?" Andre asked, disgusted.

"It’s a good thing we killed him then," Svet mumbled.

"He was a good person, but he isn’t the greatest kiss I’ve ever had. I think... I think I’d be fine kissing Vladimir for the rest of my life," Katya said, having not heard what Svet had just said.

"Pay up, Svet," Andre said.

"You bet on me getting kissed by Vladimir?"

"No. We bet on you telling the barbarian you loved him. The kiss was just a bonus, and knowing how restrained he’s always been, the only reason he’d maul you like that is if you agreed to it," Andre said before turning to Svetlana.

"With interest too."

"You guys are unbelievable," Katya groaned.