(Keiran's POV)
Fuck!
Fuck!
Fuck!
What did I do? I messed it up. I messed up everything.
I hit the headboard of my bed in my bedroom while all my emotions started to overwhelm me. Out of everything, I didn't expect I'd confess my love to her.
In order to bind her to me, I kept locking her in with the contracts. Would she again fall into my traps or stay with me without planning anything after my confession? She'd definitely find a way out of the contract after she knew she couldn't escape from me ever.
I poured the alcohol in my glass, and while doing it, I noticed a strange thing. My fingers were not steady. They were not even holding the alcohol properly. They were shivering.
I was shivering.
"Fuck!" I shouted and threw the alcohol bottle to the floor.
The plan was to get her to sign the contract, make her stay with me until I was satisfied with her, and then end the contract, but everything changed. I did not know when it happened or how it happened. I started to crave her more. Not just her body, but her everything. The surprise in her eyes when she found anything amusing, her little smile when she heard any good news, her soft touches, her caresses, her voice, and fuck! Just her presence itself started to make me go crazy.
I had never done things that made me lose my mind. I had always been a man of planning and control, but for the first time, I lost my control. I started to do things by listening to my stupid heart, not by listening to my mind. In my circle, it was a known fact that whenever we prioritized heart, that was when we were ruined.
But I had gone so mad that I wanted to be ruined by her. For better or for worse, I didn't care. All I knew was I wanted her. I'd do anything to have her.
"Elira!" I ran my fingers over my face. I fell on the bed and stared at the ceiling, wondering what she had been doing. I wanted to know if she felt the same for me, at least for a moment, but I couldn't ask her. For a woman who always wanted to go away from me, loving me would not even strike her head.
As I kept thinking about her, the sound of the footsteps alerted me. Quickly, I took the gun from the bedside table and pointed it at the door while carefully walking towards it. As the person approached me, I let out a relaxed sigh and withdrew the gun, rolling my eyes.
"You don't roll your eyes at your brother." Leo raised his eyebrows.
We both smiled at each other and hugged. Leonel Virelli was not just my best friend but the man whom I considered my own brother even though we were from different families.
"Where's Alex?"
"He's out. I assigned him some work related to our hotels."
Leonel and I were as close as our parents were. Wolfes and Virellis had always been close, unlike Petrovs and Devens, whose clans were wiped out.
"What the hell happened here?" He looked at the mess that I created in my bedroom.
"Forget it. What are you doing here?"
"Some client meeting. Had to come suddenly."
We both sat on the couches with drink glasses in our hands. His questioning eyes didn't leave me while he gulped down the alcohol. Even though he didn't speak anything, it felt like he had been continuously throwing curses at me when in fact it had always been my head that kept scolding me.
"I didn't know you had such a big crush on me." I scoffed, putting my glass down. "You look at me like you want to eat me."
"Yeah! I don't deny that I'd love to have married you if you were born as a woman." He laughed, pressing my nerves.
I threw the glass at him, which he swiftly escaped, laughing.
"Chill, little wolf. What's gotten into you? Is it again about her?"
"As always."
"What did you do this time?"
"I told her I love her."
Leonel choked on his drink as soon as he heard me. He put his glass away, shouting, "What did you say?"
I didn't say another word but kept quiet while he looked at me with a confused face. "Tell me everything."
He attentively listened to me while I told him everything that had happened between Elira and me.
"So, when did you plan to extend the contract?"
He was indeed my brother. He could even sense the things that were known only to me.
I took another sip from the glass and said, "The moment she first signed the contract."
"What?" He was flabbergasted.
I nodded. "When I prepared the contract, I felt eighteen months were enough, but then again I thought it might not be enough, so I always had a plan of extending the contract one way or another. After they both kissed…" I gritted my teeth while I recalled their kiss. "I felt like that was the moment to start the plan. I planned to push her to the edge, and when they both were hopeless, I decided to offer her that idiot's life in exchange for an extension of the contract. Like I planned, I destroyed that loser, and, to my surprise, before I brought up the topic of contract again, she approached me to help her."
"You are always two steps ahead of others." He huffed. "Even if they didn't kiss, even if she behaved, you'd have found a way to extend the contract. You, Wolfes, are always the masters of mind games."
"But now, I don't even know what I am doing. I can't think of anything properly." I held my head. "If it's only about the contract, she'd have no choice but to stay with me. Now… it's not just about the contract… She now knows everything about this contract, and she'll definitely be careful. She'll do anything to end the contract. She'll… she'll leave me."
"Keiran." He paused for a moment, and the confusion was written all over his face. "Are you… scared?"
Only when he questioned me did I think about if I was really scared.
And, the answer was 'yes'. I was scared.
Scared of losing her.
"You are scared. Fuck! You really love her." Leo scoffed and stood straight, surprised. "What's the plan now? What if she doesn't love you back? Are you planning to lock her up all her life?"
"Leo…" I shook my head, trying to end the conversation, but he didn't stop.
"What do you want, Keiran?" His question hit straight to my chest.
"I want her, Leo. I want to lock her up all her life and never let her go… but… I want her to love me. Love only me."
He walked towards me and rested his palm on my shoulder, saying, "Keiran! Love is not something that you write on the papers, make rules for, and prepare a contract for. It should not be bound by rules and regulations. It should be bound by hearts and feelings."
I raised my eyelids to look at him.
"If you want her to love you… show her that you love her. Show her your love is beyond the words that you're following from the contract."
A moment of silence wrapped around us before I said, "When did you become the jack of hearts? I only saw you ripping hearts out of our enemies until now."
He hit my head, letting out a loud laugh. Then he took out his cigarette, sat on my bed, and started to smoke.
Exhaling the smoke, he said with a smirk on his face, "Trust me! When a woman enters your life, even a heartless monster becomes the jack of hearts."
"Like us?"
"Like us."
We both laughed at each other and at the situations we were in. He had always been the brother I never had.
He was right. If I wanted her to love me, she needed to understand my love for her. But how should I make her understand? How should I show her the light of love when I, myself, was surrounded by the terrifying darkness? But still, I was not the one to give up. If I wanted something, I'd get it.
Elira.
Her love.
I was willing to pay anything.