┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓
Mine
┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛
Chapter 36: Mine (Jules's POV)
My phone continued buzzing on the nightstand, my alarm ringing for the third time but I refused to wake up. Despite doing nothing exhausting, I was exhausted.
Christian finally shuffled and let out a soft groan while I bit down a laugh. Pulling his leg off of mine and removing his arm from my waist where he spooned me, he reached forward blindly and shut off the alarm before falling back into bed, his arm going back where it was.
"The cuddling is getting a bit excessive, don't you think?" I asked without opening my eyes.
"That's convenient, isn't it? You're sleeping when you want to cuddle and awake when I want it instead," he mumbled, his voice hoarse and scratchier than usual when it reached my ears as a sleepy murmur.
"It doesn't mean anything, don't get distracted," I replied.
"It's a habit, Milaya," he responded.
Taking a breath, I pushed the covers off and took his arm, unlatching it from me. "We need to get ready."
He sighed in disappointment but didn't say anything else as he simply watched me get up and grab some clothes for today before going into the bathroom.
I brushed my teeth, splashed some water on my face, and put sunscreen on everywhere before finally getting dressed and then pulling my hair out of the braid it was in, letting the waves flow down my back. With one last look in the mirror, I analyzed my clothes, eyeing the rose pink long satin skirt that had a slit up my entire right leg, and then the matching dusty champagne satin top with a cowl neck.
"Good enough," I mumbled to myself before walking out of the bathroom and grabbing the beach bag our hotel offered. "Christian, get up, come on. We can't be late." I moved back into the bathroom and grabbed two towels for us before bringing the sunscreen out and tucking that into the bag as well along with my bikini. As I stood upright and faced ahead, Christian was walking over with his clothes in hand. Moving to the side, I made room for him.
Despite that, he touched my waist, his hand gliding over the fabric as he walked past me with a little devious smirk.
He's having too much fun with this.
Christian was out within minutes, his swim trunks in hand before he tucked them into the beach bag. I took in what he wore from where I sat waiting on the bed. He wore a linen white full-sleeve button-up that was loose and flowy with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and matching white linen pants. My eyes followed him as he walked around, gathering his phone and wallet and hiding them at the bottom of the bag before doing the same with my phone.
The last thing he did was grab his sunglasses and put them onto his shirt before he grabbed mine off where they sat at the desk and walked over, standing up and towering in front of me. He opened them up and placed them on my head. "There you go. Are we ready to leave?" he asked, glancing around once to make sure we had everything.
"Yeah." I stood up and reached for the bag only for him to scoop it up and hold it out of my reach.
"I've got it." His gaze dropped to the rings on our fingers. "Maybe we should take them off."
My eyes snapped up to his, my heart stopping for a minute.
"We're going out to the ocean, they could get lost. I'll put them in the safe." He set the bag down and held out a hand. Releasing a quiet breath, I slipped the ring off and placed it in his palm. It took a bit more effort for him to pull the ring off and when he did, there was a perfect tan line sitting right under the thick gold band, the only place on his hand that never tanned in the summer. Once he came back from locking our rings away safely, I couldn't suppress the question any longer.
"Have you never taken that off?" I asked, glancing pointedly at the tan line on his finger.
His eyes dropped to it as he traced the empty spot with his thumb, feeling the skin. "No," he answered, shaking his head, "I haven't taken that off since I put it on. It feels strange."
"Empty?" I guessed.
He hummed with a single nod. "Very empty. I hate it."
I swallowed. "You'll get used to it," I mumbled, "let's go."
"Was it strange when you took it off?" he questioned as we walked into the elevator and headed downstairs.
"Yeah. I kind of... regretted giving it back to you, but oh well. It was for the better."
"If you say so," he murmured. "Why did you return it though? You could have just kept it."
"It was our last straw, Christian, the only tether left holding us together. It kept reminding me of you when I was trying to put myself first. I had to give it back."
"I hate seeing you without that ring on."
I glanced at him as we stood in the elevator. "I've never forgiven myself for the moments I took it off." Feeling his gaze upon me, I was almost compelled to continue. "It was the right thing to do for myself but it never felt right. I wasn't just hurting you but I had to put myself first. We had reached our limit."
"I don't blame you for what you did, I hope you know that," he replied after a short pause.
"I know now," I said, facing him as we reached the lobby.
After that, we were immediately leaving the hotel once we met everyone in the lobby. Alex and Naomi had made sure to rent out cars from a car service and we had more than five cars lined up outside, some of them coming with drivers and some without.
"You and me, Milaya, come on," Christian said, taking my hand in his and heading towards the white convertible that had no driver, only a hotel valet holding onto our keys.
"Cars and Marvel are the two things you will never grow out of," I said, watching him in amusement as his face lit up while he unlocked the door and traced the hood of the car.
"Of course," he said.
"Do you still have all the comics and figures you grew up with?" I chuckled.
"Absolutely," he replied before opening the door for me. "M'lady," he mused.
I watched him warily before slipping into my seat. Placing the beach bag in the back seat, he rounded the car and got into the driver's seat, starting up immediately. "The drive is barely five minutes. Why did we need to rent out all these cars? We could have walked too," I muttered, watching as everyone hopped on a different ride and we all left, following the car at the very front that belonged to Alex and Naomi.
"Because this is a vacation as well, Red," he said, putting an arm around my seat and steering with the other hand as he backed the car. "I'm sure your brother and Naomi just want it to be enjoyable for everyone."
"He's spending a lot of his money on this. He won't let Dad help out either."
"That's a little rich coming from you," he smirked, "you had plans for a huge wedding when it came to us."
I turned to him, amused. "Because I was marrying a billionaire, Mr. Lukov. You're the exception, not the rule." I paused and thought. "Have you ever thought that I was with you for the money?"
"No," he shook his head. He didn't even think about it.
"Never?"
"Never."
"Why not?"
"Why would I? You've always taken care of your own expenses, you're work-oriented and you value your job a lot, no matter what it is. You paid for the penthouse even when you didn't have to."
"That doesn't count. You put my money back into my bank account," I scoffed.
"Only because I already owned the place. The difference was, instead of a tenant, now we lived there and it became ours. We both own it."
"Owned," I corrected, glancing around at the streets and views.
"No. Own," he said. "You still own half of it. Legally."
My eyes snapped to him as I turned so fast, that my neck stiffened. "What? How? I signed the papers releasing my share of the building to you."
"And after you left, I put those papers through a shredder." He glanced at me. "You still own half of Lukov Apartments."
My brows furrowed. "Why didn't you tell me this?"
"Because you wouldn't accept it."
"It's your money, you shouldn't be giving me half of it, to begin with, let alone once we've broken up."
This was a little issue between us during the beginning of our relationship once we were engaged. Christian was very vocal and expressive when it came to money, so he didn't hesitate to tell me that even if I didn't work anymore, he would be able to pay for us both. I mistook it for him trying to put me down and being a pure asshole, but the man is a feminist at heart.
It took a lot of arguments and communication for him to get the chance to explain to me that what he really meant was that even if something happened, even if I lost my job, or simply didn't want to work anymore, he would always be there for me to fall back on. He was willing and voluntarily stepped up to the plate and said that if I wanted to, I could lean on him and trust him to bring stability for both of us.
Realistically, I couldn't keep working for my fiancé much longer, especially when his parents had a lot of objections to it and owned a lot of shares of the company. But all he was trying to tell me was that if I didn't or couldn't work anymore, he would still support me, and not just because he had to, but because he truly wanted to.
"Jules, that money is yours as much as it's mine. It's in a separate account that you can access whenever you please." He glanced at me.
"Money is important, Christian. You can't be handing it away," I mumbled.
"I make more money than I could ever need, Milaya. It's only fair that I spend some of it on myself and most of it on you."
I shook my head in disbelief, watching him. "You don't think you spoiled me too much?"
"No. I do worry though, that if I spoil you so much, I will end up spoiling our daughter much more. That thought is a bit daunting," he muttered absentmindedly before slowing down to a parking spot near the beach and turning the car off.
"We're not having a daughter," I emphasized, glaring at him.
"Not anytime soon, I hope. One day."
"Do you really think I will marry you? After everything that happened? After everything you did?" I didn't intend for my question to have such a bite to it, I just wanted to know how he felt about that.
"I hope so. Of course, I don't expect you to forgive and forget so we can both pretend like nothing happened. But a year or even a hundred wouldn't be enough for me to change my mind or my feelings about you. I still want to marry you, Jules. But I want to do it right. If I get another chance to fix things, I will take it in a heartbeat." He got out of the car and rounded up to my side, opening the door for me.
"Is that what you think this is? A chance to fix things?" I asked, getting out and standing in front of him.
He shut the car door and took two steps forward, towering over me as he backed me up against the car. His gaze dropped to my lips and lingered for just a heartbeat too long before he answered, "Yes." Staring at me for a little longer, he asked, "Tell me, am I wrong?"
I held his gaze and swallowed, deliberating my response.
No. He wasn't wrong at all.
I opened my mouth to answer but we were interrupted when a car sped in and parked beside ours before the doors opened and revealed Callum. "Hey, Jules," he smiled at me.
As my eyes cut from him back to Christian, I found him still staring at me. "No, you're not wrong," I whispered quickly before pushing him off and walking ahead, biting down a smile as I caught the grin on his lips.
.
.
.
.
.
Chapter 36
omg, I haven't had Kurkure in so long and I forgot how fucking amazing they are. My desi people know what those are lol
next ch: prove