“We just got back together again. He loves me…I know he does, but what if he’s not ready for a baby? He’s at the peak of his career---”
“If he loves you as you say he does, then his career will not be more important than your unborn child.” Jeremy’s cold voice was accented, betraying the exotic lineage he had tried his very best to bury for so many years.
Saffi clutched Steel’s arm, her nails digging unconsciously into his skin. “Please, Steel. Please kill the story – kill every story until I can make myself tell him. Please.”
Pulling his sister closer, hating the frailness of her body, Steel pressed a kiss on her forehead. “You don’t even have to ask, baby. I’ll do everything in my power to protect you.”
But she didn’t seem to hear him. Saffi was crying too hard, her body shaking at the strength of her silent sobs. “Please,” she begged over and over. “I don’t want to lose him. Please. He’s everything to me. Everything. I can’t lose him again.”
Steel murmured comforting words even as he lifted his sister into his arms and carried her to bed. “I promise, baby, I promise.”
When Saffi woke up, her brother and Jeremy were gone, leaving a sweet note asking her to take care next to the bottle of prenatal vitamins she was supposed to take daily. Saffi groped for her phone, her heart beating madly. The first message was from Staffan, telling her that he had tried to call her twice but figured she was already asleep and that he would see her soon. She then switched to her phone’s browser.
Please, please, please---
She sagged back against the bed when there was no mention of her, Jeremy, or her condition.
The next day, Staffan’s curse woke her, followed by the crash of her bathroom door, which she had forgotten to have maintenance repair. “What the f**k, Saffi?”
Staffan was back. Staffan was cursing. It was morning!
Even with her eyes itchy from sleep, Saffi grabbed her phone, her heart beating madly in her chest. It was seven in the morning – late enough that the newspapers should be out by now. She scrolled through the headlines, but there was still no news about her, Jeremy, or her…condition. For now, that was how she wanted to think of it.
She moved on to the next page, but there was still nothing that would destroy her world.
Saffi collapsed against the bed, shaking with relief.
She was safe for another day.
Staffan suddenly loomed over her. He looked beautiful and sexy, stubble covering his jaw. “What the hell happened to the door of your bathroom?” he demanded.
Saffi could only smile weakly. “I accidentally locked myself inside.”
His jaw dropped.
And then the next thing she knew, Staffan was doing his best to undress her.
“Wha---” Her words were swallowed by his hungry kisses, and with a sigh, she kissed him back, all her worries driven away by the force of his need.
“I told you,” he groaned against her mouth. “Everything you do and say, baby. It f**king turns me on.” Staffan moved down, his hands shaping her br**sts as if they were something he missed holding, cherishing. He nuzzled the valley between them. “Everything, baby,” he whispered. “Everything.”
She closed her eyes as Staffan’s kisses slowly went further down, her legs parting sweetly under his command. Please. It was her very last thought before desire caused her mind to go blank.
Please let that always be true….
****
All eyes were on him when Staffan groggily came out of Saffi’s dorm room, his back aching like shit because of her too short and too narrow bed. One more year, Staffan told himself. Just one more f**king year of torture and Saffi would graduate and they could finally have a f**king decent bed. But right now, the space constraints of her dorm room didn’t allow for changes, so it was either the bed or the floor.
He bit back a curse and a sigh at the thought. One more year, Staffan reminded himself.
As he slid a ten-dollar bill into the slot and ordered a cappuccino, Staffan caught sight of the reflection of a redhead gazing at him on the mirrored surface of the vendo machine. Normally, this would not be something he would notice, but there was something weird about the way she was looking at him.
After bending down to take his coffee and his change, he turned to her.
Guilt flickered in her eyes before she quickly retreated into her room.
It was the same with all the other girls he walked past. On his way back to Saffi’s room, he heard Mary – the nice quiet girl Saffi was close friends with – arguing heatedly with another girl.
Staffan frowned. “Hey. Everything all right?”
Mary appeared pale and upset, and she became even paler at his question.
The other girl flashed Mary a triumphant smile before turning to him. She was tall and dark-haired, with an impressive rack made even more eye-catching by her tank top, which seemed to be a size smaller than it should be.
“She thinks I’m being a bitch but I’m not. I just really care about you ‘coz besides being hot and loaded, you seem like a really nice guy.” She handed him a rolled-up tabloid, which he automatically took. “It seems like you don’t know so…sorry to be the bearer of bad news. If you’re looking for someone to comfort you afterwards, my room is just down the hallway.”
“Staffan---” Mary was looking anxiously at him.
He carefully unrolled the tabloid.
Lies, his heart insisted, but Staffan’s mind knew the truth. Without a word, he stalked back into Saffi’s room. He took her phone from the bedside table and scrolled through the recent calls.
Jeremy
Jeremy
Jeremy
Jeremy
All in the course of one f**king weekend, the same weekend he had been away. All of Saffi’s calls were from the son of a f**king desert prince.
A bitter laugh escaped Staffan. Only Saffi…only Saffi would have found a way to make him feel insecure and lower than shit right now. How the f**k could he compare to a goddamn modern-day Aladdin?
It was like Chloe all over again, but this time it was worse. It was f**king worse because with Saffi, he had loved her so f**king much he had made himself forget the first rule one had to learn from the streets.
Self-preservation.
****
Bag of rolls in one hand and a paper holder with two cups of steaming hot coffee in the other, Saffi debated with herself whether to buy today’s tabloid or not. She shouldn’t really. She knew that. Steel told her not to. Staffan told her not to, and even Yanna and Constantijin told her not to. With the report of Chloe Gustav’s marriage breaking down all over the news, she was likely to see a lot of awful rumors about Chloe and Staffan possibly getting back together.