Page 44 of Love on the Run

I wake up to a cold bed.

“Flower,” I grumble. Dawn hasn’t broken and though that is nothing new for me, I’m an early riser by necessity and force of habit. My pretty little wife rarely wakes up this early.

Nothing.

It’s quiet as a coffin.

The hair on the back of my neck rises. The feeling of something being off with her—more than our estrangement—niggles at my spine.

I didn’t get where I am today and manage to take on all comers when attempts to wrest control of Takeda Industries away from me came by ignoring my sixth sense. Something more than her being upset about the state of our marriage is going on. I just can’t put my finger on it. Whatever she’s hiding I will find out. I how for her sake and mine that it’s not another attempt to leave me. What I will do when I find her —and I willwould make the first few weeks on this yacht seem like a day at the park.

Muscles tight with an unease I’m not used to feeling I pad over to the ensuite bath’s door, and slowly turn the nob.

Steam and heat welcome me. The room is a cloud of steam

The scent of vanilla-rose permeates the air. Another metallic smell mingles with the sweet luxurious scent. Blood.

I see no signs of the of it. Instead, quiet sobs assault my ears.

“Silly, dummy.” Her words to herself spur me forward with sharp, sure purpose.

I walk over to the shower.

“You will not speak of yourself in such a manner.” My words are cutting as I join her in the shower.

“Argh,” she gasps whirling around to face me. Her eyes are swollen with tears. I pull her to me taking her lips and placing a kiss on her forehead. My heart beating at twice it’s pace.

Taking a quick inventory of her, I see bruises from my roughness. I don’t remember gripping her inner thigh to make such an ugly mark, making a note to be careful touching her there in the future. Then I see the reason for her devastation— the menstrual cup gripped tightly in her hand.

“Ah,” I say watching the guarded expression on her face, cursing myself for putting it there. I have a lot to undo to regain her trust. To make her feel safe again. I went from her haven to her hell.

Saying nothing more, I grab the unscented triple milled soap I had put in here for personal use and start washing my body.

Turning from me she puts in the cup in. She washes her hands then finishes lathering her body.

“Turn around,” her voice catches on the words. I do as she says. She washes my back. Her little hands making broad strokes over my back covering me in lather in smooth firm swathes ofher net sponge. I return the favor making quick work of her much smaller frame.

Getting out, we dry and moisturize each other. I take my time massaging her lower back knowing this is where her cramps are the worse.

“It’s pretty early for you.” Tugging her back to the bed, I flip the sheets, miraculously there’s no blood.

“I noticed when I got up to use the bathroom,” she mutters. “Akchiro, I-I’m sor?—”

“Shh,” I tell her, moving to get in beside her.

I pull her close, tucking her into my chest.

It isn’t until her breathing softens into sleep that I allow even the smallest hint of disappointment to settle in my chest.

I tell myself it’s a good thing that we didn’t conceive a child with all the animus between us. It would be a horrible omen to mark a child with. My heart doesn’t know the difference. Hollowness and regret fill the space where hope should’ve been. It would have been another way to tie her to me. I’d have a second chance to show her we could still work. She’d be big with my child too busy planning for the birth to do anything as extreme as planning another escape.

I don’t fool myself into thinking that she’d stay once she got back in the outside world. And as busy as FADE and Ghadi were with their own lives and their music empire they would drop everything in a second and if Flower called them and told them the truth of things. Though I’d hate to hurt her in that way, I would annihilate them before I gave her or Asa up.

Easing away from her and the bed. I know I must make plans for every eventuality— security, and spies for when she inevitably reaches out to her brothers.

Chances of pregnancy weren’t great with the amount of stress she was under, yet I’d only given myself this time to get my wife and son back and her pregnant again.

Empires don’t run themselves. There is only so much I can do from this yacht. My brothers are grumbling, soon the rest of my executives will be as well. I have to get my family situation under control, I think leaving her asleep heading to my office. I need to prepared for our return to Tokyo. I’ve decided we will go back to where it all began. She, me and Asa will be a family again. Other babies can wait.

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