Worth Any Price (Novella)

Chapter Nine: Reconciliation

Cassian

IF I ONLY knew that all I have to do is to beat myself up to win her back, I would've done so from the moment I saw her terrified face while she was holding my phone.

Anri never left my bedside during my recovery. Even though I'm unconscious, I can feel her warmth. I can feel her presence like a goddamn psychopath. I know I scared her and lied to her but she seemed to finally realize that there's no way that I would hurt her. I will hurt anyone who will cause her pain, and that includes myself.

My sweet firecracker made sure to disinfect my wounds every morning. She also cooked me a beef broth called nilaga. She said that she got the recipe from her Filipina neighbor and it has become her favorite soup whenever she's sick. I slurped the soup wholeheartedly knowing that I'm eating a favorite soup of hers.

She never talked about our fight last week. During the days that I rested on our bed, she's been taking care of me. I knew that something in her changed and that I'm probably dealing with a different Anri right now; a better version, maybe. But I don't care. It is better that she's within arm's reach than shutting me out of her life.

I wanted to kiss her so bad. I've missed her so much that I wanted to sob and plead in front of her to give me a smile. My sweet firecracker always smiles. I would hate myself when that part of her completely disappears because of me.

I made a mental note to kill myself if the day comes that she won't smile at me ever again.

"Have you eaten yet?" I tried to reach for her hand but I noticed that our engagement ring is not there.

Anri is quick to notice that I've seen her left hand without a ring on it, so she hid it behind her back.

My jaw clenched. As much as I wanted to put the ring back on her hand, I know that she must've tried so hard to erase any sort of deception that I did from her mind, and seeing that ring will only refuel her anger towards me.

But that was my mother's ring. She gave that to me when I told her that I've found the woman of my dreams. She entrusted me with that ring and made me promise to not give the ring to someone whom I don't love with every inch of my soul. Every male Markov in our family gifted that ring to their beloved. It is sad that my Anri doesn't want to have anything to do with the ring but I'll need to return the ring to my mother. That ring is already tainted with bitterness. Anri would never wear it again after what I did.

I reached for my walkie talkie near the bedside table and asked Sydney to look for the family heirloom inside the guestroom.

"That was an heirloom?" Anri sat on the bed and listened closely to the conversation between me and Sydney. When Sydney reported that she found the ring on the guestroom floor after a few minutes, I thanked her.

I grabbed Anri's hand before she could move away. "I understand. We'll buy you a new ring, preferrably a ring with no emeralds on it."

She started to tear up. I cursed myself for making her cry like that. "I'm sorry I threw your ring. I was miserable and I'm not a fan of looking at things that will remind me of something hurtful so I threw it under the bed. I'm sorry."

I brought her hand to my lips. "It's okay, sweet. I understand."

She sniffled. "But it was an heirloom. I thought you were lying to me when you proposed and that you bought me a ring just to play with my feelings."

I brought her to my arms. I closed my eyes and inhaled her scent, finally thanking God that he brought her to me. I was an atheist but when I nearly lost Anri, I turned to him and prayed to give me my sweet firecracker back. Because of this, my fate is restored. I will be donating money to a local church after my recovery.

"It's okay, sweet. We can afford any ring you could possibly want. We can even commission a jeweler for an heirloom of our own. Don't cry, please. You'll make me hate myself."

Anri immediately obeyed and stopped crying. She knew the real me now. She knows that when she cries because of me, I'll blame myself. And then, I'll hate myself because this obsession spares no one.

She reached for the almost-empty bowl of soup and made me eat the bone marrow with the potato. It is weird to eat something I'm not familiar with, but I know that she cooked this dish for hours, comsidering that the beef is tender and the bone marrow slips from the bone.

It doesn't taste bad. The beef and the soup and corn tasted phenomenal but I'll have to learn to eat the bone marrow. The taste is incredible but I had a trouble with the texture. But since my sweet firecracker loved sipping the bone marrow from the bone, I forced myself to do it like she did.

She smiled at me when I slurped the marrow off the bone and I think I'll be eating bone marrow for the rest of my life just to keep that smile on her face.

Anri helped me to stand up even though I'm capable of standing up myself. I'm a bit sore all over but my physical strength is there. The reason why I'm asking for her help is because I want her coddling me like I'm her baby.

We went downstairs and she helped me sit on the sofa while she cleans up the living room. I don't want to stop her from cleaning. Eversince I realized that she's always in a good mood after cleaning the house, I never stopped her again. When she's in a good mood, I'm happy.

Troy went inside the house and asked me about my bruises. Anri immediately shielded me from Troy and scolded my poor security personnel about what he did. I tried to calm her down by smoothing her spine but she's relentless. Troy only apologized and swore that it will never happen again.

Troy threw me a deadly look when he saw that I'm smiling from ear to ear. This is probably the best day of my entire life. My sweet firecracker loves me so much that she's scolding my bully on my behalf. Well, technically, I asked Troy to beat me up but it doesn't matter. I am loved by my sweet firecracker.

When Troy left the two of us, Anri faced me and practically scolded me about making Troy do something ridiculous. She told me that if I did a silly thing like that again, she'll stop sleeping with me. She also threatened that I must behave, or she'll leave me.

My Anri discovered her power over me. She knew full well that my love for her is so strong that I would not let anything get in the way of it. I nodded and said, "Yes, Ma'am."

She cupped my face and gave my forehead a lingering kiss. I groaned when my groin responded to that intimate moment.

"Why didn't you tell me about this? Why did you have to lie? You think I will run away from you when you popped out of nowhere and offered me to live with you? I will be puzzled at first, but you know how needy I become when you touch me."

I sighed. I never regretted my actions but hearing her say those things made me rethink the steps I took just to finally have her. Maybe I f****d up and I chose to deceive her but I gave her the chance to love me, to discover the other side of me first. I don't want to scare her away with my obsession. I knew from the first time I saw her that I only have one shot and that I need to do it carefully.

Her lips landed on mine, completely erasing my thoughts from my mind. Her skillful tongue traced every line, every nook and cranny of my mouth that I can't help but rip her shirt into two. She gasped, but didn't stop me from claiming her hard.

She rode my thighs astride that I can feel the dampness of her p***y through her silk underwear. She's wearing a skirt, so it's easy for me to lift it and rip her panty to shreds. I have this urge to mark her all over and make her p***y sore that she'll be thinking of me everytime she walks.

Anri stopped kissing me completely, and I groaned and whined because I don't want her to stop. My hands searched for the hook of her bra but I can't seem to find it.

"You know that I don't wear bra."

I growled. "You talked to Troy without wearing a bra?" My hand slid to her stomach, then to the hem of her skirt. Anri nodded and dared me to complain judging the way her lusty eyes looked at me.

I ripped her panty from her cunt and quickly unzipped my pants to free my throbbing member. I teased her with it, letting her c**t kiss the tip of my c**k first before burrying myself deep inside her to the root.

"Cassian..." My sweet Anri searched for my lips as she started moving on top of me. "Oh, Cassian. Oh, do me."

I held her hips and claimed her with every inch of me. Her cries of pleasure emveloped me, stimulated me, owned me through and through that I feel like loosing myself in bliss. She begged for me to use her, f**k her like she existed only for my pleasure. I took it. I f****d her until her whole body shook and she's crying my name over and over again.

Feeling her p***y contract around me triggered my orgasm. I followed her into oblivion, emptying my seed inside her, praying that it will take root.