Chapter 5 Five

Georgia's POV

My heart forgot how to breathe, the air evaporating out of my lungs. I blinked repeatedly trying to convince myself that I didn't just walk in on Rhys Mikalihov washing blood off his hands and sleeves. But these same eyes processed the image before me accordingly.

"What is there to be afraid of little dove?" He chuckled, splaying some liquid soap onto his palm. "You've seen me kill before or haven't you?" He paused and glared at me, his dark eyes mocking me. "You've seen me take a man's life in the most gruesome way imaginable. Don't give me that look, Georgie love. It was what earned you the newspaper popularity you wanted so badly."

I knew he was messing with me, trying to see how long before I cracked. And I would admit that his effort was seeping in. Not that I didn't know someone as powerful as Rhys could kill, but that realisation hit differently now that I would marry and live under the same roof with him.

That meant he would sometimes come home at night reeking of gunpowder or sometimes bloodied from a gun fight. Or perhaps I would one day anger him so much that he would grab a flower vase and bash my head to pieces with it. No, I didn't want this trauma. I didn't want to live in fear of the person I was supposed to love.

"Georgie lovey," he finished the wash up and reached for a towel. "What have you come to see me for? Have you come to have dinner with me, spend time with me, or do you just miss my presence?"

"No. I have come to talk you out of this marriage arrangement. I know you care less about my wishes but I would have you know that I could be in a position of much more importance to you. I could be better than a wife. I'm highly trained and skilled, and I could work under your empire. I could work at home and join the cleaning ladies. Just anything to pay your debts. Please, don't force me into a union I don't want."

Rhys was silent, but this was a feature I had come to dread even more. He would listen with rapt attention, absorb every one of my words but only to shatter me with his response.

"Are you sure you don't want me Georgia?"

"What?"

"You heard what I asked." He dropped the towel on the wringer and started advancing towards me. With every step Rhys took forward, he seemed to grow taller, his stone-hard face radiating with such ethereal beauty you would think he was a god from Mount Olympus. I continued moving backwards, but soon my back collided with the wall there was no where else for me to run.

"It's in your eyes Georgia," he reached out and started tracing my jawline with his fingers. "The desire for me, the thirst for my presence. You are hollow Georgia." He leaned forward his lips grazing my right ear. "You are hollow, and only I can fill every part of you."

His hand travelled to my face, trailing down the nape of my neck, stopping at the top of my cleavage.

"Give in to your desires, give in to me."

"What bullshit!" I pushed him away and stepped backwards. "I don't give a damn about you. I have come to ask you to stop this wedding, for the last time. I have made you a much better offer. Why do you have to be so cruel?"

"You are the cruel one Georgia," he retorted. "Your article would have destroyed me, you didn't even know what happened."

"But I saw you kill a man, and now you've killed another, and definitely you'll kill me too."

Rhys' face went soft for a moment, a flicker of emotion flashing in his eyes, but he looked away and took a deep breath.

"I am a man of honour, Georgia," he said. "I am a man, I don't kill the people I love."

"But you don't love me do you? If you did, you wouldn't want me going through hell."

"What about me, you were desperate to use me as a stepping stone to your greatness. And I've figured it out. I know what you kept with your friend, what's her name again?" He squeezed his face and snapped his fingers. "Yes! Tiana Andrews. She's your best friend and a fellow reporter. I know what you've both been up to, trust me my men didn't even sweat on that assignment. But I let it go. That is how civil I can be."

"Tiana and I were just doing our assignments, men like you pose a threat to the well-being of the civilians."

"But I let it go, another destructive lie against me. The question now is, Georgia Carter, " He started moving towards me again. "Do you truly hate me? Do you wish I were gone? Do you wish I were dead?"

That question melted me. I could not understand the tingling sensation floating through me. It was as though I could catch a whiff of loneliness in his tone and that this could be a cinematic moment where I walked up to him, threw my hands around him, and professed poetic love lines like Juliet did to Romeo. But no! This was far from the case!

"Yes. Rhys." I answered, clinching my teeth as if to hold back my anger from bursting through me. "Yes to all your questions. I hate you. I wish you were not here, and I wish you were lying 6 ft under."

Instantly, the cold expression returned to Rhyse's face, his eyes glistening with anger. But instead of a response, he took me by the hand, led me out of the kitchen, through the hallway and into his study.

The sudden act had electrified on my tongue all this while, but when he locked the door behind him, I regained my voice.

"Why have you brought me here? What is the meaning of this?"

"Oh loveey," he answered with a tricky mischievous smile. "It's nothing really. We're just here to unravel some little secrets."

"Secrets?"

He chuckled sinisterly and moved behind his desk. With his eyes fixed intently on mine, he took a seat. Within a few minutes, he opened one of the drawers, dipped his hand into it and fished out a purple hardback notebook.

"Do you recognise this?" He raised the book above his face. I was going to roll my eyes and snap at him when I saw what the book really was.

"My diary!" I lurched forward. "Where the hell did you get that?"

"Oh, come on, your house, where else would it be? I didn't expect that my men would stumble across a jackpot like this. Your secrets are interesting, so are your fantasies."

"No!" I lurched forward again, reaching for the book, but he prevented me with his arm. "This is the truth that you've hidden from yourself so much."

My mind raised back images, and lines flashing across my head. Like every woman out there, I had a crush on Rhys Mikalihov, and I made him the centre of all my daydreams. I would fantasise about him getting married to me, making love with him, visiting events and appearing on red carpets with him. I even went as far as picking names for the children we would have. This was before I wrote the article, and it never occurred to me to discard my journal, even if I wouldn't have.

*Rhys Mikalihov is like a shot of dopamine," I looked up to find Rhys reading a page of my diary aloud. "A mere look at his face cools down my mind and sets me at peace. He is so perfect, so strong and so regal. I watched his interview on Jennifer Hudson's show today and I could feel myself slipping into my panties. Oh, how I want him. I have had too many traumas in my life, a man like Rhys Mikalihov would give me peace and protect me. I am falling for this man and I don't feel stupid about it. I tossed a penny in the town fountain again today. I want to believe wishes come true, and maybe they actually do."

By the time he finished reading that entry, my face had grown so red that I felt the blood in my veins drying out. I wished I could disappear, that the ground would open up and swallow me.

"I am your wish, Georgia Carter, and I have come true. Among all the women in the world, I have found you. Your coins haven't been going to waste after all."

"This is nothing but celebrity Love."

"But what about these pictures?"

A pulled out a brown envelope from the drawer. I recognise it immediately. They were private pictures I stole from my cameraman's folder. Pictures of Rhys at the pool, shirtless and bare-chested. Pictures I deliberately withheld from the magazine, most of which I planned to glue into my diary.

"You have to love and accept me, Georgia. I am the king of your fantasies, and you will belong to no one else."

"I hate you, Rhys!' I hate you so much!"'

But his laughter followed me out the door.