“I miss him.”
Sara and Kat stopped speaking.
Tears stung my eyes, and I angrily wiped them off. “I don’t want to miss him, but I do. Why can’t he see this is the only way I can protect myself? And it’s not like I asked to sleep around, dammit. I just need to protect myself, and I need it even more now because I really miss him, and it’s so scary—”
“Schuy,” I heard Kat try to interrupt, but I was on an emotional roll, and I just found myself blabbering on.
“I’ve never missed a guy before! Never—”
“Schuy…” It was Sara this time, but I was already too worked up to pay her any heed.
“And I don’t want to. I hate myself for it. But I just can’t help it. I miss him so much—aaaah!”
In a blink, I found myself swept up in Ioniko’s arms and staring straight into his green eyes.
“I missed you, too.”
Close your eyes. Imagine yourself on a date with a billionaire. Imagine flying halfway across the world to spend the weekend with him. Whatever it is you see in your mind, it would probably be something wildly exciting, something out of this world. Wouldn’t it?
Mine…was different. Nothing outrageously extravagant, nothing exotic or adventurous. But at the same time, for someone who concocted game-based happy-ever-afters for a living, I found myself unable to imagine anything better than reality.
A one-sentence text from Kat – Congratulations, big bother: abandoning a woman on her (monthly) time of need is the surest way to lose her – had Ioniko finishing his meeting in a hurry and his driver breaking speed limits in order to get his master back to my side in record time.
And the billionaire hadn’t come unprepared either, having subjected himself to a Google-aided crash course on periods and PMS. In moments, he had me cocooned under the thickest and warmest covers, my belly buried under heat pads, and in case those weren’t enough, he also had one of the staff on standby to provide me with a series of heat compresses.
Lunch consisted of all of my favorite food (thanks to a tip from Sara), and afterwards the painkillers had me sleeping like a log. When I woke up, I found myself in a luxuriously custom-fitted van and seated…on a massage chair.
“Oh my God, this is bliss.” Why had no one ever told me that massage chairs could do so much in alleviating the aches and pains of dysmenorrhea? I stretched and snuggled, folded and unfolded my limbs – I contorted my body in all sorts of ways until I found the perfect position to keep the cramps at bay.
When I finally remembered I wasn’t alone, it was to see Ioniko holding his phone up, since apparently he had recorded the entire thing.
“Nooooo!”
“Too late,” he said with a smirk even as he pocketed his phone back.
“Get rid of it,” I pleaded.
“Not on your life, koukla mou. It was a joy watching you play Goldilocks in your seat.”
“Shut up.”
But Ioniko’s eyes only gleamed. “So they weren’t joking. You speak your mind more when you have your monthly visit.”
I giggled despite myself. “Monthly visit? Could you sound any more archaic?” A flush stained Ioniko’s high-boned cheeks at my words, and the sight had giggling me some more.
“The other terms do not feel right,” the billionaire said stiffly.
“Like period?”
His lip curled.
“Menstruation?”
He blanched.
“That time of the month? You can’t get any simpler—”
Ioniko glared at me. “Stop it.”
He looked like he was willing to strangle me if that was the only way to shut me up, and I completely lost it, laughing so hard even as it worsened the cramps. “Oh my God.” I laughed and winced at the same time. “You’re too cute for words.” Laugh, cramp, laugh, cramp. “You’re…” But this time, the pain completely overwhelmed everything else, and I ended up whimpering.
“What’s wrong?” Ioniko demanded right away.
“Hurts,” I whispered. “To laugh.”
A moment later, he leaned back into his seat. “Serves you right.”
The words were so incredibly petty, so not at all like the oh-so-mature Ioniko Vlahos, billionaire extraordinaire, that I couldn’t help laughing just one last time. And lived to regret it in the next second, and this time tears stung my eyes. It hurts so bad.
“Dammit, Schuyler.” But he was already reaching for me and I found myself unceremoniously dumped on his lap. I tried to wriggle in protest, but his hold on me only tightened. “Shut up and stay still.”
Hmph. But I did as asked, being too tired to argue, and my eyes simply closed as I felt Ioniko carefully adjusting his hold. It hurt so damn bad. Hurt so damn bad. So damn….oooh.
My eyes flew open when he started rubbing my belly. “How did you know…”
“Google.”
My eyes widened, and when I opened my mouth—
“Don’t laugh,” he warned. “It’s only going to hurt you more.”