Escaped My Ex, Got Snatched by His Rival - Chapter 473

Chapter 473: Losing Battle
“Nicolai, what are you doing here?” Ari asked as she stepped down the stairs of the Nelson Corporation.

Nicolai, who was leaning against his car, straightened up and walked over to where Ari was standing. He caught hold of her wrist and pulled her towards him. “This should be my question. What do you think you are doing here?” as he spoke he raised his head and looked at Noah who had come running out of his building.

But the man stopped in the middle of his tracks when he saw Nicolai looking at him.

With one last glare at Noah, Nicolai wrapped his arm around Ariana’s shoulders and brought her inside the car behind him. It was good enough that he had let Noah spend this much time with Ariana.

There was no need to add another second.

Once Ariana was settled in the passenger’s seat, Nicolai turned on his feet, walked over to the side of the driver’s seat and drove away leaving nothing but a cloud of exhaust behind him.

Noah watched the sports car drive away and clenched his fingers. He stayed where he was standing without turning his back on the car that was driving away. If only –

He sighed without finishing that thought, he turned on his feet once he could no longer see the car and walked inside the building.

Inside the car, Ari peeked at Nicolai who was driving the car with a set jaw, tentatively.

“Do you want to say something to me?” Nicolai asked as he looked at her through his peripheral view.

Ari flinched upon hearing his question. But then she sighed and said to the man, ” I just wanted to ask him about the accident with his grandmother.” She relayed the incident to Nicolai, since he already knew a part of her situation, she might as well tell him the rest of it.

Nicolai did not speak the entire time while Ari was telling him about the incident that took place many years ago, and once she finished speaking, he turned his attention to her before asking, “It seems like you are as charming as you are now when you were a child.”

“Nicolai, this is not the time to joke,” Ari told him sternly.

“No, it’s not,” Nicolai agreed with her surprisingly. He paused and told her, “Roman — is the current head of the Serpents.”

Ari who was staring at the road ahead stiffened and turned to look at Nicolai with wide eyes filled with terror and confusion.

“Serpents, aren’t they?” She began speaking but was interrupted by Nicolai who answered her question before she could finish it, “The underworld syndicate that is active in Clover City. Yes, that’s the one.”

Once Ari heard the confirmation, she blinked her eyes in surprise. Her mouth fell agape before she sputtered, “Why would someone like him chase after me?” it seemed simply far-fetched. After all, why would a big bad mafia boss want her and that too from the time before she was born?

“The answer probably lies with your mother, unfortunately, she is in no condition to speak,” said Nicolai while turning the steering wheel to the left.

“Are you blaming me, Nicolai?” Ari asked and both of them knew that she was not talking about the murder that she had committed a few days ago.

Upon hearing her words, Nicolai curled his lips before saying to her, “Oh, I dare not. How could I blame you?”

He knew that Ari and Noah did nothing, they neither had the reason nor the time to do anything. And yet the second he found out that Ariana went to the Nelson corporation, Nicolai found himself breaking.

It was funny how a few words could make his world crumble– a man as big and strong as him, who didn’t even fear a bullet aimed at her was about to shatter and fall on his knees when he read the message left on his phone by Ariana.

Clearly, if she had something to hide she would not have told the truth to him. She would have kept it from him – and yet when he found out that she had gone to meet Noah… Nicolai couldn’t stop his thoughts from swallowing him whole.

What if she found him taxing? What if she found him unbearable and unworthy to stay together with? What if… Numerous what-ifs flickered in his head and he almost went crazy.

Don’t leave – don’t meet with him— don’t talk to him.

Just stay with me.

These were the thoughts that Nicolai wanted to say to her, and yet he couldn’t because Nicolai knew that if he did he would send Ari running for the hills.

So he could only suppress his ugly jealousy and hope that Ari would not leave him.

He was terrified at the very idea of this woman taking hold of him in ways that he had never expected her to. What should have ended in a one-night stand had dragged to the point where he wanted Ari to come to him – and chose him.

Not anyone but him, because if she didn’t he knew that he was going to go crazy.

Just as he parked his car a bit further away from her apartment building, Nicolai felt a soft hand touch his cheek and turn his face to one side.

Following it was an even more chaste and softer kiss on his lips as the woman pulled away from him and said, “Stop feeling jealous. I already told you that I went to meet him because there was something that I wanted to discuss with him and nothing more.”

Ari sighed and undid her seatbelt while saying, “Honestly, why did you have to sulk at the smallest –mhmm?” she gasped when Nicolai cupped her face and kissed her.

No, what he did could not be counted as kissing. He sucked the very soul out of her body, as he sucked, nipped and bit her — their teeth clashed while their tongues entangled together with one another in a battle of dominance.

And when Nicolai pulled away from her, Ari was certain that she was going to stop breathing altogether.

With his thumb caressing her lower lip, Nicolai told her, “Well, it’s a bit too late, because I am already jealous.”