14 - I would never allow it

"You don't say hello?" Ivan exclaimed, raising an eyebrow while a lopsided smile appeared on his face.

Helena rolled her eyes before exclaiming mockingly.

-Good morning, Mr. White.- She Then she got up from her seat and took what she had left over from breakfast to leave in the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" asked the young man who had begun to get irritated by the young woman's disinterest.

-I was leaving before you arrived.-

The brunette tried to get away from him, but he grabbed her by the forearm and began to drag her out of there.

"It's starting to irritate me that you always do the same thing!" She squealed as she was taken out of the dining room under everyone's astonished gaze.

"Come have breakfast with me," she murmured with the hoarse voice of just waking up.

Helena didn't say anything, she preferred to continue maintaining her annoyed face and her growls to try to sink deep into her being the nervousness generated by that vibrant voice and that firm hand surrounding her arm with so much ease.

Ivan finally let go of her when they reached her private dining room. The young woman would be lying if she denied that she had felt empty without the touch of that skin, but she said nothing and set her plate and juice on the table.

"Eat whatever you want," he exclaimed, sitting in front of her with only a cup of black coffee.

"No thanks, I'm fine with this," she responded, taking another grape between her lips as if kissing it and then sucking it into her mouth.

Suddenly, the simple action of eating a grape had become something very uncomfortable under the dark gaze with dilated pupils that silently observed her movements. The young man's throat rose and fell slowly, moving his Adam's apple.

Helena looked away from her embarrassedly and quickly ate the small fruit, silently deciding not to eat any more of those, if she didn't want to end up red as a tomato and devoured by that man right there.

"Was my brother bothering you?" He finally asked, snapping her out of her dirty thoughts.

-You didn't tell me you had one-

"I didn't think it would be necessary, he's not around much," she responded with what she felt was a melancholic tone.

"I liked him, not like you," she let herself joke, smiling amused.

Ivan turned to her smiling in response, suddenly everything felt more comfortable.

-He's a good boy, just a little childish, but that's fine with me- he smiled looking out the window- It's good that he stays out of all this as much as he can- After that sentence the raven boy erased his smile and seemed that his mind had gone very far from there.

Helena couldn't help but remember the words of the youngest White.

“…He has many obligations and an image to maintain before everyone's eyes. "You know... to show yourself strong in the face of enemies"

The young woman looked at him for a long time, enjoying her beautiful straight profile, her long black curved eyelashes, her rebellious locks that fell on her forehead and her thin lips curved a little downwards and she wondered. What would this boy be like if he were just an ordinary young man and not the son of a gangster?

For a moment she felt sorry for him for not being able to have a normal life like anyone else.

-It's good that you take care of the responsibilities so your brother can be away from all this.

Helena didn't know why or where those words came from, and when her boss's face slowly turned towards her, even with her serious expression, she feared she had said too much.

To her surprise, the line of his lips curved upwards showing his dimples, his bright pearly teeth twinkling, and the wrinkles at the sides of his eyes became drawn.

Helena felt her heart beat strongly, bewildered and at the same time amazed by the duality of that boy, it is as if two completely different people lived together in the same body.

"Yes, it's good that I have as normal a life as possible," she stated softly, still maintaining that stupid, beautiful smile.

Helena smiled back and they both stood petrified for who knows how long. But unfortunately fantasies don't last forever and the slamming of the front door completely dispelled it.

They both blinked hard, as if coming out of some kind of insomnia. They turned towards the entrance and in one quick movement the young mafia member stood up from his seat.

"Father..." he exclaimed seriously, erasing any trace of the sweeter and more human side of him.

Helena almost snapped her neck towards the figure of the man who looked imposing and intimidating, although she was only wearing very thin black pajamas. The young woman did not want to imagine how threatening he would look in more appropriate clothing.
She quickly stood up, feeling obligated by that hard look, much more than Ivan's, it was clearly her father, there was no doubt. But something in that man told him that there was no need to joke with him.

-What you do awake? "The doctor said you should rest," the son exclaimed in an authoritarian tone.

The man ignored him and sat in the chair that his bodyguard had handed him.

Helena only felt that she had the right to sit down again when her boss sat down too. Everything was uncomfortable, she tried not to look at that man who was drinking her coffee in silence, but with his gaze fixed on her. The young woman prayed that her discomfort would not be noticed and that this man would not smell her fear as if it were a carnivorous animal.

"So you are the famous Helena," she finally said after a while.

"N-nice to meet you, sir," she responded with the highest and most humiliating voice possible.

Ivan's father smiled sideways, but something about that smile told him that it wasn't genuine at all. He felt her two black pearls run over her body as if he were sizing her up and then he said:

-So all your scandal and disobedience to my orders was due to this girl.

“This girl”

Those last two words sounded like daggers in her body. She wanted to get up from her seat and give him a good correction and also apologize to Ivan for thinking he was a jerk, only he hadn't met his father before her.

"Yes, it's her, she's going to become my personal bodyguard," her boss responded seriously and Helena wished her mouth would shut up, that she wouldn't encourage her father to continue talking sarcastic shit about her.

An amused but grotesque smile came from the man's dry, sickly lips and Helena regretted ever having felt bad because Ivan's father was sick.

-You really shined son, I really want to see that. "Girl..." he called, turning to her.

Helena obeyed, looking at him with her pupils trembling with the effort of keeping her gaze.

-You know this is not a game, right? "That you can die..." she hissed with a disturbing voice.
She's not going to die, father," the young man warned before Helena could even protest.

The man turned to face his son and laughed once more, this time harder, making him cough.

When he was able to recover from the chronic cough he exclaimed:

-That? Are you going to protect her? Where did you hear that a superior protected her bodyguard? "It's ridiculous!" he exclaimed, amused.

Helena slowly moved her honey-colored eyes surreptitiously towards Ivan, meeting his tightly clenched jaw and red face.

The young girl hated to admit it, but Ivan's father was right.

Was her boss thinking of protecting her if any danger of death arose? She was supposed to put her body in front of the bullets to protect him, not the other way around.

The mere idea of imagining that big, manly body surrounding her body and protecting her from all harm made her blush hard.

"Don't you have to go to training?" The raven finally exclaimed, taking her out of her romantic novel thoughts and ignoring her father.

"E-eh... yes," she responded, getting up from her seat. "My pleasure, Mr. White," she responded as best she could, although she knew she sounded as false as possible.

"We're leaving then," Ivan responded, approaching the young woman and taking her arm to quickly get her out of there. When they were far enough away from the man, he finally stopped.

Helena watched him expectantly, everything had been so awkward.

"Don't pay attention to him," she finally said, with what the young woman thought was a look of concern.

Helena lifted her shoulders trying to downplay her importance.

"Okay, well... I'm going to train," she exclaimed, pointing awkwardly at the hallway, she began to walk away from her boss.

-Clear…

The young woman stopped and she slowly turned to the man who was still standing in the same place, breathing a little hard for some strange reason that she couldn't decipher.

-What I said there is true… I wouldn't let them hurt you.

Helena swallowed heavily and nodded her head.

-I know…

She then turned around and hurriedly walked away from him.

"I know?" Because she had said that. She didn't know it, but it had come out from inside her chest. As if a part of her blindly trusted him.