28) Decisions

Edward 

The next morning I woke up to an empty bed. For a minute I thought that Vasili had just left to use the bathroom, but when the deafening silence went against my suspicions I sat up. His side of the bed still felt relatively warm so that meant he must have left not so long ago. It was 7a.m and I could not help, but groan in exhaustion. Last night I had barely gotten much sleep in since his nightmare and I was not the friendliest of people when I had lack of sleep. 

A part of me wanted to go and check on him, but the other just told me to stay in bed. He was a grown man and he probably needed space. I did not want to come off as overbearing before our relationship even begun. Although it worried me greatly I decided to put it at the back of my mind. If it was meant to be it was meant to be and this was the exact reason we decided to go on this trail period. To determine if him and I were really a match or we were just blinded by the lust.

After I had showered and gotten ready for the day a knock resonated from the door. "Come in," I called out as I towel dried my hair since for some reason the sea air just made it more difficult to manage. Marco walked in and closed the door behind him. 

"Arsenio told me to give you this. Apparently today is robe and slippers day," he rolled his eyes then put a black bath robe and black slippers on my bed with my name embroidered on it. 

"How did he get these made so soon?" I asked in shock as I ran my fingers over my name that was sewn in gold. 

"He got them made before the trip apparently," Marco sighed thinking of his younger brother. He sat down by the lounge area of my bedroom and noticed that my bed was undone. It was obvious that I had slept with someone since there were two pillows and the covers on each side was tugged different ways. "Vasili?" He tilted his head to the bed. 

"Yeah," I shrugged and sat down next to him. Him and I had not properly discussed Vasili and I since the trip had begun. I knew eventually we would have too, but I was hoping it would have been later rather than sooner. 

"Mm. Are you two official yet?" He asked. 

"No we are still figuring everything out," I sighed. 

"Are you sure about this? I know you would not entertain if you weren't partly, but is it what you really want?" He tilted his head. 

I knew Marco was not homophobic in any sense so I was not worried, but I also knew he was one of the best people I knew at reading people. His interest in Vasili had me slightly worried. "I think so. I've never felt this way with anyone before and even though we are in that gray area I feel positive about it." He simply nodded, although he had a thoughtful expression on his face as he looked to the ground. "Why is there a problem? Did Amanda say something?" 

"No of course not. You know she'd do anything for you. I'm just wondering, do you trust him?" There was definitely something wrong. 

"Of course. I wouldn't have introduced him to you guys if I did not," I defended. 

"Do you love him?" Why did Marco have to be this way? 

I opened my mouth to answer, but closed it quickly. Love was a sensitive topic to me. "You know I can't answer that Marco. Not after Selena."

"I understand, but I just want you to make sure that you know what you are getting yourself into. Not that he is a man or Russian or younger. Just he has a past Edward," I could tell that Marco was not playing around. He never ever spoke ill of someone unless he definitely knew something and had facts. 

"What do you know?" I leaned forward and clasped my hands together. 

"It is not my place to say and I do not want to influence your decision whatsoever when it comes to him, but I need you to know his family has a past."

"Illegal or legal," I was most definitely curious. Marco worked with different government agencies all over the world when it came to stopping illegal activities so I knew I could trust his resources. 

"Illegal, but he has a clean record you don't have to worry about it. I've known about his family long before you started doing business with his brother. When Amanda told me about your affairs with him I was slightly worried and even though I am still slightly reserved about him, I just wanted to check your head space. I know you've been through a lot this past two years and I can tell you are happy. Even though you two aren't official I can see the difference. The other can't cause their idiots and focused on getting drunk, but it's there. You've always been my brother long before I was married to Amanda so your well-being comes first to me and if you're happy I'm happy," he smiled. 

"Thank you Marco," I smiled back, but now that I knew that Vasilis family was not fully clean I needed to let him know about the incident that happened before we left. "There is someone following him. John saw the footage of someone tempering with his car just before we left London. It could have been a coincidence, but I just have a bad feeling about it."

"Do you want me to look into it?"

"Yes, just be discrete. He doesn't really open up to me when it comes to personal issues and I don't want him thinking I'm invading his privacy. Just look into the man and thats it. I don't want to know anything else. He will tell me when the time is right."

"Okay I can do that. I'll get a team to look into it," he nodded and stood up. "Alright now get ready before Arsenio comes knocking down your door. He is unnaturally happy about this spa day and I'm worried he might have hit his head two days ago."

I chuckled softly before nodding. "I'll be out in a second." With that Marco left my room. I knew his concern was genuine since he had never lied to me about anything. I trusted him with my life and I was sure he felt the same way about me. I cared about Vasili deeply, but there were so many unsolved puzzles when it came to him it worried me. I was no fool, I knew his tattoos stood for something and I knew it was not because of the pure interest of genuinely loving every pattern on him. Yet I had hoped it was just a coincidence. 

It seemed hope was failing me a lot these days. Last night had not done anything to lessen my suspicions. Something had happened to him. Something that had him worried and tense a lot of the time. Yet in a way in my own selfish attempts of having a relationship with him I overlooked it. Maybe it was the wrong move to just trust him so easily, but Marco did not indicate that I should leave him. Just simply that I were to be careful with him. At the end of the day I knew it would be my decision to continue whatever we had or not. Yet the thought of leaving him was too much for me. 

I could not go through that again when I had just gotten him. He deserved happiness no matter his past. I cared for him too deeply to walk away for the sake of my reputation. I would be no better than Mary or Selena if I did. His family did not define who he was and I was no one to judge that. All I could do was hold on tight and hope he would open up to me soon before something big happened. 

Once I was done with my ridiculously deep thinking I changed into a pair of shorts and put the robe on. It was made out a lovely silk that just caressed your skin and I knew it would be my new obsession. The slippers felt like walking on a cloud and I had to give Arsenio credit these were bloody amazing. 

I met everyone up at the dining room as we enjoyed breakfast together, but I noticed how silent Vasili was. He seemed to be picking at his food and obviously did not look well. When his eyes connected with mine across the table he gave me a small smile and looked back down at his food. Marco and I shared a curious glance. He raised his eyebrows as if to question if something was wrong and I shrugged. Vasili and I had not spoken the whole morning so I would have not entirely known if something was wrong.