Chapter 5: The Effect She Had on Me

"You can't fake creativity, competence or sexual arousal."

-Douglas Coupland-

***

Kilian headed back to his room after the chaos earlier. Levana had only arrived for a few hours yet so many things happened with her.

It made Kilian wonder if bringing her back to his place was a good idea. She was not a troublesome woman, but he was a little afraid that Maximus or the other men would give her trouble.

She didn’t know anything about his true background yet. If she knew, she would probably end up hating him and feared him. He didn’t want that. So, Kilian planned to keep her in the dark for as long as possible.

He removed his clothes and revealed his well-sculpted body. Being an active man both in sport and business, he always maintained a good physique.

There were a few scars he got from his days in the military and the days of rebellion. He didn’t think there was anything from with them, though.

If anything, he was proud of the scars. They made him who he was and he would never exchange it for the world.

As he laid down on the bed, half naked, he closed his eyes and suddenly, the image of Levana, laying naked in the bathtub earlier returned to him.

He was not deliberately thinking about her. She just appeared in his face and he had to open his eyes again because his mind was getting a little wild.

The details of her curves and body, her angry expression, they were all imprinted in his mind.

He looked down on his pants and realized he was having a boner again just thinking of her and his body became significantly warmer than before.

It was getting a little painful, so he removed his pants to let his member breathed and realized he was already half erect.

“This is not normal.” He told himself. It was certainly unlike anything he had ever experienced before. Kilian had never been the kind of man who would be easily aroused by the sight of a beautiful woman.

He had gone to clubs, lounges, parties where there were plenty of beautiful women. Some of them in a bikini, some were naked.

None of them really had this much effect on him.

He wondered if it’s because he was already attracted to her since the first time he laid his eyes on her, but whatever the reason was, his body was responding to hers and it was scaring him.

“I should control myself. I didn’t bring her here to be my sex slave. Yeah, you are a beast but you are not a degenerate, Kilian. Keep yourself together.” He reminded himself.

On the other side of the room, Maximus was smoking in the balcony to try and calm himself down.

The effect of alcohol and weed had worn off on him and he was starting to get a little anxious because of what happened before.

It was the second time anyone ever laid their hands on him. The first time was his own father, when he was younger and the old man was still alive.

Maximus never really feared anyone but if there was one man he was really scared of, it was his own father, Sonny Osborne.

The old man was a stoic guy who was quite intimidating. His relationship with the old man was more similar to a subordinate and leader than father and son.

Between the siblings, it was clear since the beginning that his father favored Kilian more than him. The reason why he was slapped back then was because he almost killed Kilian by accident.

When they were children and their father was still alive, they knew their father had a vast collection of guns and weapons which he stored in one of the room.

The room was normally locked and back then, technology like finger print lock had not been installed in their home. Everything was still manual and the doors required key to unlock.

Maximus, who has always been the more rebellious and curious brother among the two decided to steal the key to the gun room from his father’s office and told Kilian about it.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea, we should return it.” Kilian warned him.

“No, we won’t get a chance like this again. It’s the first time father’s office room is unlocked. Aren’t you curious about them?”

Kilian was forced to follow him because he needed to watch over Max and made sure he was not creating any problems or injured himself.

With a twist of a key, they unlocked one of the most dangerous room in the house.

“This is so cool!” Maximus was so excited when he saw the collections of guns inside the room. They were displayed the way they would in a store.

“Yes, but it’s dangerous. We need an adult to teach us how to use them first before we handle them.” Kilian reasoned.

“Come on, nothing bad can come out of this.”

They didn’t really have any permission, but Maximus was eager to come and Kilian tried to talk him out of it since they never had any kind of formal guidance with guns yet at that age.

“Oh, look at this.” He started touching a few of the guns. The material felts cold against his hand.

“Stop it, you’re going to get both of us in trouble!” Young Kilian warned him.

“Come on, it’s going to be fine. No one will know anything. We can just shoot in the indoor range, we’ll be fine.” Young Maximus ignored the warning and grabbed one of the gun.

He thought the gun was unloaded and carelessly pulled the trigger. Turned out, it was loaded and the bullet hit Kilian’s shoulder, causing him to scream and cry in pain.

Young Maximus dropped the gun in shock. The rest of the family and other members who were inside the house at the time heard the scream since it was so loud, including their father, Sonny and their mother, Charlotte.

“What have you done!?” Their mother screamed as she tried to help her eldest son who was crying in pain. Maximus didn’t know what to say. He could only cry and repeatedly apologize in response.

At that time, Kilian was fourteen and Maximus was twelve. Sonny who was filled with rage immediately approached him and slapped Maximus so hard he eventually fell to the ground as well.

“Do you think you’re a grown up now!? Who gave you permission to come into my weapon room and touch anything here!? Look at what you’ve done!” Sonny shouted at him.

The old man was rarely enraged like this but this time, it was clear how upset he was.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.” Maximus kept on apologizing. At this point, Kilian was already brought outside and driven to the hospital by the other members of the family and the staff.

Charlotte came with them and it was just Sonny and Maximus left.

The old man grabbed his hand and dragged him through the stairs back to his room. Sonny opened the door and shoved the young boy inside.

“Stay in there. You’re not allowed to leave the room until your brother is back!” He slammed the door shut and locked the boy in.

Young Maximus rushed to the door and knocked on it.

“I’m sorry, please don’t lock me in.” He repeated while still crying, but no one was opening the door for him. They were all too scared to disobey Sonny’s order.

The only time the door was unlocked was when it was time for meal. He was not even allowed to have meal in the dining room like usual.

After the meal was delivered, the room was locked again and the cycle repeated itself.

Fortunately, at that time, Kilian survived and he had a little dislocation on his shoulder, mostly from the fall rather than the gunshot itself, but he was quickly recovering and returned back from the hospital after one week.

Maximus was finally allowed to be out of the room.

But at this point, he was already traumatized.

The relationship between him and his family became significantly worse after this and to distract himself, he decided to drown in alcohol and weed.

He never got addicted, fortunately, but his life was a mess compared to his brother’s life.

“No one taught you any manner growing up. That’s why you’re like this. Someone needs to slap you at least once so you know what it’s like to be disrespected.”

Those words echoed in his heads and repeated itself over and over again.

“That woman, she’s really getting on my nerve.” He whispered as he puffed the smoke.

“But maybe I do deserve the slap.” Another voice in his head appeared.

“No, I’m not a masochist. She’s in the wrong.” He tried to justify his action earlier, but eventually, his conscience won.

“Okay, maybe I was wrong.”

He didn't know that this conversation he had with himself would be the beginning of a shift within him.