"To live without you, only that would be torture."

𓆙D R I Z E L L A S T O N E𓆙

I missed my husband.

I wanted to be in his arms, I wanted to listen the erratic beating of his heart and I wanted to torment him until he finally cracked a smile.

I missed my Stone, my Lurch, my husband.

The moment I exited our home I felt like a piece of me was missing, a huge, grumbling piece of me.

I had told him that I needed to do this alone, that I didn't want to have any distractions. But I regret that very very much.

The walls of the publishing house felt like they were closing in on me, it's walls threatening to make me crumble under the pressure that lies within them.

I needed him here with me, my anxiety was creeping through my skin like the deadliest disease and I desperately needed for him to calm me down.

My mood instantly brightened when my husband's name flashed onto the screen, the realisation that he just knew that I needed him making my skin burn up.

"Hi, Lurch." I taunt, even though I'm scared shitless right now.

"What is wrong?" He immediately grumbles, sensing the lack of confidence in my tone.

"Nothing is wrong." I lie. "I just needed to hear your voice."

"Ella."

"What if it doesn't go well?" I sigh, my voice bringing with it the pre-warning for the fast jumble of words about to leave me. "I mean, yeah I had the success of the first book, but what if people don't like this one? What if—"

"Ella." He grumbles unapprovingly, the harshness of his tone making me see the scowl that paints his face even through the restriction of my phone. "Don't you dare ever say that shit again, you hear me?"

"But—"

"Drizella Stone. You are the best writer ever to exist, I swear to fuck if anyone thinks otherwise they are a dead man." He says, pronouncing each syllable precisely as if reciting our vows. "Now you get your ass in there and knock 'em dead, okay?"

"Okay." I mumble, even though the biggest grin coats my face.

He grumbles something incoherent to himself, his tone disapproving and in disbelief as he utters the words that I cannot hear.

"How's the painting going?" I sigh, needing any distraction I can get.

There's a silence on the other end, a long, lingering silence that echoes through the bland walls of the publishing office.

"Uh." He says before clearing his throat. "Good."

"Stone." I drag out, hearing a rough sigh on the other end of the call.

I can tell he is lying, out of all the years of knowing each other I had gotten a firm grasp of knowing when he was lying to me, mainly because he is incapable of such.

"I am in the parking lot."

"What?" I smile, my previous nerves entirely vanished.

"I am outside." He states gruffly. "I did not want to go home without you."

I grin at the shame in his voice, the shame that is the fact that he isn't coating our bland walls in green paint like I had asked of him. But I don't care, knowing that he is right outside gives me a douse of encouragement and comfort.

"Aww, who knew Valentine Stone was such a romantic." I tease, earning a grumble of approval from my husband.

"Damn right I am." He states, his tone assertive yet harsh with determination. "Only for you. Always for you."

"Mrs Stone?" A voice suddenly calls, interrupting the taunting reply I was about to throw at Stone.

"I've gotta go. I love you."

"I love you so fucking much, hurry up so I can kiss my tiny little wife." He grits the last words of his statement, widening the smile on my face.

"I am not small!" I squeal, almost forgetting the fact that I have a whole conference room waiting for me.

"Sure you are not, Medusa. Now go, knock their asses dead."

I quickly mutter a goodbye to my sulking husband before walking over to the woman in the doorway, introducing myself before plunging into the deep end.

𓆙𓆙𓆙

I try not to scream with excitement as the meeting comes to an end, an extremely successful meeting may I add.

I thank the room of fifteen people for the opportunity before walking out with one of the men from the meeting.

"I'll walk you out." The boss insists.

His hand tries to rest upon the small of my back but I distance myself, since there's only one man who can touch me and right now that man is not with me.

"That's really not necessary." I smile politely, quickening my steps so that I can be with my husband again.

"I insist." He nods, matching the speed of my steps. "A pretty lady like you shouldn't be left to wander alone."

I feel like punching him right in his nose, I want to scream at the top of my lungs that I am in love with my husband, yet I refrain, since I desperately want the publishing to go through smoothly.

I make sure to keep the small talk small as we exit the building, my eyes instantly going to the parking lot to find my husband.

My whole body relaxes when I see our car parked in the middle of the parking lot, I quickly turn to face the boss of the publishing company, hoping that I can get away from him as soon as physically possible.

"My husband is over there waiting for me, it was lovely meeting you. Thank you for the opportunity."

With that I begin to turn away, but am instantly dragged back when a foreign touch grazes against my skin.

I turn to see him holding onto my arm, pulling me back with a grin on his little pea-sized face as he beckons me to speak a little longer. My eyes instantly catch onto the wedding band on his finger and I shiver with disgust.

The very moment he touches my arm is the same moment that I hear the door of our car slamming shut, followed my heavy and determined footsteps walking along the concrete.

"Get the fuck off her." Stone bellows, his voice booming so loud that it vibrates along the soles of my shoes.

Stone's arms wrap around my body, creating a big distance between me and the middle-aged man whom I know is in for it.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know she was married!" He squeals, his eyes wide and his hands shaking as he holds them up in surrender.

What he said was a total and complete lie, it's painfully hard to miss the fact that I am married, it's written on all of my books that are dedicated to Stone, the rock on my finger is big enough to blind a person and I had even mentioned my Stone several times throughout the entire meeting.

"Yeah?" Stone menacingly grits. "Then you must be fucking blind. Fuck off before I rip your tiny little head off and mail it to your mother."

I wince at the harshness, my heart dropping as I see the face of the man who's decision it is whether my book gets published or not.

The man runs away instantly, his body scurrying away like one of those children's cartoon characters.

I begin walking to our car, ignoring Stone when he tries to call after me. His steps try to catch up with me but by the time he has I have already climbed into the car.

His hand reaches out to touch me when he sits in the drivers side, but I flinch my body away from him to avoid the touch that ten minutes before had been what I was desperately craving.

His face completely drops, his eyes going soft and his brows furrowing in hurt. My heart clenches aggressively, but I'm quick to remind myself why I'm mad at him.

"Ella—"

"No, Stone." I sigh, frustration mixing into anger like a venomous liquid. "This meeting was really important to me! What if that affects the publishing? Then what would I do? They're the biggest publishing company in America, Stone, this isn't just something you can treat so carelessly."

"He touched you, Ella, he fucking touched you." He growls, his hand tightening around the wheel as his other craves my touch.

"I know!" I raise my voice in frustration. "I love you, Stone, but sometimes you need to remember that there are going to be people who are a little too friendly."

"The fuck did you just say?" He says, his tone threatening me to repeat what I had just said.

"I didn't mean that—"

"I don't care who the fuck he is, he touched you, Ella. I don't care what his job is, no one is allowed to touch you apart from me."

"You don't care whether my book gets published?" I reply lowly, my brows furrowed and my eyes laced with hurt.

"That's not what I said I—" He sighs, rubbing his inked hand over his face.

"I swear to god Stone, if this deal doesn't go through then I won't speak to you for a week."

Okay, maybe that was a little bit of a stretch, I secretly knew that I'd fail at my threat within the first hour of it beginning. I don't think I could ever not speak to him, no matter how mad I am.

"Don't say shit like that, Ella. I can't fucking stand the thought."

"I know," I begin, my voice soft and tired of shouting, "just give me my space, Stone, I'm too angry to speak to you and I don't want to say shit I don't mean."

𓆙𓆙𓆙

The rest of the car ride was silent, I ignored Stone every time he would try and call my name. He got so frustrated that he eventually stopped trying and went into a sulk like me.

The rest of the evening went by with me not talking to him, I just shook my head in dismissal every time he would reach out for me or demand me to talk to him.

The pieces of my heart slowly chipped away each time he would utter an apology, his voice croaky and hoarse as though he couldn't speak properly without me accepting his apology.

I scrub the plate in my hand aggressively, the plate that had been the cleanest clean could be for a good ten minutes. I was simply using it to take my stress out on at both the actions of my husband and the consequences that could come with such.

"Ella please talk to me." Stone sighs roughly, his body nearing closer to mine.

I knew that if I let him touch me then I'd completely forget why I was avoiding such in the first place. I didn't need my space, I wanted him to hug me so tight to the point where I loose oxygen, but I was also a stubborn ass and wanted to prove my point.

"I am going to bed." I state, setting the plate on the side and manoeuvring my way out of his embrace that was about to envelope me.

"I'm coming with you." He grumbles back instantly, following me out of the kitchen and into the bright green hallway.

"I am sleeping in the spare room."

"No." His reply is instantaneous and assertive, his tone harsh as he growls the single syllable.

I keep walking, ignoring his calls and footsteps that are heavy on mine.

Instead of being greeted by the white wood of the spare bedroom door, I'm met with the even stronger and harder chest of Valentine Stone.

I keep my gaze focused on my eye-line sight, which just so happens to be the clothed chest of my feral husband.

"Look at me, Medusa."

I blink slowly, knowing that if I so much as look at his face I will entirely crumble and forget what caused our first argument as a married couple in the first place.

I sigh as I look up at him, my heart clenching when I see the redness of his eyes and the lost look on his face.

"I will sleep in here if you need space, but it'll be the one and only time you will ever do so, you hear me?" He says, ducking his head so that he catches my gaze every time it falters from his.

My hands are wrapped tight around my chest as I nod, too exhausted to fight further and too heartbroken by his face to speak.

I silently walk away, hearing the opening of the spare bedroom door at the very same time that I open the door to our bedroom.

A few minutes later I crawl into bed, the heaviness on my heart making me toss and turn on the mattress that is lacking a certain gigantic giant in it's place.

Darkness settled upon the night sky, yet I still lay wide awake at the loss of my Lurch-shaped pillow below me.

At least two hours had passed, yet I wasn't entirely aware of the time nor could I focus on anything else when I suddenly heard heavy footsteps rumbling on the floorboards.

I heard the spare bedroom door being ripped open, the wood banging against the wall as the heavy footsteps continued out into the hallway.

I could hear his footsteps falter outside of our door, my mind instantly wanting to run over to the door and drag him in, but I refrained.

Instead I slowly peeled the covers off of my body before hurrying over to the door and placing my hand around the doorknob.

My heart shattered when I saw my Lurch standing there.

His eyes were red and bloodshot, his usual scowl-painted face drooping with sadness as the lost look on his face made me feel painfully guilty.

"Ella." He croaks, his voice hoarse and raspy.

I instantly throw my arms around him, feeling his tense body relax as I squish myself against him.

His huge tatted arms wrapped around me the second my skin touched his, scooping me up until my legs wrapped around his sculpted frame.

He held me in silence as he walked over to our bed, his head burying itself into the crook of my neck as he held me so tight that I knew he would never let me go.

The mattress below me was no longer soft and cloud-like, it was as hard as Stone and had the name to match.

"I am so sorry." I whisper, cuddling into his chest that is the most comfortable pillow despite its hard crevices.

"Do not ever apologise for anything." He grumbles, his hand stroking my temple soothingly as his other remains firmly around my waist. "I'm so fucking sorry, Ella. So fucking sorry."

"Do not apologise." I grumble, deepening my voice as I tilt my head up to meet his hard gaze.

The side of his mouth twitches up, the sight warming my heart as I lean forward and plant a soft kiss onto it.

"I love you." I murmur against his lips the moment we break away from a heated kiss. "I do not ever want to fight again, I hated it."

"I am never going in that fucking room again." He states in a rumble. "I love you so fucking much, Medusa baby."

Our lips find each other again, the softness of our skin attracting to one another like the most dangerously powerful magnet.

"I'm still going to kill that fucker for touching you."

"Stone!"

———a/n - hey you guys!

So I need your help, I'm in need of some help for a chapter I'm working on. I'm planning on it being when Stone surprises Ella with the colosseum, but I need some help on the details!

Drop some ideas in the comments for things that are in the colosseum as extra little details and or things you'd like to see in it (e.g. something to do with Ella etc.) <33

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter (even though I hate seeing them fight) <33