Bloody Lace

21. Dimitri

21

DIMITRI

O f all the fucking things I thought I might come home to, it wasn’t this. The penthouse was so quiet when I walked inside that I thought Evelyn had gone to bed, but when I went upstairs, she wasn’t there either. And I had a jolt of almost painful alarm, wondering where she could be at this hour and if she’d slipped out again without telling me.

If she was going to force my hand, and make me do something worse to show her just how brutal this life can be if you step out of line. Make an example of Gus, for instance. Or if she’d just decided to leave me, and go home. Call off our deal. She could ask me for a divorce, and what would I do then? Refuse her? I could, but it would make the rest of our time together infinitely miserable.

It wasn’t until I stopped letting my thoughts run away with me for a minute and really considered what options weren’t Evelyn having bolted again that I remembered the hot tub on the roof, and wondered if she might have decided to go up and check it out.

I expected I might find her up here. What I didn’t expect was to find her with her head thrown back against the edge, her hands beneath the water, moving in a way that’s impossible to mistake for anything other than what it is.

And I didn’t expect to hear her moaning my name.

My cock started to swell the moment I realized what she was doing in the tub, but my name slipping from her lips on a broken moan makes me rock-hard in an instant. It sounds so fucking good, and all I want is to hear her say it like that again.

“You sound so fucking good when you moan my name, l’vitsa .”

Her eyes snap open in an instant, and she freezes, going completely still as if she can somehow pretend that everything I just saw didn’t happen. I chuckle, stepping closer to the edge. It’s frigid up here, and I didn’t grab a coat before I came up, but I hardly notice. My blood is running too hot for that.

“Dimitri.” She whispers it this time, and I lick my lips, feeling my cock throb impatiently. There’s no way we’re going to make it through this marriage celibate . It’s been two fucking days. This marriage could last for years, if my father decides to cling to life longer than I’d like for him to. I’m not going to be able to take it.

And from the looks of things, neither is she.

“There you go again.” I take a deep breath. “Don’t stop on my account, l’vitsa .”

“I’m not—” She starts to protest, but I cut her off.

“Don’t lie to me, either.” I smirk. “Haven’t I told you how I feel about lying?”

“What are you going to do, cut my tongue off?” she snips, yanking her hand from between her thighs. I laugh darkly, shrugging off my suit coat.

“Never,” I promise her. “I can think of much better things to do with your tongue. And mine.”

She sucks in a breath at those last two words, her eyes flicking to where I’ve started to undo the buttons of my shirt. “What are you doing?” she asks, alarm clear in her voice.

“What does it look like? Joining you. The water looks nice.”

“I was just about to go in?—”

“That’s two lies.” I shrug off my shirt, and I don’t miss the way her gaze rakes down my bare, muscled chest, taking in every inch of bared skin. She hasn’t seen me shirtless before. I’ve been awake and dressed every morning before she wakes up. I can see the way her eyes heat as she takes in all of the bared, inked muscle, the way she swallows hard as her gaze drops to the deep v-cuts on either side of my hips.

When I reach down to undo my belt, I see her tense. And my cock throbs as I remember the feeling of the leather in my fist, the red marks on her skin, the way she dripped with arousal for me.

My cock can’t get any harder. And she’s going to see it all in a moment. What happens after that will be up to her.

“Dimitri—” her tone is almost begging as I start to undo the front of my trousers, and I know why. She wants me. She doesn’t know if she can control herself once she sees me naked, and the knowledge does my vanity good. It’s been hurting since I met her, since it’s seemed that she’s been so easily able to resist me.

But now I know that’s not the case. She’s just been better at hiding it than most.

“Keep saying my name, l’vitsa . It only gets me harder.” I push my pants and boxer briefs down, my stiff cock slapping against my abs as I do, and Evelyn gasps, a small, startled sound that sends pre-cum pulsing from my tip. I feel it drip down my shaft, my arousal painfully obvious, and when I look up from kicking away my trousers and shoes, I see her gaze fixed directly on my erection, her eyes wide.

“Evelyn.” I murmur her name, a faint warning in it. “If you keep looking at me like that, I’m going to get in that tub, flip you around, and fuck you until you’re screaming my name instead of moaning it.”

Her mouth drops open. She swallows hard. And, with clear effort, she drags her gaze away from my throbbing cock.

Disappointment washes over me, but my arousal isn’t lessened in the slightest. Not even the frigid air can soften the aching hard-on that I’ve had since the moment I heard my name slip from her lips. I step forward, getting into the tub, and Evelyn keeps her gaze averted until I’m in the hot water up to my waist.

“You can look now.” Even I can hear the amusement in my voice. “I won’t bite.”

Her gaze snaps back to me. “I don’t believe that.”

“You could find out.” The words are out before I can stop them, and I blame my raging erection. There’s very little blood left above my waist right now, and I feel like I can’t think straight. Not when more of Evelyn’s bare skin than I’ve ever seen before is on display in front of me, only her breasts and the space between her thighs covered by scraps of canary-yellow material. Not when all I would need to do is snatch them away, and I’d be able to see all of her. Touch all of her.

Her eyes narrow. “Just because you caught me touching myself out here doesn’t mean I want to fuck you, Dimitri.”

“Then why were you moaning my name?”

She goes very still at the challenge, her throat moving as she swallows hard. “Look,” she says softly, her voice suddenly dropping and all of the bravado gone from her words. “Even if I did want to, Dimitri—it’s a bad idea. Not just because sex complicates things?—”

“It doesn’t have to.”

“It complicates things for me . And even if that weren’t true, sex can lead to a baby. We’re both adults, you know that as well as I do. Even if we use protection, it can fail. And a pregnancy would complicate things. Full stop. So there’s also…practical reasons not to.” She presses her lips together, her cheeks heating, and she looks away again. She looks tense, and I almost feel bad for coming up here and interrupting her, when she was so clearly relaxed before I did.

But not badly enough to not step forward, moving closer to her until our legs are almost touching beneath the water, the reflection of her body rippling underneath it. My palms itch to slide over her curves, my fingers curl with the desire to press into her skin. I want her with a need that borders on desperation, and when her gaze flicks to where the tip of my cock keeps bobbing above the water, relentlessly hard, I know she feels it too.

“If you’re just worried about pregnancy,” I murmur, “there’s plenty we can do without risking that.”

She opens her mouth, and I don’t wait to find out if she’s going to protest or not. I lean in, one knee on the bench between her thighs, pushing them open as my hand slides behind her head, pressing against her damp hair. I wrap my fingers in it, tugging her head back, and as a shocked gasp escapes her lips, I kiss her.

I take full advantage of her open mouth. I slide my tongue against hers, tasting her, the crisp bite of wine still on her tongue as I devour her mouth, my hand fisting in her hair. I feel her moan against my lips, the sound vibrating as I deepen the kiss, slanting my mouth over hers as I lean into her, and my cock brushes against her belly as her legs come up to wrap around my hips.

And then, just as I think she’s about to give into everything I want, she twists her mouth away, sinking her teeth into my lower lip the way she did when I kissed her up against the door in her apartment. Not hard enough to draw blood this time, but hard enough to sting.

I pull back, grinning wickedly at her. “Bite me again, l’vitsa .”

Her voice is hoarse when she speaks. “Show me what else you can do with that mouth.”

Desire jolts through me, hot and almost painful. She doesn’t have to ask me twice. I reach down, grabbing her hips and disentangling her legs from mine as I lift her up onto the edge of the hot tub, her ass resting on the very edge of it as I lean in between her thighs, my thumbs rubbing across her hip bones.

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” I murmur, and then I reach up, yanking the fabric of her bikini bottoms hard enough that the string ties on the sides give way, and they’re ripped away from her in an instant.

Evelyn moans, her thighs falling open as I lean in closer, my warm breath ghosting over the taut flesh of her lower abdomen. “Tell me if you’re too cold,” I murmur, aware that the air is frigid and her skin is dripping wet.

“What cold?” she whispers, her voice trembling, and every muscle in my body tightens as I hear it. As I hear how much she wants me, even if she won’t admit it.

Even if this is all she’ll allow me to do to her.

I slide my hands up her inner thighs, spreading her legs apart. I squeeze, pressing my fingers into her soft flesh, letting her feel the strength in my hands as I lean in, my mouth brushing over the swollen folds of her pussy as I inhale her scent.

I can’t get any harder, but if I could, the scent of her filling my senses would do it. I can’t wait to taste her any longer, and so I don’t.

I slide my tongue between her folds, and drag it upwards, in one long, slow lick from her entrance to her pulsing clit.

She lets out a hollow, gasping moan, her hands shooting out to grip the edges of the hot tub as her head falls back. “Oh, god,” she whispers, and I look up just long enough to see her teeth sink into her lower lip before I focus on the one thing that I want more than anything else in this moment.

I want to make her come on my tongue. More than I want to fuck her. More than I want to come myself. I want to taste her orgasm. I want to feel what it’s like for her to ride my face while she comes undone.

And I’m in no rush.

I swirl my tongue around her clit, lapping at the tight, swollen flesh until she moans again, the sound dragging up into something high-pitched and needy. I close my lips around it, sucking her into my mouth for one brief moment, just enough to let her find out how it feels, before I pull away, teasing my way down with small licks and nibbles along her outer folds until I reach her entrance again.

“What…what are you doing?” she gasps, and I chuckle darkly against her skin, not bothering to answer.

Instead, I show her. I stiffen my tongue, pushing it into her like a smaller version of my cock, sliding it deeper as she lets out a startled moan. I curl my tongue inside of her, licking her from the inside, fluttering it until she lets out a cry and her thighs start to tremble.

“That feels—” She breaks off, moaning again as I thrust, teasing her with strokes of my tongue inside of her. She tastes so good, better even than I imagined, and I could do this all fucking night. I could just stay here, between her thighs, and find out how many times I can make her come with just my tongue.

For the first time, I have no idea if I’m going to get off at the end of this, and I don’t care. All I care about is her pleasure, her orgasm, about making sure that I’m the one that gives it to her. That she’s screaming my name at the end of this because I’m the one making her come.

I drag my tongue out of her, licking back up to her swollen clit, and Evelyn cries out.

“Oh god— yes , fuck, yes, Dimitri ?—”

Her thighs tremble, her legs trying to close to grip around my head, but I hold them open firmly, my tongue lashing over her. She’s drenched, soaking wet with arousal, and my head spins with the thought of how good it would feel to be inside of her. Like the hot water lapping over my cock right now, except a thousand fucking times better. I can feel my cock pulsing just at the thought, my balls tight with need, but I ignore it.

Evelyn is all that matters right now.

It almost feels like penance for what I did to her yesterday, almost on my knees in the hot tub, between her thighs as I worship her with my tongue. I roll it over her clit again and again, licking, fluttering, until I can feel that she’s close. Until I can feel the muscles in her thighs twitching and leaping under my hands, feel the tension in her abdomen, her body wound so tight that all that’s left is for her to let go.

I wrap my lips around her swollen clit, and suck.

The sound she lets out is a shriek of pleasure, her entire body going rigid, her hips bucking against my face. I feel her back arch, feel the rush of her arousal, my tongue fluttering feverishly against her as I suck at her sensitive flesh, driving her over the edge.

The way she rides my face is exquisite. All of her walls drop as she comes, all of her defenses laid waste, and she’s helpless against the onslaught of her own desire. Her hips roll against my mouth, her back arched in a deep curve, her head fallen back as she gasps and grinds herself into my tongue, riding out her orgasm for as long as she physically can. And I don’t stop, because I want to hear her scream my name.

“Oh, god, fuck , fuck— Dimitri!”

My cock throbs madly as my name erupts from her lips, and for a second the pulsing need, the aching pleasure coursing through me at the taste and heat of her on my lips is so intense that I think I’m about to come too, that I’m going to erupt without ever having touched myself. But as her orgasm ebbs and she starts to squirm away from me, the sensations suddenly too much. I'm still as rock-hard as I have been since I walked up here.

I don’t want to let go of her. I don’t want to stop touching her. I drag my hands up her thighs, over her hips, still lapping at her in small, delicate licks until she reaches out and pushes my head away.

“Too…much…” she whispers, her voice cracking, and I finally straighten, moving away from her as I sink down onto the bench beneath the water. My arousal is painful, and my legs feel like they can’t hold me up any longer. I know I’ve been this desperate to come before because of her, but right now it doesn’t feel like it.

Evelyn’s eyes open, and she swallows hard, pushing herself off the edge just far enough to sink bonelessly down into the water. She’s utterly silent for a long moment, and then her gaze flicks down beneath my hips.

“What about you?” she asks softly, and I manage a tight, small smile.

“I’m fine.”

She laughs. Really laughs, which is one of the last things a man usually wants when he’s sitting next to a half-naked woman, with a stiff cock. But coming from Evelyn, I don’t mind it.

“You’re not fine.” She moves towards me, the water rippling and bending around her as she reaches out, her hand suddenly closing around me. The pressure of her fingers around my length, her palm brushing against the over-sensitive skin, makes my head tip back as I groan aloud. “See?”

I can’t speak. I can barely fucking breathe. I’ve never known something as simple as a hand on my cock to feel so fucking good, but I’m so turned on right now that the touch of the water can almost make me come. Just Evelyn’s hand wrapped around me has me dangerously on the edge.

“Get up there.” She nods to the edge of the hot tub, her hand moving up and down in a slow, delicious stroke that sucks the air out of my lungs. “Unless it’s too cold for you.”

I look at her, momentarily forgetting how to form words, because I’m so fucking close to coming and I don’t want to yet. “You don’t have to—” I start to say, and then my cock throbs in her hand, violently protesting everything I just said.

Evelyn looks at me, her gaze meeting mine, and she licks her lips. “Don’t make me ask twice,” she murmurs coolly, her eyes narrowing, and I suck in a sharp breath as she lets go of me.

I moan at the loss of sensation. I’m fucking aching, every muscle in my body coiled tight, a spring ready to snap. Vaguely, in the back of my mind, I know I’m supposed to turn her down, supposed to get out of this hot tub and go back inside and jerk off somewhere alone.

But she’s my fucking wife. And I want her .

I push myself up onto the edge of the hot tub, entirely insensible to the cold. Evelyn moves forward, kneeling on the bench between my thighs, and my head swims at the sight of her mouth level with my cock.

“I haven’t done this very many times,” she murmurs, reaching out to wrap her fist around my length again. “I don’t know if I’m going to be very good at it?—”

I reach out, my fingers sliding through her hair as I twist them around it, tilting her head back. I feel the shiver that goes through her at that, and the knowledge that it’s turning her on makes me throb. “I don’t ever want to hear about what you’ve done with another man again, l’vitsa ,” I warn her with a growl, and she narrows her eyes.

“Why not?” she throws back defiantly. “Because you want to pretend that I’m some innocent virgin?”

I chuckle darkly. “No. Because if I hear about them again, I’ll have to hunt down every single man who’s ever touched you that isn’t me, and then kill them myself.”

And then, as I feel the gasp that jolts through her, with my hand wrapped in her hair, I drag her mouth down towards my cock.

She moans . The sound sends pleasure rippling through me as I feel her lips press against my cockhead, and when her tongue flicks out against the soft flesh beneath, my eyes roll back.

“That feels fucking incredible,” I groan, teeth gritting as she swirls her tongue around my tip. She slides her tongue over it, lapping up the pre-cum pearling there, and when her lips tighten, I let out a sharp hiss.

“Take more of it, l’vitsa ,” I murmur, increasing the pressure of my hand in her hair just enough to urge her further down. I’m not going to force her mouth onto me, not going to fuck her face, even though every part of me is desperate for exactly that. Instead I let myself luxuriate in the slow slide of her lips down my length, taking me inch by torturous inch until I feel my cockhead graze the back of her tongue, nearly in her throat.

She chokes a little, gagging on my length, her lips stretched wide around me, I look down at her, taking in the sight, and it’s so fiercely erotic that for a moment I think I’m going to lose control.

I’ve never seen anything as fucking beautiful as Evelyn kneeling in the water between my legs, her lips red and puffy with the effort of taking my cock in her mouth, wisps of her black hair falling around her face from the knot of it caught in my hand. Her eyes are wide, tearing up as she chokes on my cock, and I resist the urge to slam myself into her throat.

Instead, I loosen my grip on her hair just enough for her to slide back up, gasping for breath. My cock is visibly throbbing, slick with her saliva, the tip swollen and so fucking sensitive that the brush of cold air against it is almost painful.

She leans in, swirling her tongue around my cock again as she moans, and the sound of it sends pleasure licking down my spine. I see her hand move, see her slide it between her thighs, and the thought of her touching herself while she sucks my cock is almost too much.

“ God , I want to fuck you,” I groan, as she takes another inch between her lips. “I want to be so fucking deep inside of you that you feel me for days. I want to feel you come on my fucking cock again.”

Evelyn rolls her eyes up to meet mine, a warning in them, and I chuckle darkly, tightening my grip in her hair.

“You know,” I murmur silkily, as I allow myself a shallow thrust deeper into her mouth, “I could fuck you in the ass. That would be safe. I could make you come with my cock in your ass, and then fill you up. You’d like that, wouldn’t you? My cock buried in you while you come for me like that?”

Evelyn’s eyes flutter shut, and she moans around my cock again, her fingers moving faster between her legs. I groan, one hand white-knuckling the side of the tub as I feel myself getting so close that I can’t drag myself back, the desperate need for release overtaking everything as the wet sound of her mouth around my cock, the tight heat of her lips and the slick slide of her tongue against my flesh drives me past the point of no return.

One moment I’m pushing into her throat, and then the next I feel that white-hot burst of pleasure, my orgasm exploding through me as I spurt cum over her tongue. My cock throbs in her mouth, the sound of her choking on it, swallowing convulsively, only making me come harder. I feel spurt after spurt fill her mouth, shooting down her throat, and she swallows it all, still sucking as I grip her hair and arch my hips, lost in the intense pleasure as I come hard in her mouth.

Her hand is still between her thighs as I come down from my high, opening my eyes to see her slowly sliding her lips off of my length. In a flash, I’m back down in the water next to her, turning her so that her back is to the stone wall and I’m leaning against her as my hand joins hers between her thighs.

“Don’t stop,” I order her, and for once, she doesn’t argue with me. Her gaze locks with mine as her fingers fly over her clit, and I push two of mine inside of her, thrusting hard as I match her rhythm.

I want it to be my cock inside of her. I want to feel her come all over me, but for now, all I can have is my fingers where I want my cock to be. I curl them inside of her, thrusting relentlessly as her head tips back and she gasps, her entire body tightening as she comes for the second time tonight.

I feel her clench around my fingers, rippling, pulling me deeper as she moans, her hips grinding on my hand as she comes for me again.

It feels so fucking good. I’d never get tired of it. Never get tired of making her come, of hearing the sounds she makes when she does, of hearing my name on her lips. No woman has ever made me feel like this. No woman has ever overtaken me so completely.

I want to keep her. I want to make her mine .

And I can’t. Because I made her a promise, and I meant what I said to her when I did.

I don’t want to be a cheat, or a liar, like my father. I want to be a better man than he was, than he is . I want to do things differently, to run my life and those who depend on me with honor, even if I am a fucking criminal.

And that means, when the time comes, letting Evelyn go.

And keeping my hands off of her until then.

We can’t keep pushing boundaries like this. We’ll end up crashing through them if we do, and Evelyn made it clear once again tonight that she doesn’t want that. Or, at the very least—that she feels like she can’t .

I linger against her for one more moment, savoring the feeling of her wrapped around my fingers and her breathing against my ear, and then I pull back, stepping away from her as I reach for the bikini bottoms I tossed onto the pool deck. “Here,” I murmur, and Evelyn grabs them out of my hand, her neck flushed. I don’t know if it’s from her orgasm, or from embarrassment in the aftermath.

She re-knots the strings, tugging them back on, and in one smooth movement she pushes herself up out of the tub, water pouring from her perfect body as she steps up onto the deck. Before I can look at her for very long, she grabs a towel, wrapping it around herself as she shoves her feet back into her shoes.

“It’s cold,” she says, without looking at me. And then she grabs her clothes and heads for the stairs.

—

In the morning, I’m once again down in my office before Evelyn wakes up. She was in bed by the time I came up last night, pretending to be asleep, as if I didn’t intentionally give her the time to do exactly that before I came to bed, too. Somehow, despite the intimacy we’d just shared, the gulf between us in the bed felt even wider. And it kept me up, late into the night.

I’ve never once, not in my entire life, fucked a woman and wondered what does this mean? The idea is preposterous. It’s never meant anything. But I caught that phrase running through my head last night, and I couldn’t claw it loose no matter how hard I tried.

What did it mean that she let me do those things to her last night?

Logically, it should mean nothing. That she was horny, and she accepted that oral sex was a boundary we could cross, since it carried no risks. No possibility of consequences that could tie her to me tighter than even wedding vows can. I wanted her, and she wanted me, and we did what we could to alleviate that.

So why does it feel like more?

I laugh bitterly to myself as I look at the same contract for what feels like the thousandth time. I wouldn’t know what more felt like if it slapped me in the face. To think that I would is ludicrous. I’ve never been in love. I’ve never even been close. I haven’t even liked most of the women I’ve fucked. My dick liked them, and that was enough. And my parents certainly weren’t any example of what love might look like.

Not only do I not know what it feels like, or looks like, I’m not capable of giving it to her. I’ve spent my entire life shutting myself off from emotion, from love, from caring about anyone enough that losing them might hurt me. Because the consequence of doing otherwise is giving my enemies the power to do exactly that.

The only person I ever gave a shit about was my brother. And he fell in love, and now he’s dead. That’s as clear a lesson as I could ever possibly need as to why I should remain on the path I’m on, and not let myself get tied up in feelings for a woman who plans to leave me.

Who looked at me just last night, and said exactly that.

I try to bury myself in work until I hear the sounds of Evelyn moving around in the main room, Gus’ voice as she gets ready to take the dog out, the normal, domestic sounds of the refrigerator opening and closing and her puttering around the kitchen.

Finally, when I start to get too hungry to hide in my office any longer, I emerge, just in time to see her putting on her boots by the door. She’s dressed as if she’s going out, in dark, fitted jeans and a soft-looking cranberry-colored sweater, her earrings the same drop pearl ones that she wore for our wedding. Her hair is up in a messy bun, small pieces of it trailing along the sides of her face as she tugs on her boot, and my fingers curl into my palms as I fight the urge to go up to her and brush them out of her face.

“Where are you going?”

Evelyn looks up abruptly, her gaze catching mine. It’s carefully shuttered, as if she doesn’t want me to know what she’s thinking. “Gus is going with me,” she says dismissively, reaching for her other boot.

“That’s not what I asked.” The irritation in my voice at her evasion must be evident, because she pauses, looking up at me again.

“I’m going out to lunch.”

“With Dahlia?”

She hesitates for a fraction of a second, and in that moment, I know it’s something I won’t like. I know she’s thinking about what I said about lying to me, and weighing the consequences of whatever it is that she’s planning to do.

I cross the space between us in two quick strides, and she jerks back, but from where she’s standing there’s nowhere for her to go. She ends up with her back against the door, me looming over her, a setup so familiar that it makes my cock instantly twitch.

“Who are you going to lunch with?” The thought occurs to me that it could be a man, and jealousy rips through me like a hot knife. I don’t truthfully think Evelyn would do that, but my desire for her has made me irrational.

“Do I need to tell you every fucking move I make?” She glares up at me, and I’m all the more certain that she’s evading the answer on purpose.

“No. But when it’s clear that you’re doing something you don’t want me to know about, I’m damn well going to find out.”

She narrows her eyes. “It’s none of your business.”

“You’re my wife. Of course it’s my business.”

“Quit that old-fashioned shit!” Evelyn snaps at me, her lips pressed together and her eyes blazing, and I know this is about more than just keeping her lunch partner to herself. “I can see who I want. Get lunch with who I want. Stop hounding me about every goddamn thing!”

“Your reaction is telling me that I should absolutely not stop hounding you.” I narrow my eyes right back at her. “You want to see old-fashioned? Tell me, l’vitsa , or I’ll throw you over my shoulder, take you upstairs and tie you to the bed until you answer me.”

“Fuck off.” Evelyn tries to squirm around me, and I slap my hands against the door on either side of her, caging her in.

“Who are you going to lunch with? It should be a simple question.”

“You’re going to make me late,” she snaps, and I chuckle. I have no problem keeping her pinned up against this door for as long as I need to. The only problem might be how much having her this close to me is turning me on.

“Then answer me.”

“Oh, my fucking god.” She glares up at me, her jaw tight. “I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to fight with you about it. But we’re fighting anyway, so fine.” Evelyn purses her lips, clearly still unwilling to come out with it. “I’m getting lunch with Nicci.”

The answer is so unexpected that it takes me aback, stunning me into silence for a second. Evelyn notices, and a gleeful look momentarily flashes over her face, as if she’s enjoying having caught me off guard. “There,” she says sweetly. “Is that all you needed to know? Can I leave now, husband ?”

Something about that word on her lips jolts through me. It should be meaningless, empty, just like our marriage is. It shouldn’t make me feel anything. But a wave of satisfaction rolls over me when she says it, a hot, possessive feeling writhing through my chest, and it takes everything in me to resist the urge to kiss her, to pin her to the door and fuck her the way her husband should.

Instead, I lean back slightly, looking down at her as I keep her caged in with my arms on either side of her. “Why the fuck would you get lunch with her?”

“She texted me. Said she wanted to apologize for what happened at the party in person. It seemed a little odd to me, but maybe she just needs closure so she can move on from whatever you two…had.” Evelyn waves a hand between us, and I frown.

Something feels off about this to me, too, but in a more dangerous way than just a woman behaving oddly. It feels like something is wrong, something that we need to be cautious of, and I shake my head sharply.

“I don’t like it. I don’t want you to go.”

Evelyn snorts. “Good thing it’s not your call then. Move .”

“No.” I brace myself, glaring down at her, and that snapping, hot anger fills her eyes again.

“You don’t fucking control me. I’m taking my bodyguard, the way you want me to. If I want to go get lunch with your ex to clear the air, there’s no fucking reason for me not to.”

“It could be something more than lunch. It could be?—”

“What? What could it be, Dimitri?” Evelyn glares up at me. “I know this life has made you paranoid, but I don’t want to live that way. I’m following your rule about security. It’s lunch . What is she going to do, gun me down in the middle of a French bistro?”

That’s not Nicci’s style. But I think she’s up to something. I didn’t get to know her well, but I spent enough time with her to be fairly certain that she’s not the forgiving type. I don’t believe for a second that she really wants to see Evelyn because she wants to apologize and make up.

There’s some other play here. I’m not sure that I think it’s anything that’s actually dangerous, but I do think it won’t play out in Evelyn’s favor. And I find that I dislike the idea of her being humiliated, of her getting her feelings hurt, just as badly as I dislike the idea of any physical harm coming to her.

“I don’t want you to go,” I repeat, softening my voice just a little. “Just—listen to me, Evelyn?—”

It’s the wrong thing to say. Her eyes flare with a sharp, snapping defiance, and she twists away, grabbing for the doorknob and yanking it open. The jolt of the door against us both throws me off just enough to make me shift to one side, and Evelyn takes full advantage of it, ducking under my arm and into the opening of the door.

“I swear, Evelyn Yashkova, I will tie you to that bed?—”

“It’s still Ashburn,” she flings back, as she ducks out into the hall. “I haven’t changed it yet. And I dare you to fucking try it.”

I throw the door open, intending to follow her out into the hall, but she’s already in the elevator, Gus just behind her. She glares at me as the doors shut, and the look on her face is so stubbornly defiant that I half expect her to flip me off before they fully close.

I run my hands through my hair, somehow furious and turned on in equal measure by my stubborn, frustrating wife.

She’s going to be the death of me before this is all over, I feel sure of it.