Chapter 17 #2
“So what are we really doing here, Kirill? Because I’m tired of all this whiplash from you. The public has accepted that I’m an undesirable wife. I’m properly humiliated.”
“Are you though?” I asked.
She drained her wine and smacked her lips.
“So tell me what else you want me to do. How to behave? Should we plan a time I confront you at a gentlemen’s club and scream at you for not touching me?
So we can call your vengeance one-and-done because, from where I’m sitting, I’m not the one suffering, but you are. ”
“Excuse me?”
“The smudges under your eyes,” she said. “You know why, don’t you?”
I chuckled derisively. “This I gotta hear.”
“Because I was committed to fulfilling our bargain, but you had to fuck it up with your unfounded quest for revenge. Sure, Kolya went to jail, but he could have been out in a few months if you’d entered that video into evidence as soon as Margo handed it to you.
” She leaned forward. “It’s your guilt, Kirill, that’s eating at you for having to do that to your friend who’s like a brother, and there was no other person to blame except me. ”
“You should go into psychiatry,” I muttered.
“I don’t have to. In dealing with scandals, I’ve seen all kinds of blame go around. If only people sucked it up and admitted their faults, there would be fewer scandals to fix.”
This woman. In another life, I would have liked Lucy.
“So where does that leave us?” I asked.
“What do you mean? We’re doing fine.”
I gritted my teeth. She was; I was not. “I would like to spend time with my wife without her biting my head off.”
“Funny you’re speaking about me in third person,” Lucy said. “But as long as you’re not being an ass, I can tolerate you.”
Tolerate? Is that what I’d been reduced to in her eyes? Someone she tolerated? “I’m tired of fighting.”
“Same here. This truce is nice,” she murmured. “But all I ask is that you stop pretending to be a caring husband as manipulation.” When I was about to argue, she added, “I can see you genuinely don’t want to see me not eating. I can understand that because my brother is the same way.”
My brows cinched together. “What do you mean? You go on hunger strikes?”
She laughed. “No. I have unhealthy eating habits. I’m fond of empty calories.”
I made a mental note to check with the housekeeper regarding my wife’s dietary needs.
I was thankful when Irina and my sister walked in because I was afraid I was going to overcompensate in being a “normal husband” to my wife and ruin whatever truce we had established.
“What are you two doing in here?” my mother exclaimed, but there was a pleased look on her face.
“The sight of Kolya is ruining my wife’s appetite,” I drawled.
“Stop making things up.” Lucy punched my shoulder playfully.
Aralina looked puzzled, and I smirked at my sister. See, I can be a nice husband, my look told her.
Afterward, we rejoined our guests, and I kept a reasonable distance from Lucy, not crowding her.
I didn’t want her to find anything untrustworthy in my actions.
I quite enjoyed being in her company. Maybe she was right.
I was the dumbass who was suffering when I could be spending time with my brilliant and beautiful wife.
I was brooding on our way back to the house. Coming to grips with a few home truths.
My desire for revenge was making me miserable, not my wife. Lucy pointed that out so clearly.
But I still didn’t know what to do with this epiphany.
I had to stop lying. If anything, Lucy would learn to trust my intentions more, and maybe even if it was too late to salvage this marriage, I would sleep better. And we could be friends.
Friends?
I glanced surreptitiously at my wife, who had fallen asleep.
Her head lolled from side to side. It gave me the opportunity to ogle her.
She was wearing a V-neck top and a tight skirt that hugged her legs.
She wasn’t wrong that my eyes had bypassed the stains of the wine and gone to her tits.
No, we couldn’t be friends, because I very much wanted to taste her cunt directly from the source, not from my fingers.
We’d exchanged kisses for show over the past few months. Sometimes, depending on how pissed I was with her, I would kiss her hard. She didn’t respond. Even when I shoved my tongue inside her mouth to elicit a response, she remained unmoved. I was surprised she hadn’t bitten me yet.
I shifted in my seat. My lurid thoughts weren’t helping. I didn’t want to pounce on her even when there was nothing more I wanted to do than toss her on her back, shove her legs apart, and bury my face between her thighs. Lick her until she screamed at me to stop.
Dammit.
Lucy stirred, gasped lightly, and then straightened. She glanced at me, and I held her eyes.
“Are we almost home?” she croaked.
“Two minutes.” It was Sato who replied.
Lucy broke our locked gazes, but I continued to stare at her.
“Stop it,” she huffed. The SUV was cast in light and shadows, but I could imagine her blushing.
My mouth twitched, and I took pity on her and redirected my attention to the streets.
When the SUV reached the house, Lucy immediately hopped out of the vehicle. I followed more leisurely, enjoying the shape of her ass and imagining what I would do to it.
I berated myself for being such an idiot. I could be fucking my wife instead of seething for months. An insidious thought lurked on the outskirts of my brain. Could I control her with sex?
My eyes trailed down her legs, imagining them wrapped around my head.
“Lucy,” I called out before she reached the stairs.
She stopped and half turned. Her back stiffened significantly. She’d been aware of me in the car.
“Yes?” she asked.
I closed the gap between us. “Thank you for organizing the party for Kolya.”
“Irina and Aralina spearheaded the effort. I merely suggested it.”
“Still.” I cupped her cheek and was pleased she didn’t flinch, but her eyes widened and her lips parted. “Thank you.”
And I was such a fucker, I took advantage. I lowered my head and kissed her. Not in a harsh, punishing way. I showed her that her brute of a husband had finesse.
I teased her lips before my tongue gently invaded her mouth.
I pressed closer, keeping one hand on her jaw while the other rested on her hip to draw her closer.
Her tongue hesitantly dueled with mine, and I caught her sharp inhalation when the outline of my erection made it known that I was truly and unashamedly aroused.
She moaned into my mouth, and I deepened the kiss, tasting the wine she had earlier, brushing her lips as I drank her in. When she tensed, I backed off and withdrew slowly, ending the kiss with a light brush across her lips.
I was definitely in for another cold shower.
“What are you up to?” she whispered.
“Just saying good night to my wife.”
I tapped her nose lightly and turned away to head to my office, still sporting a raging boner.
Seducing my wife might be the death of me, but oh what a sweet death it would be.