24. Stefan
STEFAN
I paced the living room, waiting for Tori to come home. Even though I had promised I would tell her when she was being followed, at times like these I was glad I’d become good at keeping secrets. Especially from her.
Though I’d considered pulling Dmitri out now that my wife and I had grown closer, in the end I’d decided to keep the security detail on her. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Tori—I just didn’t trust other people with her.
It was too dangerous out there, especially now that she was part of my world.
I felt better knowing she was being watched considering the people I associated with through my work, and that went double for the people who associated with my father.
The business we were involved in wasn’t one synonymous with safety.
And then there was my father himself. He had shown what kind of man he was when he’d crossed a line with Tori the other night. I wasn’t going to take any chances now. I wasn’t going to let history repeat itself. Nobody was going to lay a hand on my wife.
Still, I felt a small twinge of guilt for not being completely forthright with Tori. I knew she would be upset if she found out. But ensuring her safety was well worth her anger.
It was almost eleven, but I told myself I didn’t need to worry.
After all, she had texted earlier to let me know she would be home late, and I knew her favorite library on campus was open all night long.
It was completely conceivable that she was still studying, or catching up with the school friends she hadn’t been seeing as much lately.
On top of that, Dmitri had been keeping tabs on her all day and the last I’d heard, she was still with her study group.
Suddenly, my phone started vibrating with a barrage of incoming texts.
As I scrolled through the photos downloading onto my screen, I felt a shock of adrenaline.
Then dismay. And then outrage. The pictures Dmitri was sending were of Tori—and Gavin.
They were at a crowded restaurant, but their bodies were so close they could have been fucking.
Their heads were leaning close, their lips a breath apart.
Tori’s eyes were closed, Gavin’s hand on her arm.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and I didn’t know what to think.
I was completely caught off-guard. I had thought the two of us were finally getting somewhere.
We had been communicating—and connecting—like never before.
Not just in the bedroom, but out of it as well.
And now here she was, cheating on me behind my back? With this smug asshole?
My hand curled into a fist seeing his face again.
I knew it was inevitable that he’d make his way back into Tori’s life, considering they were good friends and classmates.
But something about him was off, and it wasn’t just the way he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants around my wife, or the fact that he’d been with her at the club the night she’d been drugged.
He was hiding something. I didn’t know what it was, or what he might be lying about, but there was something about him that I didn’t trust.
I texted Dmitri back, demanding more updates. His response was that Tori had gotten in a cab and was heading home. Without Gavin. Dmitri, being the professional he was, had then sent me a picture of Gavin standing on the street by himself looking dejected.
It did little to calm my fury.
I continued pacing around the condo, knowing she’d be home any minute, my anger growing stronger with each passing moment. By the time I heard her key turn in the lock, I was practically vibrating with fury. I stormed into the foyer, flipping the bright light on overhead.
“Where the fuck have you been?” I demanded.
She had one chance to come clean. To tell me the truth. But just one.
“I was studying,” she said, but her eyes shifted down, avoiding my gaze.
“Don’t give me that bullshit,” I seethed. “I know where you’ve been. And I know who you’ve been with.”
Looking up at me, she glared. “Because you’ve been tracking me through my phone? Because you don’t trust me?”
“Why should I trust you when you just lied to me?”
She folded her arms. “If you were tracking my phone, you’d know I spent most of the day at the library. Studying.”
“We both know that’s not all you were doing,” I ground out, as visions of her and Gavin kissing flashed through my mind.
“Fine!” she said. “I stopped for pizza before I came home. I didn’t eat all day. If I was doing something inappropriate, don’t you think I would have turned my phone off?”
“You’re going to stand there and tell me kissing another man isn’t appropriate?” I sneered. I pulled out my phone and showed her the pictures Dmitri had texted me.
Gasping, she ripped the phone out of my grasp.
“You still have someone following me?” she said, before slamming my phone down so hard on the entry table that she had probably shattered the screen. “You said you’d tell me when I was being watched. You lied to me! I can’t believe you.”
Shaking her head with disgust, she pushed past me, heading for the bedroom.
I reached out to grab her, but she rounded on me, shoving her finger into my chest.
“You’re such an asshole,” she said, shoving me backward. “You look at this one moment, this one instance, and decide it’s everything. Aren’t you the one who’s always telling me that ‘not everything is what it seems’? You’re a fucking hypocrite, Stefan.”
“Me?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You’re kissing some asshole and I’m the hypocrite? We’re still married, or did you forget that small detail?”
“How could I forget?” Tori demanded. “You never let me forget what this is, and what I mean to you. How I’m something you own.”
“That’s not what this is,” I tried to say, but she wasn’t done.
“Gavin did kiss me tonight,” she said, her voice turning to steel. “But I pushed him away right after. Which you would have known if you’d just fucking asked instead of standing there accusing me like this.”
Despite her explanation, I felt like I had been punched in the gut.
“You expect me to believe that?” I said. “You’ve been hanging all over him this entire semester. And you’ve spent every waking minute with him ever since school started.”
“He’s my classmate!” she shot back.
I scoffed. “You can’t expect me to believe that. He was at the club with you that night. He made a claim for you then, did you know that? Said he wouldn’t have to drug you to get you into bed with him.”
Her eyes went wide. “He said that?”
“It’s obvious he’s into you. He’s made no secret of that, and still you hang out with him. Why should I believe that you would turn him down now that he’s finally made his move?”
“Because I’m in love with you, you idiot!” Tori shouted at me.
The words hung between us like an invisible wall.
I was blown away.
I had never dared to believe that Tori could love me.
Especially with all the secrets I had—all the ones she knew, and all the ones I was still keeping from her.
But she did. And I could tell from the look in her eyes that she meant it.
That she truly did love me. Despite everything. Or maybe even because of it.
I speechless.
We both just stood there for a moment, staring at each other, both of us breathing hard. I didn’t know what to say.
Tori’s eyes filled with tears and I could tell that she was taking my silence as a rejection, when I was really just struggling to process how quickly everything had just changed between us.
Now that she had said the words out loud, now that she had confessed her feelings and the enormity of them, I realized what a fool I had been.
I should have trusted her. All this time, I should have trusted her with my secrets. With everything I had been keeping from her. Everything I had been afraid to share with her.
She started backing away from me, and I grabbed her by the arms and pulled her close.
“Tori.”
Now was the time to be honest with her. To tell her everything. To share my life with her completely.
She was looking up at me, blinking back her tears, trying to be strong. Just like always. My wife was so strong. I gazed into her eyes, overwhelmed by everything I felt, unable to believe that this was truly real. That someone like her could truly love me.
But she did. I knew she did.
I leaned down and I kissed her. I kissed her with everything I had pent up inside. For a moment, she was stiff in my arms, but then she wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me back. It was a kiss full of passion and love. Of everything I wanted. Everything I needed.
My hands skimmed her shoulders, her neck, then came up to cup the sides of her face gently. I kissed her more deeply, wanting to show her exactly how I felt. But I knew it wouldn’t be enough. I couldn’t just show her.
It took everything in my power to stop kissing her, but I did, slowly pulling back so I could look at her strong, beautiful face. She looked up at me, the question evident in her eyes. Finally, the words found their way out of my mouth.
“I love you too,” I told her.