25. Raif
Bad timing?
“What the actual fuck?”I cross the space in what seems like two gigantic steps, my fingers fastening around the shithead’s collar as I yank him bodily away. “Do you have a fucking death wish?” I demand, shaking him by the cheap linen. Hearing it rend at the seams.
“I’m sorry!” The skinny runt’s protest explodes in a high-pitched squeak.
Rage pulses at my temples as my brain shunts blood toward my muscles, my body preparing to rain down hell on this asshole. He had his hands on her—his hands on a woman who doesn’t belong to him.
She doesn’t belong to you either. My gut twists.
“I didn’t mean to—I thought she was coming onto me.”
Lavender throws up her arms. “That is such bullfuckery, Tod!”
It takes me a moment to process her answer. An admission that she’s not into him. I mean, I know she’s not into him, but she’s the one who announced her love for him. During our fucking wedding ceremony.
“You thought she was coming onto you?” I grate out the question, hamming my anger up for effect. Despite what Lavender would have me believe, this asshole isn’t a threat. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
“I know, and I’m sorry.”
“Put him down, Raif. It was crossed wires—it was just a hug.”
Using his shirt, I jerk him closer, exchanging my grip on his shirt for a headlock. “You mean like, put him down… as you would an animal?”
“What?” Her brows pull in, but then she winces, thanks to Tod’s yelp.
“No, don’t do that!” he pleads. “I’m sorry—really sorry. I didn’t mean—”
Lavender looks kind of disgusted. Meanwhile, I’m going to use this situation to my advantage.
“Well? Shall I take him out back?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“But he touched you,” I say, exerting a little pressure on Tod’s windpipe. “And he shouldn’t have, right? Because you’re mine.”
“I’m your wife.” She gives a sharp, agitated flick of her shoulder, but she won’t give up the ruse.
“And Tod is nothing to you.”
“Tod is my friend,” she enunciates with a scary kind of civility.
“He’s your pet. Your little lap dog, only he’d like to hump more than your leg.” I shake him again. “I’m gonna rip your balls off without anesthesia,” I whisper menacingly.
“Put him down,” Lavender says. “Put him down, please!”
I loosen my grip, and he stumbles as I growl, “Fuck off.”
“And off he fucks,” my wife mutters glumly, her eyes on his retreating, scuttling form. The front door opens, then closes before her attention shifts back to me. She forces a huffy breath out. “What is your problem?”
I shake my head because I have no idea. She was supposed to be the solution to my problems, not the cause of it. I don’t fucking need this.
“This is becoming a habit of yours, saving his skin at the cost of your own.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. This isn’t costing me a thing.”
“Isn’t it?”
“I have no idea what that was even about. One minute, we were talking shop, and the next, you’re strangling him!”
“No, princess. If I had strangled him, he’d be lying across your feet now.”
This isn’t working. I should be working. I have a meeting with my architect in an hour and a couple of major debt collection sessions to sit in on after that. I don’t have time to drive from one side of the city to the other, blowing off my schedule just for a chance to see her.
Yet here I fucking am. Losing my temper like I’m a fucking hoodlum again.
I need to stop avoiding Lachlan. Get him to shred the paperwork. Kick her out. Leave her with nothing but a dripping wet pussy.
“Tell me, wife, are hugs how you congratulate all your employees?”
“Yeah,” she retorts, folding her arms as she raises her chin. “Primrose loves it when I feel her up. You know this is your fault, don’t you?” She grabs her shirt collar to reveal the hickey I’d given her this morning.
“I didn’t hear you complaining at the time.”
“Fuck you!”
“That’s a little too close to home, baby.”
“Don’t call me that. And don’t spout stuff that makes no sense.”
“This isn’t my fault. You led Tod on by feeding him scraps from your plate. But the poor sap doesn’t realize you only have him around because he’s safe.”
“I didn’t lead him on. He doesn’t even know how I feel about him.”
“Because how you feel is pitiful. You think I don’t know why you haven’t told him? It’s because you never had any intention of being with him. You know in your heart he isn’t the man for you. But you kept him there anyway. On a little shelf at the back, just to look at. Just so you can fool yourself.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Love him from afar until this year is over. That was the deal.”
“I don’t—” She breathes in an angry breath, her shoulders lifting. “I don’t have any plans on reneging.”
“No, but you were standing in the fucking window, in his arms.”
“Get real!” she retorts.
I push up to stand. “It took me ninety minutes to get here. Ninety minutes of fucking traffic to see this shit. Am I out of my goddamn mind?” I reach out to take hold of her arm—to pull her to me, to kiss the fucking daylights out of her—when her reaction stops me. Makes me freeze.
She flinched. She fucking flinched.
Like I was about to hit her?
My blood turns cold, my arms dropping like lead weights to my sides.
Was that a reflex? Did I just startle her, or did she think I was really going to hurt her? I guess I did just threaten to strangle that asshole. Said I’d drop him at her feet.
“Lavender.” Her name aches its way up my throat as she avoids my gaze, her lips trembling like she’s trying to get a hold of whatever this is.
“Princess, I would never…”
“Stop. Don’t say that.” Her words have barbs as she wheels away. “Because I’ve heard it all before,” I think she adds under her breath.
“I was angry, that’s all.”
“No shit.” She spits her answer over her shoulder, striding deeper into the building, her heels clip-clipping against the concrete floor as though she’d escape.
“It doesn’t matter how angry I get,” I say, hot on her heels. “I would never raise my hands to you or to any woman.” This time, I catch her elbow. “Please say you know that’s true.”
She offers me her profile and nods as she gulps back her emotions. “Yeah, of course I know.”
But I’m not convinced. And that feels fucking crippling.
I slide her dark hair from her pale cheek, my fingers slipping down her arm to take her hand. “Tell me.”
“About what?”
“What I just saw. Tell me about that.” My thumb skates back and forth over her knuckles. She flinched like I was coming for her. Then she froze like she would let me hurt her, like she’d checked out.
“There’s nothing to tell,” she says, her tone clipped. “I know it’s important that this looks like a real marriage, and I’m sorry about what happened—that it happened in the window. But I’m pretty sure you’ve cured Tod of any kind of attachment.”
“Fuck Tod,” I say softly. “Who hurt you?”
“No one,” she says with a defiant lift of her chin.
“You recoiled from me like you expected me to hit you.”
“Of course I recoiled from you,” she blusters. “You were angry.” She pulls her hand from mine, slicing her hair behind both of her ears. “It was nothing but an evolutionary throwback. You know, meant to prevent a cavegirl from being trampled by a woolly mammoth.”
“Can you be serious for a minute?”
“I am being serious.” She laughs. It sounds so forced. Then she smooths her skirt over her thigh rather than look at me. “It’s not a big deal, Raif. You were angry, and I got a shock. That’s all.”
“No, that’s not it.”
“Just leave it,” she snaps, that little insight slipping out.
Fuck it. If she won’t tell me, I’ll find out for myself.
“Anyway, what are you doing here?” She smiles. Brittle rather than bright. “Have you come to buy art?”
“I was just passing.” Fucking liar. “I thought I might take you to lunch.”
Her turn to lie now. “Sorry, I’ve already eaten. You should’ve called ahead.”
“How about coffee?”
“Except you’ve just chased out my gallery assistant.” She shrugs. “It would be bad business to close.”
“I could call Luis to come play shop.”
“No offense, but his customer service skills would probably put me out of business.”
“You don’t like him? We can get you someone else to drive you.” Someone other than Leo, that is.
“No, honestly. Luis is great. He’d just make a rubbish salesperson. Rain check on the coffee, though, yeah?”
“Sure. I’ll call ahead next time.” I hold out my arms, but she doesn’t step into them. But she lets me take her hand which, sap that I am, I feelgrateful for.