28. Kash
Chapter Twenty-Eight
KASH
Vera was having a hard time understanding how our family was involved with this condemned property.
Our whole lives we had heard how important it was to maintain the family image, how nothing had ever effected the Sutherland image. Pure as the driven fucking snow.
“Are you sure our family was involved?” Vera asked again.
“I am, Vee. We bought the property.”
“I don’t get this family.”
You and me both. I never had reason to dig into my family’s history. It wasn’t like I had a choice about my future. No matter what I wanted, I would have to take over one day. Lately, I wasn’t sure passivity was the right answer. Why the hell was I willing to protect their crimes? What had they ever done for me?
“I went by the Winfield today,” Vera said, changing the topic.
“They have great food. I’ve considered stealing Sonia for the Evergreen, but she won’t leave Naina.”
“Your wife wasn’t there.” My cousin’s tone was full of meaning. We hadn’t really talked about my marriage since my wedding day. Vera wasn’t one to easily let go.
“That’s because she’s here.”
Silence came down the phone line. Jo slinked across my desk and curled into a ball. I reached out and ran my finger across her nose. She purred quietly.
“You took your wife to New York?” Vera asked.
“I asked her to join me and she did. What’s the big deal?”
“The two of you left early from dinner.”
I wasn’t sure what she was trying to get at. Her questions were just confusing me.
“Sami needed help.”
Vera hummed. “Diana and Mom were not impressed. They couldn’t get over her tattoos.”
“I like her tattoos.”
She had them spread out over her right arm. A reindeer breaking out of a geometrical shape, its antlers covered in blooming flowers, two butterflies, a bird on a branch just above her elbow, flowers on her forearm, all done in blank ink, the lines thin and fine.
It seemed like it wouldn’t be cohesive, but it was.
“Is that why you married her? Because she’s different than Crystal?”
“Why does it matter why I married her? We’re married, end of story.”
“You’re not going to tell me anything?”
Not this again. Had Naina put a curse into the universe or something? Suddenly, everyone wanted to know me.
“Hey.”
I twisted my chair around, and found Naina standing at the entrance of my office, her hands shoved into the pockets of her dress. Her hair was left loose in its natural state of wavy/curly.
She looked soft and adorable. Some of the tension she carried around missing from her features, a lightness in those whisky colored eyes. I’d never seen Naina this way before.
Every time I saw her, she was defensive, alert, ready to protect and go to fight, as if she expected something to go wrong any minute that she would have to fix.
I hadn’t realized until now how much I hated seeing that look on her face. Naina deserved the best things in life, and I wanted to give them to her. I wanted to give her everything.
“Vee, I have to go,” I said. I disconnected the call and dropped my phone to my desk.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I can come back.”
“Don’t you dare leave. Come in.”
With hesitant steps, Naina walked further into the office, her hips swaying with each step. She stopped across from the desk, reaching out to run a gentle hand down Jo’s back. Her cheeks burned red, and I wondered if she was remembering our video call.
That was going to star in all my fantasies until the day I died. Naina with her tits out, her hand between her thighs as she came for me. She was made of sin and stardust and every beautiful thing in the world, and she was mine.
“Are you working?”
“I’m always working.”
She nodded, her eyes bouncing around my office. What did she see? What was she looking for? The office and the rest of the house had been furnished by an interior decorator. My input had been minimal because I wasn’t going to be using it for anything other than sleep.
“You need a hobby,” Naina said.
“Do you have a hobby?”
Naina opened her mouth and closed it again, her mouth twisting to the side.
“In addition to being raging insomniacs, we might also be the two most boring people on earth.”
Naina laughed at that.
Behind her, through the windows, the sky was lit in pinks and oranges of sunset, so vibrant the colors didn’t look real. Sunrise and sunset were all the same to me. I wasn’t a poetic person nor did I have the hours in the day to stop and admire the start and end of a new day. What difference did it make when they were all the same?
I wouldn’t have noticed the sunset before Naina. I only noticed it now because it paled it comparison to the woman standing before me, paled in comparison to her laughter and the smile stretching across her face.
Fuck. As if I needed more reason to be obsessed with her.
“Spoiling you can be my hobby,” I said.
Naina’s smile faltered, before dropping completely.
I nodded. “Yeah, I like that. I can spoil you with all the best things in life and no other man will compare. I want to do that for you.”
“You want to ruin me for other men?”
“Exactly.”
“That’s a terrible idea, not to mention selfish.”
It wasn’t selfish because Naina had already ruined me for any other woman.
“Sweetheart, we can both agree that I have the best ideas.” I waved a hand between the two of us.
“I suggest you pick up a dictionary because your ‘best’ is kind of mediocre, kind of desperate. Then again, what did I expect marrying a Yale man?”
She sighed as if she was truly disappointed. If I thought Naina was going to treat me differently after overhearing my father, I was mistaken.
My wife seemed to be taking her cues from me, and pretend that night never happened. It wasn’t that I was embarrassed or humiliated because the fault didn’t lie with me. I just never wanted her to be around that cruelty.
Standing up, I rounded the desk and leaned against it next to hers.
“Goldie, I think you got a taste of what you can expect being married to me two days ago.”
Naina’s eyes snapped to mine, hot as fire.
“That doesn’t count. It was the middle of the night.”
I laughed at that logic. “It doesn’t count if it was the middle of the night?”
“Exactly! Who do you know who can be held accountable for their actions at that time of the night?”
She turned to face me fully, her neck arched, exposing the long column of her throat. I swooped down, swiping my tongue over her pulse point and sucking on the skin. Naina bit off her moan.
“What if we did it right now? I can spread you out on this desk and eat that pretty little pussy. I’ve been starving for it for two day, I promise you’ll feel so good. I’ll make you come over and over again until you’re limp with exhaustion. You want that, don’t you?”
Naina shifted, her legs pressing together imperceptibly. She would never admit it, but she was fucking desperate and aching.
“We can’t.” She watched me through heavy lidded eyes. “Professional boundaries.”
“We obliterated those boundaries two nights ago. Watching you fuck yourself with your fingers was the hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen. You looked absolutely incredible and confident and sexy. To be fair, you always are all those things. I wish you could see yourself through my eyes.”
A flicker of vulnerability passed through Naina’s eyes, one I had never seen before. I didn’t care who caused that vulnerability, I was going to find them and kill them.
“Do you really think I’m all those things?”
I cupped her cheek, tilting her head back so she was looking at me.
“Naina, you are absolutely incredible and admirable. You work hard, you’re loyal, you love so fiercely. I’ve seen you with your sister and I’ve seen you with other people. They gravitate to you because they see it, too. I’ve never met someone as spectacular as you.”
Her eyes grew glassy, and I rubbed my thumb over her cheekbone.
“Being around you is like being around the sun and I want to soak up a little of that confidence and wit because I desperately need it. Seeing you is the best part of my day, the best part of my week. I love looking into your eyes and seeing myself reflected in them. I want to live there.”
Naina swallowed, her hand coming to rest over mine on her cheek. A tear slipped out of her eyes, and I startled at the sight.
“Naina, what?—”
“I’m sorry,” she said, hastily wiping it away. “That was… thank you.”
She surprised me by wrapping her arms around my waist, her head coming to rest on my chest. I tightened my arms around her, hugging her to myself because I found I needed it just as much as she seemed to.
“I’ve never seen myself like that.”
“Sometimes it’s hard to see what’s right in front of us. Until then, you have me, and I promise I will remind you every day how fucking brilliant you are.”
She gave a watery laugh. This was not what I expected when I suggested this deal. I’ve worked through enough deals to know any deviation became a pain to detangle later. It was always best to keep things as they were discussed.
But if someone walked through the door and asked me to keep my deal with Naina that kept us separated? I would slam the door in their face.
Naina was my wife, and this wasn’t a business transaction.