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“In the bath?”
I pop one button, and then two. “Yes.”
“Together?”
Her eyes follow my hands as they move south, the material of my shirt falling away to expose my hard chest and the ink there. “Yes.”
She folds her arms over her chest. “I don’t want to have a bath with you.”
“I’m not asking.”
She swallows hard. “That won’t be relaxing for me, Kirill.”
“How can you know?” I drop my shirt to the floor, and she looks away. As though she can’t bear to look at me. “You haven’t given me a chance.”
“You don’t deserve a chance.”
“Are you really so eager for a miserable life, wife?”
“My life holds no meaning for me anymore. I’m nothing. I have no one. I’ve made peace with the point of my life being to make yours miserable.”
I almost laugh.
“Take off your clothes.” I pull the belt from the loops of my pants.
“No.”
Such defiance.
I pop the button of my trousers, shoving them from my hips. “Take off your clothes, wife, or I will do it for you.”
She won’t look at me, but I can still see the swell of emotion that glistens in her eyes. Maxim’s words come back to me, and I sigh heavily. I’m not accustomed to the tenderness she requires.
I let my briefs fall to the floor, painfully hard for her even now as she squeezes her eyes closed. Her breaths rattle, body trembling. Gently, I touch her face as I press a kiss to her forehead. Her breath shudders from her lips, and I inhale the taste of her into my lungs. Sweet, candied roses, and honey.
Hell. No…heaven.
“I am going to get in the water. I will close my eyes until you are in the bath with me.” An edge of hard warning drips from my next words. “But if you try to run, if you disobey me, I will catch you, strip you, and punish you. Do you understand?”
“Yes.” The word is hardly audible. I’m surprised she didn’t tell me I was a monster.
“Good girl.” I do as I told her I would, watching her as she stands with her eyes squeezed closed. Emotion leaks from her eyes, catching on the firelight of the single candle I’d lit while I’d drawn the bath, before finding her.
Sinking into the hot water, I let my head rest against the edge of the tub and tell her, “My eyes are closed, Ruby.”
Nineteen
Ruby
I’m going to undress myself in front of a man. It doesn’t really help knowing that his eyes are closed. I’m terrified and shamefully affected.
Still, he warned me what would happen if I tried my hand at walking away. At disobeying him. At fleeing.
And I know that a man like my husband will most assuredly see his threat through.
With my heart pounding between my ears so violently that I feel dizzy, I strip from my clothes. My knees knock as I watch him closely. Then I move quickly for the bath. One foot slides into hot water I pray will dissolve the ache from my ever-tense muscles, before the other follows. Careful not to touch him, I lower myself into the bath as far away from him as I’m able.
There’s a thick layer of bubbles on the surface of the water. Still, I lift my knees into my chest, wrapping my arms around my legs. Then, softly, because I’m unable to manage something more firm, more solid, I murmur, “I’m in.”
