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My husband smirks where he leans against the door, watching me. “Are you teasing me, wife?”
“No.” I overdramatize the words. “I wouldn’t dare.”
Kirill grunts. I hide my responding smile.
Lifting my finger from the bedspread, I swing it to the large television that has been mounted to the wall over a fireplace mantel. “That’s unlike you.”
“What?”
“The television in the bedroom.”
“I asked the service to put it in.”
He’s watching me close enough to see my surprise. “You did?”
“I thought we might like to have a lazy night in bed, watching movies.”
“You want to watch movies in bed with me?” Who is this man, and what has he done with my husband? I’ve yet to see him watch anything on screen.
He cocks his head. “Why does that surprise you?”
Dumbstruck, I shake mine. “No reason.”
Feeling suddenly like there isn’t enough air in this massive room, I move to the drapes that hang closed over the far wall. When I throw them open, I see that they’re not covering windows, as I’d assumed. Instead, they cover double glass doors that lead onto a magnificent balcony. Beyond the glass, the view is breathtaking. Mountains and trees for as far as the eye can see, all capped in crisp, glittering white.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” His deep voice is close now. So close, if I turned, I think I might bump into his broad chest.
“So beautiful,” I can’t help but admit.
“I used to think it was the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen.”
I can’t help myself. Frowning, I angle my head to gaze over my shoulder at him. “Used to?”
His eyes, already fixed on me, drift leisurely over my face. They linger at my lips until heat begins to bubble in my core. “I’ve never seen a sight quite as beautiful as you, wife.”
I’m starting to think my husband has a split personality. After I fled from the sweet intimacy of his dangerous words upstairs, Kirill had poured me a glass of red wine before telling me he would bring our luggage in from the car. It was as I was swallowing the tail end of a far too healthy sip, that Simba rose from his doggy bed by the unlit fireplace, to slowly meander his way over to where I sat on an island stool.
Giving him a doggy ear scratch, I give him the sweet talk I know he loves, “Your daddy is trouble. Big trouble.” Simba blinks lovingly. “He’s a menace to society, and he’s a menace to me.” I take another big swig and say less firmly, “If he keeps up like this, he’ll be a menace to my heart. My poor, broken heart.”
Simba gives my thigh a gentle headbutt. As though he knows I’m sad, and he doesn’t like it. As has become my way, I bend low to press a kiss to the top of his head just as the door opens. Kirill appears with our luggage in tow. He gives the door a swift kick, closing it against the cold before he slides out of his shoes.
“Tell me, wife, have I explained that I’m a jealous man?”
“Um…” What’s he on about now?
“You don’t kiss other men.”
I blink at Simba, and then the man. “He’s a dog.”
“And yet I’ve never been more jealous of another male in my life.” He has to be teasing me.
I really shouldn’t, but I blush. Hard. “You’re being silly.”
“I’m setting boundaries.”
I frown, eyeing him curiously. “I can’t tell if you’re being serious.”
“Test me and find out just how serious I am, Ruby,” he threatens as he carries our luggage up the stairs to our room.
