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He’s been running like clockwork for two weeks. He picks Nina up when he’s supposed to and delivers her back to me with a warm, friendly smile.
There hasn’t been a single problem.
Except he hasn’t tried to bend me over the sofa even once.
Okay, so there may have been one dirty dream a few nights ago that involved Arsen and a sofa and a slow striptease that ended with me waking myself up in the middle of the night, whimpering his name.
I glance at the clock again, counting down the minutes until I may or may not maul my own husband.
When the door opens, my mind is made up. My heart soars…
… and then immediately sinks.
“There’s my sweet girl!” Polina sweeps into the room and scoops Nina off the floor without a second glance at me. “Are you ready to spend the morning with Auntie Pol?”
Nina squeals, and I’m not sure which of the two of them is more excited.
I know it isn’t me. I can’t do any seducing with Polina in the room.
“Sorry, Pol, but Arsen is coming to get her in just a few minutes.”
“Thatwasthe plan.” Polina blows a raspberry on Nina’s belly, making my daughter giggle. “But something came up, and he had to work.”
He isn’t coming today.
I swear I actually hear my sexual frustration erupt. It spills over, fizzing through my veins until I’m almost vibrating.
Arsen promised he’d be here. He swore that our family would come first. But at the first inconvenience, he sends someone in to pick up our daughter without even coming to tell me himself?
“Let me guess,” I grit out. “Pobeda?”
For the first time, Polina looks at me. “It sounded important. He wanted to be here, but he couldn’t?—”
“He’s the boss, Pol,” I interrupt. “If he wanted to be here, he would be.”
And if he wanted to ravish me, he would have already. Clearly, I’m alone in these aching, needy, desperate feelings. Feelings that make me feel even more pitiful now that Arsen didn’t even bother mentioning that he couldn’t make it today. No text, no quick drop-in. Nothing.
“I don’t think that’s true,” Polina argues. “And I’m happy to babysit Nina. He’s been around so much, I haven’t had as much alone time with her recently.”
“It’s not about—” I snort out a frustrated breath and stalk past her towards the door.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I imagined Arsen walking through the door, tossing a smile my way. I thought he would say,Hey, Laila. Why don’t you come with me and Nina today? Let’s spend time as a family.Then hours would pass, Nina would go to sleep, and we would talk and laugh until it was too late for me to go all the way upstairs to my room. And then we’d recreate my dirty dream and patch things up.
Bing, bang, boom. Easy as that.
Instead, I storm through the house alone, shove through his unlocked office door, and slam it shut behind me.
Like the Greek statue come to life that he is, he’s leaning over his desk. One hand is resting on the desktop, the muscles in hisforearm flexing and defined. He lifts his head when the door thunders closed.
“What was so important you had to ditch your daughter, huh?”
His eyebrows knit together. “I’m not ditching anyone. Something came up this morning, and?—”
“You sent Polina in your place,” I snap. “I know. I was there.”
“I didn’t plan on this, Laila.”
“I don’t think anyone ever really plans to abandon their family. I’m sure it just, you know,happens.”
