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KONSTANTIN
I lookup when the doors open, and my heart skips a beat when I catch sight of Emily. She’s still wearing her robe. And although it’s cinched tightly at her waist, I can see the ghosts of her nipples poking through the material to know that she’s naked underneath.
“I need to talk to you.” She says as her one and only greeting.
“Of course.” I nod. “Anything.”
“I have to go back to the States,” she says. “I need to be there for Nadia.”
Of all things that she can ask for, she asks for theoneimpossible thing.
“I can’t, Kitty Cat,” I explain. “By protocol, New York is off-limits to me, especially now. I’ve caused too much of a stir among the other bosses in New York the last time I went. And now they’re all paying attention to see if I dare show up again.”
Her face falls, but it’s more than disappointment that swims in her dazzling sapphire-blue eyes.
“But …Youdon’t have to go!” she protests. “I can go myself! You promised that when this is over … You’d let me go and?—”
“A pakhan cannot allow his wife to travel without him by her side,” I tell her. “You agreed to be my real wife, remember? The bratva will never permit you to go to New York alone. These are rules that even I cannot break within the bratva.”
Her face falls further, and her lip starts trembling. “So that’s it? You’re keeping me here? Forever? Because of the bratva?”
“Not forever,” I correct her. “Just … a little while longer.”
“Until when?”
“I don’t know. But soon,” I finally say. “I promise.”
“Promise …” she mutters.
A prickle of guilt makes me clench my hands. I stand up from my desk, close the distance between us and pull her close by her waist. The light scent of our lovemaking from this morning still clings to her skin, and her freckles appear more prominent in the dim light of my office.
She doesn’t press her shoulders deeper into my hands as I expect.
One of my knuckles tucks her loose hair behind her ears. She trembles as she catches her breath. My pulse quickens, and I debate kissing her. The thought of taking her right here on my desk is tempting, but I can’t just keep thinking with my dick when I’m around her.
“I have an idea for how you can make it up to her. Even if you can’t go back.”
She narrows her eyes. “How?”
I smile and plant a light kiss on her lips. “I’ll show you.”
Sunlight glittersacross the smooth vines, turning them from green to gold. Clusters of grapes ranging from bruise-purple to enchanting emerald hang heavily, their weight pulling the vines to the churned earth.
Azure butterflies soar unevenly between the thick bushes. They float more than fly from the array of wildflowers sprinkling the land around the grapes.
There are more than I remember,I think, turning to catch sight of a cloud of them as they chase each other.
Emily would’ve asked for details the entire car ride along the coast, but she stays silent the entire ride this time.
No plaintive requests for info, and no attempts at pushing my buttons.
The wildness that I’ve come to expect from her seems to have been extinguished after this morning.
Something is bothering her. Somethingotherthan her guilt.
A few buildings with metal sides frame the end of the road, the main structure painted the same salt-water-scrubbed-yellow it has been for years.
“Where are we?” Emily finally asks when we come to a stop.
