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She rested her head on his chest to hide her face. Aleixo was too perceptive for his own good.
“Is there anything holding you in New York?” Aleixo asked.
Just a big, hulking billionaire. How could she explain the deal she struck with Roth to a man who wasn’t motivated by money and felt no need to uphold a world-renowned family dynasty? The more time she spent away from home, the more ludicrous it all seemed. Did the benefits outweigh the cost?
“Jasmine?”
She looked up. “Hmm?”
“Isthere something holding you in New York?” When she hesitated, his brows came together. “What is it?”
She swallowed hard. “Well, I, uh…”
Aleixo’s chocolate brown eyes focused on something behind her and flared. She felt him stiffen a moment before he swung her to the side. She staggered forward and pivoted in time to see him slip a punch from…
“Roth!”
Mo bear-hugged Roth from behind to stop him from going after Aleixo, who backpedaled with his fists raised. As Mo tried to haul him back, Roth jabbed the heel of his boot into his shin before stomping his foot with a savageness that made Mo crumple to his knees. Johan stepped in front of Aleixo and backed him up while he spoke to Roth, clearly trying to talk sense into the psycho stalking them.
She leapt in front of Roth and slammed her hands against his chest.“What the hell are you doing?”
He grabbed her by the throat and yanked her against him.
“You beg me to stay to find yourself a lover?”
His voice was so guttural, she could barely understand him.
“You—” Her voice died out as he applied pressure, cutting off her airflow.
He leaned in so close, his sunglasses pressed into her skin. “I warned you what I would do if I caught you with another man. Now I have to kill him.”
She glared at him, refusing to be cowed, and clawed at his hand to ease his suffocating grip. “He’s…” She took a shallow breath and finished in a hoarse rasp, “Johnny’s partner.”
It took a few seconds for that to penetrate. She realized it had when she was able to haul in a breath. She couldn’t see his eyes because of his sunglasses, but she suspected they were incensed. So were hers. Three days of peace shattered by this fucking violent psycho. He was still breathing hard, and there was the slightest tremor in the hand on her throat that told her he wasn’t quite in control, but she was too infuriated to care.
“No, you don’t understand. He’s her husband,” she heard Johan say somewhere off to their left.
“You’re married?”
Johnny’s shout brought her back to her surroundings. He must have sprinted to reach them so fast. Her heart sank. When she pushed against Roth, he wrapped his arm around her waist, plastering her against him.
“She doesn’t even have a ring,” Johnny protested.
Whatever tension had eased out of Roth’s body came back tenfold. She didn’t take her eyes from his dark lenses as his hand skated down her arm and brushed over her bare finger.
“Hiding that you belong to me, princess?”
She ignored his deceptively gentle tone and leaned back to address Johnny and Aleixo, who looked stunned by this unexpected turn of events.
“I was afraid I would lose the ring, so I left it in the hotel safe,” she said. It was a weak excuse, but it was all she had.
“But…” Johnny waved his hands at Roth, who was holding her captive. “Where did he come from? Why did he swing at Aleixo?”
“Roth left me in Lisbon while he took care of business in Berlin. I didn’t know when he was coming back and…” She shot Roth a seething glare. “He misjudged what he saw.”
“It’s easy to misjudge when my wife tells me so little.”
“You’re a busy man,” she said with a steely smile. “And I expect you to think before you strike.”
