Page 20 of Savage Little Lies

I shrink down even more as I hear her driver open the back door for her, my mind racing. Given how many relationship problems Annika and Dmitri are already having, I think that I can apply a little pressure to that topic and see if Dmitri will bite.

Time is running out before the engagement is officially announced and wedding invitations go out. I need to hurry up and at least put a crack in the foundation of this alliance.

Once I hear the Lexus pull away and race down the street, I stand up and move back to the sidewalk, watching the black car take a right and disappear.

Annika is so desperate to get rid of me.

What she doesn’t know yet is that while she’s busy planning a wedding, I’m planning a war.

8

Dmitri

I stay at the office late.

City lights glow beyond my office window as I work beneath my desk lamp.

I don’t want to leave.

I’m still fucking furious with Annika. She threatened to tell her father that she didn’t think I would be a good husband for her. She actually had the nerve to threaten the alliance that I’ve been pushing to establish for nearly a year.

I wanted to remind her she’s nothing but a pawn.

All she has to do is sign the damn paperwork and act like my wife. She has no other purpose in my life.

So, no, I don’t want to waste my time planning a wedding with her when I have work to do. Her father may have ensured that she won’t have to work a day in her life, but how can she expect me to drop everything and plan out our wedding when it’s nothing but business?

When I agreed to the terms of our agreement, I didn’t expect being trapped in a marriage with a woman who I don’t get along with being so damn hard and exhausting. It’s suffocating.

The doors to my office suddenly open, and my hand moves to the gun at my back.

Before my fingertips can touch it, Cara steps out of the shadows enough for me to recognize her soft features. With a heavy sigh, I lean back in my seat clutching the arm rests. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Cara shrugs as she slowly approaches my desk. “I tried to go home and take advantage of a short day, but I kept thinking about how upset you seemed earlier.”

I narrow my eyes. “And why do you care enough to come back here?”

“You hired me to make your life easier,” Cara states as she sits in one of the two cushioned chairs in front of my desk. “How can I do that if I’m not here?”

I drum my fingers along the armrest as I watch her, wishing that I could read her better.

“I would’ve been fine by tomorrow,” I tell her.

“You’re not fine now,” Cara replies. “How can I help you?”

The problem with her is that she can make things worse, not better. That’s why I kicked her out earlier. I was so frustrated with Annika and how I have to stay with her to keep the alliance alive, and Cara, with her alluring body and her full lips that she always glosses up, looked so damn beautiful that I wanted to pull her into my lap that second.

I can’t have her.

“Is this about that lazy bastard screwing you over? Rafael?” she asks.

“No. He actually paid up every penny last night,” I inform her before looking away. “This is more of a personal issue. There’s nothing that you can do.”

I shouldn’t even bring it up with her, but it feels like I’m about to explode with all of these sealed up thoughts in my head. I have no one to talk about this with because I can’t trust anyone to not run to Suyunov.

Cara folds her hands in her lap and gets comfortable in her seat. “Would you like to talk about it?”

Her offer, along with her vanilla and cinnamon scent, entices me more than it should. And I guess I’m weaker than I thought because I open my damn mouth. “I’m supposed to be getting married soon.”