I’m not hungry.
The response comes fast, like he’s been waiting for my reply.
Aleksei
You will be, Mrs. Marinova. Trust me.
I snort.
Fiona
That so? What are you going to do, force me to the table? Because the only way I’d ever sit at the same table as you is if you tied me up and gagged me.
I hit send before I can second-guess it, and just as I’m grinning at my own audacity, his reply pops up.
Aleksei
This dinner is sounding more and more appealing by the second.
I scoff. Of course he turns it into something dirty. That’s the only damn thing he responds to.
Fiona
There will be no dinner. You’ll be eating alone, as usual. Feel free to choke on your overpriced steak.
There’s a pause. Three dots blink on the screen like he’s typing. Then they vanish.
Good. Let him stew in it the same way I’ve stewed in his absence every night since he started this stupid game of avoidance.
I toss the phone onto my desk and spin my chair to face the window. I tell myself again that I’m not going. No matter what he says or does.
He wanted distance? Well, here it is, baby.
But a part of me, some irrational part, wants him to drag me to that stupid table and tie me up just to prove he can.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
ALEKSEI
I skippedthe last meeting of the day. Investors flew in, so the board expected me to stay, but I left anyway.
Because tonight matters more.Shematters more.
Fiona doesn’t know it yet, but wearehaving dinner together. No isn’t on the table. She will be there.
The second I step into the house, I kick off my shoes and shrug off my coat, my hands already itching to find her. I scan the kitchen and den, but she’s nowhere to be found, even though I know she’s home.
“Gde ona?” I ask one of my men.Where is she?
“Naverkhu.”Upstairs.
I take the stairs two at a time, and when I open our bedroom door, she’s stretched out on the bed, a book in hand, wearing tiny athletic shorts and a thin white tank top that leaves nothing to the imagination.
She was wearing those clothes with my men around? She’s going to pay for that.
When she notices me come in, her lips quirk, but her eyes don’t go to mine.
God, she maddens me. And when she’s close, everything rattles inside me. It’s like I want to say a thousand things, but I do not have the language for any of it.
