“Good morning, darling wife.”
“Morning,” I breathed.
“Off to the warehouse,” he informed, kissing my forehead. “Just wanted to give you a delightful morning.”
He crawled off the bed and headed straight towards the door.
“Your hair,” I called softly after him.
“Oh?”
He turned around and went to the dresser, gazing at his reflection. “Looks better this way.”
He winked at me through the mirror.
And then he was gone.
I sighed, my body still buzzing from my high. As the stars faded from my vision, I thought back to how my brother was no longer here because of them. Because of him.
From my dream about Giovanni to Mikhail waking me with an orgasm, things were getting muddled up.
The clear border line between my revenge plan and my attraction towards Mikhail blurred with each passing day. I wasn’t sure that my pulling closer to him was still solely for the sake of revenge.
**********
I caught Mikhail’s eyes before I could look away again. It had been this way all afternoon, us stealing glances at each other across the table like teenagers.
We were having brunch at Viktor’s house, an affair that was more about introducing me to the brothers. The youngest brother, Konstantin, was away and was the only one absent.
Roman had turned out to be friendlier than he looked, with him praising me for Mikhail’s ‘awakening taste’ because he wore a burgundy suit.
My phone vibrated with an incoming text, and I casually opened it while Emilia answered my question about the farmer’s market nearby.
“Can’t take my eyes off you. Definitely can’t wait to pin those fire nails above your head and NAIL you properly.”
I wanted to laugh and kiss him at the same time. He’d been calling my red nails ‘fire nails’ since I painted them in the morning.
He wasn’t looking at me when I glanced his way. He was busy discussing with his brothers as the help cleared away the plates. I couldn’t even picture him typing on his phone.
“It’s surprisingly well-stocked. You won’t regret going,” Emilia concluded.
“I’ll try it one of these days,” I replied, nodding as I picked up my phone again before muttering a ‘sorry.’
“It’s fine,” she answered, waving a hand. “I have to go check on Leonard, anyway.”
“Oh…okay.”
Viktor’s eyes shifted straight to her as she stood, his brothers on either side of him becoming secondary.
“Quick check. I'll be back,” she told him, to which he nodded.
I quickly typed my response to Mikhail.
“Why wait, then?”
I kept looking down at my phone, but he was in the corner of my eye. When I noticed him subtly pick up his phone with hisleft hand, I lifted my head. I saw the way his eyes flicked towards me and darkened before he typed on his phone.
I opened the text the second my phone vibrated.
