“I won’t be in the other room anymore?”
I draw her toward me ’til she slides into my lap like I’ve wanted. “You’re in my room every night… no matter if we’re mad at each other or not. No matter if I’m home or if I’m out on business. Nevi, I’ve made a lot of mistakes.”
She frowns. “I didn’t expect this to come up again right before bed.”
“I’m bringing it up because I questioned your loyalty. Right from the start I made you feel like an outsider, even if I insisted on making you my wife. But I was too stubborn to realize that by keeping you so distant, you’d never want to be loyal to me. It was always a barrier between us.”
“I’ve wanted to get to know you.”
“And you wanted me to get to know you. More than what’s in my dreams.”
“You have… slowly…” Her frown tips up into a small, soft smile.
“I’ve realized you’ve got a lot more spunk than I thought you did. You’re well-mannered and soft spoken, yes, but you’ve also got a fire inside of you,” I say, cupping her chin and drawing her lips to mine. “My ballerina is smart and brave. She’s not to be underestimated.”
“She’s your wife,” she mumbles.
We kiss again ’til I pull away to admire her face. Something I do more often than is probably normal. A habit of mine after solong dreaming of her. A confirmation that she’s indeed real and not an angel saving me from the brink of death.
“What did Matteo have to tell you?” she asks innocuously after a pause.
I tap my palm against her outer thigh as if to admonish. “Ah, so there it is—my clever ballerina thinking she’s being discreet. You’ve lowered my defenses and then ask for intel. You really are not to be underestimated.”
“I wasn’t trying to get intel.”
But though she insists, I know otherwise. She’s unable to keep the little smirk from spreading on her face.
I’m not mad she’s searching for information. She’s so often been left in the dark. A tactic I’ve used from the moment she moved into my home, but that I’m realizing has been yet another mistake. As my wife and partner, she deserves to know as much as I can tell her without risking her safety.
And she can be the sounding board I may be missing in my life.
“Someone has betrayed me,” I say.
“One of your men?”
“It’s someone I never imagined would. Someone who has had access to just about every facet of my life. Your life too.”
Nevaeh gasps as it hits her, her eyes rounding. “It can’t be Ms…”
I nod. “The evidence is damning.”
“She wouldn’t,” Nevaeh says straightaway. “Ms. P loves you like a son. I’ve only known her a couple months, but I can tell she cares about you deeply, Cael. I don’t believe she would betray you.”
“There’s footage. There are call records. She has been feeding information to my father and the rest of my family.”
Nevaeh’s blinks come slow and drawn out, then she shakes her head insistently. “There’s got to be some other explanation.”
“I would prefer if there were, but it seems to be true.”
“You’re not going to… to…” Nevaeh can’t even bring herself to say what she fears. She gulps down some air and then claws at my bare chest. Her touch even when in desperation feels gentle and sensuous. “Cael, you can’t act on impulse. You have to make sure it’s true. You have to give Ms. P a chance to explain?—”
“If she’s putting us in danger—and if she’s responsible for alerting my family about the doctor’s appointment in the city—then I’ll have no choice. I’ll have to eliminate her. What if we found out you were pregnant today and she helped stage a drive by?”
“But we don’t know for sure! Please talk to her first… civilly. Please don’t… don’t hurt her. Cael, you can’t!”
Nevaeh’s voice strains from the sudden onslaught of emotion. She’s on the brink of tears clutching at me, leaning closer so our faces almost touch. I see myself in the reflection of her tears and hear the distress she’s in at the thought of Ms. Poitier being taken out.
It may only be a couple months since Nevaeh has come to live at my estate and we’ve been married, but she’s grown to view Ms. Poitier as a maternal figure too. The older woman’s often bonded with her like a mother would and has gone out of her way on several occasions to look out for Nevaeh.
