He lowered his fork. “Your sulking ends now.”
“Isn’t that what you’re after? Making sure I find no pleasure in my life? Wasn’t that part of your revenge?”
His brow furrowed, and he glanced away, but I could see the muscles working in his jaw. While he figured out what the fuck he wanted, I finally figured out how to get out of his suffocating presence.
I pretended to sip the wine and tried not to cringe as I spilled a few drops on me. “Oh my, that was clumsy,” I said brightly.
His eyes dropped to the spot over my breasts where crimson soaked into the fabric.
“Seems you’re trying to redirect my attention.”
“At my boobs?” I said sweetly. “Maybe? Drool over what you can never touch. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to exit this polluted air.”
Chapter
Seventeen
Kirill
The urge tofuck the sass out of my wife was becoming a terrible inconvenience. I was sporting a painful erection under my dark jeans. I broodily watched her flounce away to get the wine stain out. Oh, did she think she could dismiss me that easily? I sipped my wine, mulling her words over about my revenge plan. She had a point.
I didn’t know what the fuck I wanted anymore except I didn’t want to see her not eating. I would have been happier if she had sunk a knife into my thigh. At least I would feel something. Physical pain. Not this hollowness that reclaimed space inside my chest when I noticed she wasn’t touching her food.
What the fuck was wrong with me? What the fuck did I want from my wife?
Kolya sauntered over and dropped into the chair Lucy had vacated.
“Not a word,” I warned.
“What? I was just going to comment that you’re doing a fantastic job of pissing off your wife.”
I grunted. “That’s not how people see us.”
“I know you, remember?” Kolya leaned back. “Are you sure you can handle her?”
“I hope you’re not talking about Lucy.”
“Who else?”
I angled my body toward him. “Because I feel like breaking someone’s jaw when they think they’re the man to handle my wife.”
Kolya eyed me carefully. I held his gaze. Finally, he gave a shake of his head. “Is that pride talking?”
“No idea.” I exhaled heavily, not wanting to be psychoanalyzed by a person who was as unhinged in the head as I was. But my brain chemistry altered the second I said my vows to Lucy and slipped that ring on her finger.
At that moment, she became mine. If I were honest with myself, that was why I said the words to her that night to push her away. To make it feel like she was nothing but a pawn for me to satisfy my revenge.
I glanced at Kolya sharply. “But let me be clear, Nikolai.” I used his full name to stress the point. “You do not look at my wife in any way. She is not yours to deal with. Only mine. Got it?”
Kolya’s face was unreadable. We were usually on the same page. And the previous me would have left him to terrorize my wife and make her feel like she was living in a horror funhouse.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me.” I’d given Lucy enough time to get her shit together. Someone else emerged from the powder room on the first floor. She must have gone upstairs. I made my way to the kitchen and slipped up to the second floor using the servants’ stairs.
The powder room on the second level was empty too. I texted Sato.
Me
Have you seen my wife?
