It takes me a moment to process her answer. An admission that she’s not into him. I mean,Iknow she’s not into him, but she’s the one who announced her love for him. During our fucking wedding ceremony.
“You thoughtshewas coming ontoyou?” I grate out the question, hamming my anger up for effect. Despite what Lavender would have me believe, this asshole isn’t a threat. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
“I know, and I’m sorry.”
“Put him down, Raif. It was crossed wires—it was just a hug.”
Using his shirt, I jerk him closer, exchanging my grip on his shirt for a headlock. “You mean like, put him down… as you would an animal?”
“What?” Her brows pull in, but then she winces, thanks to Tod’s yelp.
“No, don’t do that!” he pleads. “I’m sorry—really sorry. I didn’t mean—”
Lavender looks kind of disgusted. Meanwhile, I’m going to use this situation to my advantage.
“Well? Shall I take him out back?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“But he touched you,” I say, exerting a little pressure on Tod’s windpipe. “And he shouldn’t have, right? Because you’re mine.”
“I’m your wife.” She gives a sharp, agitated flick of her shoulder, but she won’t give up the ruse.
“And Tod is nothing to you.”
“Tod is my friend,” she enunciates with a scary kind of civility.
“He’s your pet. Your little lap dog, only he’d like to hump more than your leg.” I shake him again. “I’m gonna rip your balls off without anesthesia,” I whisper menacingly.
“Put him down,” Lavender says. “Put him down, please!”
I loosen my grip, and he stumbles as I growl, “Fuck off.”
“And off he fucks,” my wife mutters glumly, her eyes on his retreating, scuttling form. The front door opens, then closes before her attention shifts back to me. She forces a huffy breath out. “What is your problem?”
I shake my head because I have no idea. She was supposed to be the solution to my problems, not the cause of it. I don’t fucking need this.
“This is becoming a habit of yours, saving his skin at the cost of your own.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. This isn’t costing me a thing.”
“Isn’t it?”
“I have no idea what that was even about. One minute, we were talking shop, and the next, you’re strangling him!”
“No, princess. If I had strangled him, he’d be lying across your feet now.”
This isn’t working.Ishould be working. I have a meeting with my architect in an hour and a couple of major debt collection sessions to sit in on after that. I don’t have time to drive from one side of the city to the other, blowing off my schedule just for a chance to see her.
Yet here I fucking am. Losing my temper like I’m a fucking hoodlum again.
I need to stop avoiding Lachlan. Get him to shred the paperwork. Kick her out. Leave her with nothing but a dripping wet pussy.
“Tell me, wife, are hugs how you congratulate all your employees?”
“Yeah,” she retorts, folding her arms as she raises her chin. “Primrose loves it when I feel her up. You know this is your fault, don’t you?” She grabs her shirt collar to reveal the hickey I’d given her this morning.
“I didn’t hear you complaining at the time.”
