“You married me for my family’s power. A power that will be worth nothing if you’re out there disgracing our name and undermining us.”
So self-righteous, given her father has been ordering hits on me like they’re going out of style.
“Ask your father to stop trying to kill me and then we can talk about undermining.”
Her lips part in shock, as if she hadn’t contemplated that part of her escape plans would require my death. “I didn’t know he was doing that.”
From anyone else, I’d call bullshit. Natalia’s soft, shocked gaze is yet another reminder that she has no clue.
I reach for a curl that’s fallen across her face and tuck itbehind her ear, brushing her cheek. Her skin heats at my touch.
“I’ll ask him to stop,” she breathes.
“And does he often take strategic advice from his daughter?”
“He should.” She sweeps her long blonde hair up into a ponytail, holding a hairpin in her mouth. Her rose and sugar perfume washes over me.
If she wasn’t so fucking distracting, this whole marriage thing would be easier to manage. It really would be a business deal.
A normal business deal. Where my brain was involved, instead of another part of my body.
I should be bringing this conversation to a close. Not digging a deeper hole for myself.I sigh. It seems I can’t follow my own fucking advice where this woman is concerned.
“If it matters, I didn’t even sleep with her. The prostitute. Cleo, Cassie, whatever her name was.”
“Cara,” Natalia corrects me automatically.
Fucking Vera.
Somehow my wife knows the details of the sex workers I visit better than I do.
“I haven’t slept with anyone since our wedding.”
Unfortunately.
If I had, maybe my cock wouldn’t be this hard right now.
“Well, I’d rather you didn’t go to the club at all. Strip clubs. Brothels. Whatever.”
I let out a groan. “Doesn’t that seem a bit fucking unreasonable?”
Natalia shakes her golden head, her brow creasing in confusion. She gestures between us.
“We’re married. That’s why it bothers me.”
“We are married,” I concede. “I don’t want to state the obvious, but there are certain things that married couples do that we’re not doing.”
She nods. I unwillingly follow the arc of her neck down to her mouthwatering cleavage. I think I’d pay exponentially more than what the club charges for one night with Natalia.
Fuck, this is becoming a problem.
“Things like sleeping in the same bed,” she says.
“I’ve never been good at sleeping anyway. I was thinking more?—”
“Intercourse.”
I stifle a laugh at her phrasing. Like it’s something she’s only read about in a biology textbook. “Yes.”
