When Misha made his end-of-days, gloom-filled remarks, I know it’s these situations he’s talking about.
But even while I was driving up to goddamn Poughkeepsie, toying with the speed limits like they were a suggestion, not the law, to make it in time, I could hear him whining in my head.
I just didn’t care.
There comes a point in everyone’s life when you have to ask yourself, what the fuck are you doinganythingfor?
Why did you dodge the knife that was aimed at your heart?
Why did you buy that multimillion-dollar brownstone?
Why did you put more guards on her than the president?
Because she’s why I get up in the morning.
Because she makes striving formorethan my status quo imperative.
“Wow,” the woman who has no idea that she has my dick in a bind blurts, sounding more alert than earlier.
She held up well at first, but the adrenaline crash was intense.
I hated the necessity of her shedding blood, but the second I saw who she’d been buddied up with, I wasn’t about to take any chances.
I’ll reserve judgment on whether any of this is necessary or not.
“You like it?”
“It’s not what I thought you’d buy.” She peeps at me. “No offense.”
“None taken. If you think this is bad, you should have seen the others that were for sale. At least this has some history to it.”
“You wanted that?”
“Thought you would.”
“You bought it for me?”
That wispy tone… God, when she brings it out, I want todevourher. And the worst part is, she isn’t toying with me. It’s all natural. She was born to tease me out of my ever-loving mind.
“Did you think we’d be rooming with O’Donnelly when we married?”
Her gasp is short. Sharp. Then, she exhales slowly. Shakily.
Talk about two different signals on either side of a single breath.
“You want me to live here while I finish school?” She freezes. “Wait—when we’re married?!”
“How much did you drink at the meal?”
“Asshole!” I relax into my seat at the criticism. “You can’t drop something like that on a girl and not expect her to be surprised.”
“Which part shocked you? The fact I won’t room with O’Donnelly? Or that I bought a house without asking you? Because you can’t be shocked about being my bride, Victoria…”
That earns me a harrumph. “Firstly, he has a name, you know?”
“And I’ll never use it.”
“Secondly, you’re right! You didn’t ask me. Jerk.”
