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Fire flickered in his golden depths, but before he could speak, one of the trophy wives opened her mouth. “I would love to be the next in line to wear it for a night,” she said with a wink that her husband was too busy talking business to the man across from him to see.
“It already has a permanent home,” Zak informed her, a bite in his voice for the first time all evening. “It is far too graceful around Sofia’s neck to belong anywhere else.”
The trophy wife pouted, and I tried not to roll my eyes, not only at the woman but at what Zak said. Did he think I was stupid? He couldn’t buy me, not even with the most beautiful necklace I’d ever set eyes on. If this guy wanted me—and I would have been lying if I said I didn’t want him to—then he had to earn me.
But not with material things.
I wanted a man to want and love me the way my dad did my mom. How myzioCristiano didTetka. Fuck, the way Ben Davis, the sheriff back in Creswell Springs, loved and cherished his wife, Lexa. That was what I wanted, what I’d come to yearn for.
Spending four million dollars on a necklace and then placing it around my neck in front of hundreds of people didn’t feel like Zak cared for me at all. If anything, it seemed as if he was placing a collar on me, announcing his ownership to the world.
But he was about to learn that no one could fucking own me.
Wiping my mouth with my napkin once again, I stood. “Mom, Dad, I’m not feeling well.”
More like I was feeling homicidal and didn’t want to turn the dinner portion of the charity event into a murder mystery. One which everyone would win because they would witness me repeatedly stabbing my steak knife into Zak Morozov’s neck until he bled out on the floor at my feet.
I stepped away from the table and the potential murder weapon I was envisioning using on the man still standing too damn close to me. “Congrats on raising so much for the shelters, Mom,” I murmured as I bent to kiss her cheek. “I’m so proud of you.”
Amusement darkened her brown eyes. “I hope you feel better soon, sweetheart. Get some rest, and we’ll talk more in the morning.”
Nodding, I gave the others at the table a tight smile, before turning on my red heels and walking away. I barely cleared the huge dining room before a hand caught hold of my elbow. The reaction my body had to the firm touch told me exactly who it was, but I didn’t stop. It didn’t seem to matter to Zak, however, because he fell into step right beside me.
Neither of us spoke until we were outside. I pulled out my phone to alert the limo driver, but before I could hit send, Zak snatched my phone from my hand. “Hey!” I tried to grab it back, but he quickly put it in his pants pocket. “Why are you being such an asshole?”
“When was I an asshole to you?” His confusion made his slight accent even more noticeable.
I didn’t know if his obliviousness was annoying or amusing, which made a frustrated sound leave my throat. “I am not the type of girl you slap a collar on and then lead around like some little lost puppy you now want to sit prettily at your feet.” Reaching behind me, I struggled, but I got the clasp undone. It felt wrong not to have it around my neck, but I refused to let something so beautiful—or anything else, for that matter—be a symbol of this man’s ownership of me. “Here. Take this back.”
He glared down at the necklace hanging from my fingertips. “It belongs to you,dragotsennyy. It should have been around your neck from the moment it was crafted.”
Damn his accent for making him ten times hotter. Damn him for being so fucking beautiful all I wanted to do was stare at him. And damn me for not being able to turn off whatever emotions he was stirring up inside me.
“It feels more like a dog collar that you put around my neck in front of all of those people. Staking a claim you have no right to.” I thrust the necklace against his chest. “I’m no dog, and I sure as fuck am not yours.” When he didn’t reach up to take hold of the piece of jewelry, I simply let go, letting it fall to the ground at our feet.
My heart cried out in distress that my beautiful emerald had touched the dirty sidewalk, but I locked that down and took a step back. “I’d say it was nice meeting you, Mr. Morozov, but that would only make me a liar.”
“Why do you suddenly dislike me?” he demanded, grabbing my wrist to keep me from turning away from him. I clenched my jaw, and he jerked me against him, ignoring the millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds and emeralds on the ground. “Answer me, Sofia. I thought we had a connection when we first met tonight. But then you just shut down on me. Please, tell me what I did to cause this strain between us. I don’t like it. I want to see you smile at me again.”
If I told him the truth, he would probably think I was insane. Fuck,Ithought I was insane. He was right about the instant connection we’d had, but then I’d learned he was the one to donate the Ural necklace, and it had felt like he’d betrayed me. Which was crazy. And then, while I was still analyzing my feelings on that, he’d spent the night between the two trophy wives, who had done nothing but flirt and eye-fuck him during dinner.
My feelings of betrayal had mixed with jealousy and formed something explosive that had yet to detonate. I was trying to defuse the bomb within myself, but he wasn’t helping. Putting the necklace I’d fallen in love with at first sight around my neck should have eased the hurt I’d felt. Instead, it had only made things worse because the betrayal and jealousy were suddenly combined with feeling insulted.
The girl who pouted and threw tantrums when she didn’t get her way was long gone. I didn’t want to turn back into her again. But this new version of me felt unstable, and it was all Zak’s fault.
I was seriously losing my mind, and I needed to get away from this man before it all erupted and I couldn’t control the destruction that would follow.
