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Demetri places his hand on my lower back, while Charlotte holds his hand and I’m holding Capree. “Yes.”
We walk down the hall with only Polina as an extra person added to our foursome, and when we enter the room, the paper gown on the table taunts me. I don’t want to change in front of Charlotte or her nanny. Without a word, Demetri takes Capree from me and gives her to the nanny, who he directs to wait in the chairs just outside the door with the kids, and I quickly switch out of my clothes.
I feel silly and frumpy in the gown as I take a seat on the white paper-covered padded table. But when I glance up, Demetri is looking at me like I’m wearing the sexiest lingerie money could buy. I don’t understand it. My hand goes to my hair, and I realize I never even attempted to brush it. It still sits high on my head in a messy ponytail. And not the sexy, messy ponytail all the influencer girls wear. It’s the ugly hair one has when you know you won’t see anyone that day.
The doctor waltzes in. This is the shortest I’ve ever waited.
“Sorry about the commotion at the front,” I say.
“It’s not every day I have a woman so important in my care.”
I search his face for sarcasm and see none. I know this change is only because of Demetri. It makes me feel special and powerful, even though it has nothing to do with me.
I look toward my husband, and he’s watching me with a cocky grin on his face. It’s like he can read my mind and knows what I’m thinking. My heart gallops like I ran as hard as I could to get away from him, yet I don’t want that. I like where I am.
“I’m going to have to touch her, Mr. Sokolov. Are you okay with that?” he asks, and I can see the fire enter my husband’s eyes as he realizes the doctor needs to look between my legs. “This is proper procedure, Demetri,” he explains.
“Make it snappy. You better not take your time just because you like the view,” he responds, and instead of feeling mortified like I should, I can feel a tingle in my pussy from how he’s acting. And that causes me to blush across my body. It starts on my chest, growing up my neck and then cheeks.
NowI’m mortified because I hope the doctor can’t tell my husband is turning me on.
I lean back and place my legs on the stirrups. The doctor checks my breasts, which causes Demetri to growl, before he then pushes down on my stomach. I watch as the doctor’s hands shake as he begins my pelvic exam to make sure everything is healing well down there.
“Demetri, can you hold my hand?” I ask, knowing he’s probably thinking of all the ways to dismember this doctor once we’re done, but he comes to where I can see his scowly face and holds my hand.
Silence etches itself around the room, making the paper from my gown sound a hundred times louder. We can hear the doctor breathing loudly as he does his job.
“Everything looks good.” He pulls my gown back in place and takes off his gloves. “Your wife is healthy and healing well.”
“Thankyouforcoming,”I say once we’re back in our car. He lifts my hand and kisses my knuckles. “Would you mind us driving by my old gallery? I just need to see it’s gone with my own eyes.” I’m still having a hard time accepting that my family would sell it out from under me. Or maybe it’s wishful thinking that Demetri is lying to me in order to turn me against my family.
His hand runs through his hair. “If that’s what you need.”
“Thank you.” I look out the window while Charlotte fills the car with her talking. I keep my attention on the outside, my leg bouncing faster as we near the familiar location.
We turn on its street, and my heart seems to stay in my throat as the car slows down and we stop in front of what used to be my gallery. It’s now a Subway and some type of boutique store.
How is it that only Demetri had the balls to tell me the truth? Actually, tell me anything at all?
My eyes tear up, seeing my passion is now gone from my life. His hand squeezes my leg, the heat of his touch fighting against the cold shiver that wants to run through my body at the betrayal of my family. He pulls me in closer to him, and I willingly go. His body warms me, even though goose bumps have broken across my arms.
“We can go,” I say quietly.
Even Charlotte has stopped talking, recognizing something is wrong. Until she undoes her belt and jumps out of her seat. “Daddy always makes me feel better when I’m sad too. He’s good at that,” she says before scrambling between the two front seats, plopping into her dad’s lap, and placing a kiss on my cheek, then wrapping her little arms around my neck.
My heart swells from the affection I’m being shown. I’m not used to it, but damn if I don’t love it.
Chapter 20: Demetri
ThesadnessinKatrina’seyes, because Luca sold her business and never told her, sliced through my chest and into my heart. In the car, I pulled her into me, because I was scared I would let the rage I felt against her family show. Katrina is mine, and I expect everyone to treat her like she is the most precious thing in the world.
Against my better judgment, I’ve asked Luca to have a meeting with me. It’s time we lay down the ground rules.
The surge of white-hot anger still ripples through me when I think of her devastated expression and sunken shoulders as she looked at what used to be her livelihood.
Luca walks in all cockily, not even looking me in the eye before he opens his mouth. “We need to discuss an annulment.”
A fierce protectiveness slams into me. Katrina is mine on a different level—I’ve never had this insane need to keep something so desperately. Nina and I had an arranged marriage, and our marriage never carried emotions like Katrina and I do. In the darkest part of my soul, I would love to eliminate Katrina’s entire family. The tension in me rises like a tsunami, ready to overturn everything in its path.
