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“You want me to wait.” His voice is low and rough. “You want me to stand by and wait while you play at being this man’s wife, while you fuck him, while you buy pretty things for him to lust after you in.” The anger in his voice is palpable, and I flinch, thinking of Adrik watching me as I shopped for lingerie. Somehow, the invasion of my privacy, of finding out that Adrik was aware when I didn’t know he was nearby, feels worse than the thought of Adrik being upset with me.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, my voice tight and anxious, but he ignores me.
“I don’t want to wait,” he growls. “I don’t want to stand by and watch. I want you, Marika. You were mine first, and I’ll be damned if—”
His words trail off, his gaze landing hungrily on my mouth, and before I can breathe or think of anything to say, he pins me back against the wall, his lips crashing down heavily on mine.
For a moment, I forget to be angry. I don’t feel the damp stone against the back of my head, getting my hair wet, or the water trickling down the back of my neck. I don’t feel anything other than Adrik’s hot, hungry mouth, reminding me of how things used to be, of how he would come to my room when I was lonely and hopeless, and make me feel as if everything would be alright. When he was what I clung to. The growing connection between Theo and me hasn’t made me forget Adrik completely. For a moment, when my hands come up to touch his chest, it’s with the thought of bringing him closer. His body is hot and hard against mine, his broad, muscled frame boxing me in against the wall, and I can feel his erection pressing against my thigh, his hands sliding down my hips—
He’s going to fuck me right here, I realize in dim shock.Up against this wall in an alley.
Whatever I might still want from Adrik, it’s not that.
“Stop!” I shove at his chest in an effort to push him back, but he’s twice my size. “We’re not doing this here—”
His teeth bite at my bottom lip, rougher than he’s ever been with me. One hand comes up to grab my chin, holding me in place as he inches my dress up. “The way you’ve been acting, this is what you deserve,” he growls against my mouth, his hips rocking against me, digging his hard cock into the side of my thigh. “To get fucked up against an alley wall. You haven’t been behaving like a Bratva princess, Marika. So maybe it’s time you get fucked like a whore.”
Shock bursts through me in an ice-cold wave, enough to dissolve whatever desire had been building in me after that first startling kiss. I shove at him again, harder this time, and when he doesn’t budge, I yank one hand out from in between us, slapping him across the face as hard as I possibly can.
There’s a bright red mark where my palm connects, and he flinches back, just long enough for me to slip out from under his arm and closer to the street, away from him.
Adrik turns towards me, breathing hard, his face set in angry lines. “What the fuck was that for?” he snarls, and I take another step back, suddenly terrified of him.
“Get out of here,” I hiss. “Go back to the house and leave me alone. You’re putting me in danger, Adrik! You’re not the only person out here watching me today. Half my security team for this afternoon works for Theo! You’re being reckless and stupid, and if you cared for me, you wouldn’t put me at risk like this. You wouldn’t put yourselfat risk, because as angry as I am right now, I still don’t want you hurt because they’ve caught you! I don’t want to know that Theo or my brother has fucking skinned you alive for what you just did!”
I wrap my arms around myself, shaking, my chest heaving as I stare at him with angry, tear-filled eyes. There are a dozen conflicting emotions churning inside of me—anger for how he handled me and spoke to me, fear for us both, guilt that I wanted him for a moment, guilt that I wondered how Theo would feel about it, and anger, too, that a day that had felt so perfect and happy has been ruined by Adrik’s jealousy. There’s guilt about that, too, because I know, in some way, Adrik does have a right to his jealousy.
This is so fucked up. It’s a mess, and I can’t begin to know how to untangle it.
“Getoutof here!” I plead, staring at him, terrified that any moment now, one of Theo’s men will walk down the sidewalk and see us here arguing, see me upset and Adrik with the handprint on his face, and know that something is wrong.
Adrik hesitates, and for a moment, I have no idea what he’s going to do. I don’t have the slightest idea what he’s thinking, or how he might react. His jaw clenches, and I see his gaze rake over me, hungry and angry and possessive, his cock still a thick, threatening ridge straining against his fly. My slap didn’t turn him off; if anything, it made him even more aroused.
I hear the sound of footsteps coming down the sidewalk. I don’t know if it’s just passersby or if it's my security, and Adrik doesn’t know either. I can see it from the indecision on his face, the way he hesitates for one moment longer before turning sharply on his heel and heading down the alleyway in the other direction, away from me and whoever is coming to join me.
It’s a good thing, too, because itisone of Theo’s security who joins me, a tall red-headed man whose name I think is Allan, the one I handed the bags to. “Are you alright, Mrs. McNeil?” he asks, his voice filled with what sounds like genuine concern, and I start with surprise at hearing my married name out loud. I don’t dislike it as much as I should.
“I’m fine,” I manage. “I just thought I saw someone in the alley, is all. It startled me.”
“Well, people use them now and again.” Allan gives me a crinkled smile that I’m not certain if it’s meant to have some sarcasm in it or not. “Nothing amiss I can see, though. Your husband called,” he adds. “Said he’ll meet you at the Harp and Hound tonight at six—so whatever else you have to do, the driver will be around to pick you up about thirty minutes before then.”
“Thank you,” I manage, my heart still racing. I have a few more hours to kill before I need to meet Theo, in that case, and I’m glad for it. I don’t know if I could handle it right now, after what happened with Adrik.
I have no idea how Theo would react if he knew, but I know for certain it wouldn’t be good. Not for Adrik—and probably not for me, either.
I made a mistake, not telling Nikolai that I was no longer a virgin.My brother’s disappointment, even his censure, would have been better than what I’ve gotten myself into now.
Now, things are so much worse.
Marika
“Are you alright,mo gra?”
It’s the first thing Theo says to me when I see him sitting at a wooden bench in a corner of the pub called the Harp and Hound, relaxed with a beer sitting in front of him in a tall glass. He managed to change somewhere between his meeting and now, and he’s wearing dark jeans cuffed at the ankles over brown leather boots heavier than what he normally wears, and a charcoal cable-knit, shawl-collared sweater. His auburn hair has been messed up a little from the smooth way it was combed for his meeting, as if he put something in it. The overall effect is casual and sexy in a way that makes my heart race seeing him like this.
At least, until I remember what happened this afternoon, and that Theo and I are no ordinary married couple meeting for a date after work.
“I’m fine.” I slip into the other side of the booth, looking at the cream-colored paper listing the drink specials for the night. “Just tired.”
