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I blew out a long sigh. “Okay, Emmy. We’ll go to the party, but you do not leave my side. Do you understand?”
I suppose attending this party was also a way to make our relationship look more normal and less like I was some emotionless bodyguard stationed at her side all the time.
“Oh, thank you! Yes, yes, I totally understand,” she jabbered excitedly and suddenly I felt like an asshole for potentially depriving her of fun.
I gripped her chin as I stepped closer, staring into her sparkling eyes. “I mean it, Emmy. You stay close to me.”
She nodded.
“You do everything I say,” I said, my voice dropping an octave as I imagined her doing everything I said.
She sucked in a shaky breath, her breathing becoming slightly arrested. “Okay,” she murmured.
“You follow my every direction.”
I watched her expression slowly transform from wide-eyed excitement to newly sparked desire. I definitely didn’t need to know that following my orders appeared to turn her on, but I sure as fuck liked knowing it.
“Okay, Ivan,” she said softly, her eyes sliding to half-mast. “I promise.”
Fuck. My dick was like a steel rod in my pants, but my brain was screaming at me to resist her. Resist leaning in and taking that pouty mouth, resist touching that slender, gently curved body, resist spreading those long legs and taking what she was so clearly offering. Her scent floated around me, flooding my senses, making me weak. My body leaned toward hers slightly, as if by gravitational pull, and her chin tipped up, her mouth seeking contact.
No.
I quickly let go of her chin and stepped away, leaving her to blink at me in confusion and slowly ebbing desire.
“Let’s go,” I said sharply, leading her toward my car. I usually walked her home—I loathed to admit it, but I did it because it extended my time with her—but I needed to get her out of my radius as soon as possible before I did something I regretted.
As we walked to the parking lot, I caught a glimpse of her teacher getting into an old Volvo. “Who the fuck is that guy?” I asked with a lot more aggression than I intended.
Emmy’s head swung around to look at the teacher. “Oh, that’s Mr. Belshaw, or Dan, as he told us all to call him. He’s my orchestra teacher.”
Emmy got in the car, but I stared at him until his car drove away, taking note of the license plate. “Is he supposed to talk to you like that outside of class?” I asked as I slid into the driver’s seat.
Emmy raised her eyebrows at me. “Like what?”
I continued to glower. “Like he’s fucking interested in you.”
She gaped at me. “Oh my god, we were talking about the piece of music we’re working on! It’s a very strong piece for the harp, and he wanted to make sure I was handling it okay. He said he noticed I didn’t seem that excited about it.”
My head ached from grinding my teeth. I didn’t like this information. Not at all. Why the hell is he so attuned to one student’s response to the music choice. “He notices your moods?”
Emmy let out a slow breath. “I think I had a pretty obvious reaction. The piece we’re playing is Mozart’s Concerto for Flute, Harp and Orchestra. It was the exact piece of music playing when Yuri abducted me. The one Orlov commented on. I can’t stand hearing it…” She shook her head, as if to release the memory. “I was pretty upset when I realized that’s what we were playing.”
“The same one?” I didn’t like that.
“Yeah. It’s so annoying because it’s such a beautiful piece of music.”
“Who is this music teacher? How long has he worked here? Does he look like Orlov?”
Her eyes widened. “You think my teacher is Orlov?” Though she seemed surprised, I could see her mentally scanning back to their interaction.
“His focus on you, the music—that’s too many fucking coincidences.”
She rubbed her temples. “I suppose you could right. Does he look like Orlov? I don’t know—not really? It didn’t even occur to me to compare them. It’s hard to suspect everyone who even talks to me as a potential stalker. It’s an exhausting thought.”
Her sad expression had sympathy tugging at my gut. “I know it’s tough, Em, but we have to be suspicious of everyone to make sure no one catches us by surprise. While I have Drago look into him, see if you notice anything strange about him. But keep your fucking distance and don’t let him get you alone.”
“Okay,” she said quietly, this whole experience obviously weighing on her.
