Page 28 of Brutal Power

“Good.” I hesitate on the bottom step. “I’ll see you in the morning then.”

He says nothing and I hurry upstairs. I find the guest room, close the door, and lock it.

Then I proceed to get under the covers and take care of my own needs, my eyes squeezed shut, Brody’s name on my lips as I come in the darkness of my husband’s unfamiliar home.

Chapter 15

Elena

My head is killing me the next morning. I don’t know how I drank enough to be hungover, but somehow it happened.

I walk of shame right the hell out of his house at the ass crack of dawn and call Matty to send a car to pick me up. The driver appears and brings me to the oasis, and I don’t have to face Brody at all, lucky me.

I don’t know what I’d say to him. Apologize for teasing him, or maybe beg him to kiss me again.

Maybe I’d just run the hell away.

Not the best option, but I feel like it’d be rational at this point.

I get dropped off outside of my place, and I try to sneak inside, but as I’m unlocking my front door, I spot Stefania standing in the street in her running clothes. She’s grinning like a maniac at me and I curse as I slip inside and shut the door?—

But she’s right behind me. “Caught you,” she says, barging into my house.

I groan and stumble into the kitchen. “Can you not right now? Please? We’ll talk about it later.”

She cackles with delight. “You’re hungover. You’re in the same clothes you wore yesterday. Oh my god, Elena, this is a walk of shame!”

I groan and collapse at the table as Stefania starts making coffee. She may be a pain in my ass right now but at least she’s still a good friend.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” I whine when she joins me. “I did Sunday dinner with his family, and then he said he decorated his house for me, and then he wanted me to stay?—”

She’s practically brimming over with excitement. “Tell me you two had sex.”

“No, we did not,” I say and I can tell she doesn’t believe me. “He’s my husband. I’d just admit it, okay? But we didn’t.”

“Nobody would blame you if you boned down that stud,” Stefania says, sounding a little wistful.

“Extremely gross. You’re my brother’s wife.”

“And I am very happily married to Davide, but a girl’s got eyes, and Brody’s a very good-looking man.”

I want to bang my head against the table until I pass out. “It’s not like that.”

“Why not?” she asks, sounding genuinely curious.

I think back to all the excuses I made the night before. But one keeps coming up, and it’s the only excuse that really matters. “He doesn’t see me that way.”

“Doubt it. You’re hot.”

“Right, okay, I mean, he’d fuck me, but he takes every chance he gets to remind me that we’re only an arrangement and we aren’t real. I don’t want to sleep with my husband if it’s just—” I wave a hand in the air, signalingmeaningless sex.

“I guess that’s a choice. Or maybe you two could go all wild and animalistic on each other and, like, ravage the hell out of your young, supple bodies, and fall in love after some lengthy and very sweaty sessions.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “That was oddly specific. Please don’t ever make me think of you and my brother andanimalisticin the same sentence ever again.”

She gets up and pours us coffee as the machine burbles out the last drops. “Hey, I never said anything about me and Davide, that’s all your dirty mind, babe.”

I geta few more hours of sleep before I get up to exercise. There’s nothing better than an hour on the treadmill to get the hangover toxins flushed from the body. I seriously don’t know how I ended up that drunk without realizing it, but it explains a whole lot.

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