Page 73 of Emerald Malice

Shura reads my mind as the last of Viktor’s roars fade away. “Shall I bring the car around?”

Unbidden, Natalia’s pictures flash in my mind. If I go home now, I won’t be able to stop myself from slipping into the pool house and ravishing her the way I’ve been fantasizing about since the moment I opened her messages.

“No,” I answer. “I’ll take a room upstairs tonight.”

“You sure?”

It’s not in his nature to question me. The only time he ever does is when he’s sure I’m making a mistake. “Very sure. You’re free to go.”

“She’ll be expecting you.”

My fists tighten at my sides. “That’s exactly the point—she shouldn’t.”

“I thought you’d changed your mind?” Shura’s brow puckers.

“About what?”

“Natalia,” he explains. “I guess I expected… an announcement to be made soon.”

I step close so that only Shura can hear me. “Just because I’m fucking her doesn’t mean I have any intention of marrying her.”

His eyes go purposefully hooded. “I wasn’t suggesting a marriage announcement. I was talking about the child.” My jaw clenches, but he’s not done. “It makes sense to get on top of this, ‘Drey. She’ll start showing soon and then Nikolai is bound to find out.”

He has a point. I’m just too exhausted and frustrated to admit it.

“Stop thinking so much,” I slap a hand on his shoulder. “Leave that to me. Now, go and get some rest. You look like you could use it.”

I turn from him before he can ask me any more inconvenient questions and make for the spiral staircase in the corner of the VIP section. I’m accosted by half a dozen eager women on my way there, but I shake them off impatiently and head for the quiet of the second floor.

I rarely spend the night here, but even still, the suite is always reserved for me. The linens are changed daily and fresh flowers are on the nightstand.

I expect the inky black comfort of unconsciousness to take hold seconds after my head touches the pillow. But fifteen minutes later, I’m still awake and staring, wide-eyed, at the textured ceiling overhead.

Painfully aware that there’s no green-eyed brunette beside me.

25

NATALIA

“I notice your baby daddy hasn’t dropped you off in a while.”

Abby materializes over the top of my cubicle like the Wicked Witch of the West, her eyes glimmering with a hunter’s instinct. She’s wearing a thin white blouse today, all the better to show off the lacy red bra underneath.

Honestly, she should just come into the office with nipple tassels. It’d be a hell of a lot more subtle.

“Trouble in paradise?” She doesn’t even have the decency to pretend like she’s not hopeful for that to be the case.

“Everything is fine. He hasn’t been dropping me off because he’s busy. And—” I stand abruptly, forcing her to back up a few inches. “—so am I.”

Striding around her, I head for the copy room.

A woman who possessed a little more dignity might just leave it there. But not Abby. She’s a shark and I, unwittingly, chummed the waters the day I brought Andrey into the office.

Not that I had much of a choice, of course.

“Is he picking you up today, by any chance?” Abby asks, clomping along close behind me on those ridiculous stilettos she’s taken to wearing.

“No.”

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