Page 144 of Rise of the Queen

His mischievous smile crept across his face. “She’s more than happy to have me fund a new wing on the hospital. I suspect that she’s much the same as just about every politician on the planet, however. She’s going to figure out a way to make it all about her and take the credit for everything,” he said.

Sephie and Andrei looked at each other and laughed. “That’s exactly what she was thinking. You just left out the money laundering part. She’s gonna suck as much money out of the project for herself as possible,” Andrei said.

“Sucking is an activity that she seemingly enjoys,” Misha said. Somehow he managed to keep a straight face when he said it. Clearly, Stephen was coaching him on how to do so. The rest of us erupted into laughter.

Once the laughter died down, Sephie looked at me and said, “She is connected to Ricardo already though. She has everything on him. He’s helping her use it against you.”

I wasn’t surprised. “She might be slightly more difficult to get rid of than we thought,” I said.

“What was your original plan?” Vitaliy asked.

“Expose her affair with Henry. Her wife comes from a wealthy family. If we expose her affair, along with Henry, her wife divorces her, the family money goes away. She stops wanting to help Henry, as he’s basically the one who ruined her life,” I said.

“That could still work. It might not destroy her completely, because she’s likely to get help from Ricardo, but that could also work to our advantage. Expose that connection and she goes down when Ricardo goes down,” Battista said.

“Or she has an untimely ‘stroke.’ It could go either way, really,” Stephen said.

We talked for a while longer, coming up with a plan for how to get Henry out of the picture, along with his girlfriend. I needed to keep the people of the city on my side; helping the mayor fight corruption was an easy way to do that. The less options that Ricardo had inside the city, the easier he would be to take down as well.

On the way back to the penthouse, I pulled Sephie closer to me.“I have to admit that was the most fun I’ve ever had at one of those events.”

“It did go much better this time. I’m very happy it went much better this time,”she told me, as her gorgeous smile stretched across her face.

“We’re all very happy it went better this time.”I told her, kissing her temple.“Although, I’m not going to lie, getting to look at you all night long in that dress made me even happier.”

“I was thinking the same thing about you in that tux,”she told me, as she turned her face toward me just enough that she could see me out of the corner of her eye.

I reached over and ran my finger lightly down her neck, following the plunging neckline all the way down. I could feel her sending her warmth to me as she closed her eyes and enjoyed my touch.

“I don’t think you should wear any color but this one to any formal event ever again,”I said.“It looked like you were radiating love for me the entire night.”I turned her toward me, pressing my lips to hers.

“The color of the dress just made it obvious for you so you noticed it for the first time. I’m always radiating love for you, no matter what I wear,”she said, reaching up and pressing her palm against my cheek.

My breath caught, which made her smile even wider at me. I was suddenly desperate to get home and get her alone.

Chapter Forty-Three

Sephie

Adrik walked to the couches,throwing his tuxedo jacket and tie over the back. He removed his cuff links as he walked back toward me, depositing them in his pocket. It gave him a reason to look me up and down one more time without being blatantly obvious about it. As he was walking toward me, I reached up and pulled my hair down from the intricate ponytail that Ms. Jackson had put it in. I still had no clue how she figured out how to make a ponytail look so glamorous, but she did.

He groaned quietly as he watched my hair fall over my shoulders. “I love your hair when it’s out of control,” he said. He stopped in front of me, his hands running up my arms, stopping on either side of my neck. He studied me for a few moments before leaning down to kiss me. It was much quicker than I was hoping for. “Come, I want your contacts out,” he said, grabbing my hand and leading me back to the bedroom. “I would like to see your eyes match that dress one last time.”

“Who am I to deny you?” I asked as I followed him to the bedroom. He stood behind me, watching me in the mirror as his hands roamed over my hips and ass while I took my contacts out. I looked at him once I was finished, asking, “You’re not going to take yours out?”

He smiled at me. “I already did. When we were at Vitaliy’s house. I couldn’t stand them any longer.”

“You’re so much smarter than me,” I said to him, impressed.

He chuckled. “You’re getting used to yours better than I am. They still make my eyes itch,” he said, brushing my hair back from my neck so he could kiss it. It sent waves of warmth throughout my body, causing me to moan quietly. He turned me around to face him, his sweet smile letting me know that my eyes were deep blue. “I still can’t believe how much I miss seeing them change when you have to wear your contacts for any length of time.”

“I love that you’re still so fascinated by them. I would’ve thought you would be used to it by now and bored with it,” I said, enjoying the look of wonderment on his face that he had every time he watched my eyes change.

“I doubt very seriously that will ever happen,” he said, pressing his lips to mine kissing me quickly, then kissing first one cheek, then the other. “You keep finding new ways to fascinate me with them,” he said, his lips pressing to my forehead. I closed my eyes, just enjoying the sweet moment with him. I felt his lips press to one eyelid, then the other.

“Well, in that case, I hope I never stop,” I said, smiling at him without opening my eyes. He grabbed my hand, leading me out of the bathroom. When I opened my eyes, I saw him still enjoying looking at me in this dress. It made me smile to see him enjoying it so much. “I wouldn’t mind getting this dressed up now and then if this is always going to be your reaction,” I said.

He groaned quietly again. “If we have as much fun as we did tonight, I might start attending more of these terribly boring functions, just to make you get dressed up more often. I would not be mad at that. The people of the city would not be mad at that either. They couldn’t take their eyes off you,” he said,pulling me closer to him. He put the hand he was holding around the back of his neck. He slid his hand down my other arm, picking it up and placing it in the same position on the other side. He glanced down at my barely covered cleavage, staring at it for a few moments. “Have I mentioned how fucking phenomenal your boobs look in that dress?” he asked, his fingers tracing lightly over the exposed skin of my breasts.

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