Page 33 of Defiled Innocence

She walks with me down the hall to my office.

“But there has to be another way. I don’t understand why Lucas did this.” Her voice trembles.

“I don’t either, but I’m sure he had a reason.” I stop at my office door.

It’s closed, but I can hear deep voices inside speaking. They’re keeping their conversation in Russian so I have no idea what they’re talking about until I hear my brother’s name. A moment later, my name is uttered too.

“Do you want me to go with you?” She gives a hesitant look at the door.

“No. Thanks, I got this.” I push on what I hope is a warm smile. “Everything’s going to work out fine. What I really need is the carpet cleaners to get here, the sooner the better. We cankeep today’s meetings up here today, but we need downstairs back up and running by Monday.”

She nods. “Got it.”

“Thanks.”

Her expression darkens as her gaze lifts over my shoulder, and then higher still. A cold shiver runs down my back.

“He’s there, right?” I whisper. “Right behind me?”

She nods a little. “Yeah.”

“You should go.” I gently pat her arm. “I can handle him.”

She swallows, then turns on her own water-soaked heel and hurries down the hall, taking one more look back at me before turning into the front office.

“Are you going to be reasonable about this or are you going to be all Dmitri about it?” I ask, still facing away from him.

“The option for reasonable passed an hour ago when I was informed you left your brother’s apartment and came here instead of home.” His hand clamps down on my shoulder and he turns me.

Yep. He’s intending to be very Dmitri about this.

Impending hurricanes have less darkness in them than his features right now.

His jaw is pressed so tightly together, there’s a real chance he’s going to break a tooth.

“A pipe burst,” I explain. “I had to come—wait. How did you know I came here after leaving Lucas’ apartment?” I retreat a small step, out of his grasp. “Are you having me followed?”

“Yes.” He confesses this as though it’s a ridiculous thing that I even asked. Because why wouldn’t a Russian mafia boss have his fiancée followed everywhere she went.

“How? I didn’t notice anyone.”

“You don’t notice anything when you’re rushing off everywhere. Anyone could have hurt you or kidnapped you. You’re an easy target.”

“Who would want to hurt me or kidnap me?”

“You’re changing the subject,” he accuses.

“I’m not sure which subject to deal with first. You having me followed. You showing up here and scaring my staff. Or that you think there’s an actual chance of me being kidnapped.”

“Then I’ll make it easy on you.” He moves forward, towering over me and grabbing my chin.

When he brings his gaze in line with mine, my stomach flips. Several times.

This man!

“First, we’ll deal with the subject of our wedding. Then we’ll deal with the subject of your utter disregard for obedience. Then we’ll deal with the subject of consummating our union.”

“None of those things were on my list,” I say.

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