Page 74 of Sin of Silence

He held still, waiting for her. She leaned forward and sucked his fingers into her mouth, swirling her tongue around the roughened digits. He growled, the sound sending pleasurable shivers down her spine. Then he took it one step further and leaned in to take her lips, thrusting his tongue past his own fingers into the depths of her mouth, then finishing by sucking his own finger.

Shaun was breathless and brainless by the time he stepped away from her. She was so fuck-drunk, the mansion could’ve caught on fire and she wouldn’t have noticed.

“I’m a mess,” she said, with a breathless laugh. She was giddy from the endorphins rushing through her.

You will not clean up; you will wear our love proudly on your thighs.

She stared at him in shock. Not because he was asking her to walk around a room full of people with his cum dripping down her legs. He’d used the wrong sign for love. Instead of tapping his fist against his palm as if to say something was a symbol of love, such as their combined fluids, he used the crossed fists. Romantic love. Unless her sign language lessons were completely failing her, his words roughly translated to, “I love you and want the world to know.”

He helped her off the table, lowered her skirt and took her hand, leading her from the closet.

Chapter Forty-Two

“There you two are,” Dasha scolded, though her tone was jovial. The party was turning into a spectacular success and it was clear she couldn’t be happier. “Come meet the Croziers, they flew in from New York just to be here for your special day.”

Shaun and Jozef linked fingers, a united force, as they were paraded around the ballroom and introduced to a dizzying number of people. Shaun accepted a champagne glass somewhere along the way, and another as her empty one was replaced the instant the last drop slipped down her throat. She didn’t drink often and was beginning to feel the effects of the champagne. She became more relaxed, her responses to whatever inquiries came her way far more candid than they would have been if she’d been sober.

For a shining moment, Shaun felt as if she belonged to this glamorous and wealthy family. She was one of them. She was able to talk about her career with their guests as if it were simply on hold while she and Jozef figured out their future together. No longer the kidnap victim, she could pretend that she and the man by her side were deeply in love.

Dasha explained to Princess Amelia of Andorra that Jozef and Shaun had met in a hospital in Ukraine while she was treating him for concussion. Shaun laughed in all the right places as doctor-patient jokes became the norm for the evening. She smiled and faked her way through everything, pretending she was nothing more than a soon-to-be happy bride, while the slippery sensation between her thighs reminded her of her closet tryst.

It wasn’t until she looked at her fiancé that she saw the truth in the shutter that had dropped over his face as she was paraded in front of dozens of crime families. It didn’t take Shaun long to realize that she was being shown off to all these people, not as a way to introduce her to the world, but to tie her more firmly to the family. Being known by everyone who associated with the Kobas would make escape that much more impossible. She was well and truly caught in their trap. Her introduction also had the added bonus of ensuring she looked like a happy, healthy and very willing soon-to-be bride if anyone recognized her as the missing doctor from Luhansk.

Desperation rose up inside her, threatening to choke her. She felt suddenly hot and a little sick. She looked around for Jozef, finding him deep in conversation with Havel. He frowned as he caught sight of her expression and immediately made his way to her side, sliding his arm along her back. His warmth helped to steady her, but she still didn’t feel well.

By the time a third glass of champagne was pressed into her hand, Shaun was done. She didn’t want to be there anymore. She looked up at Jozef, who was studying her with concern. “I… I…” She didn’t know what she wanted. She took a long sip of her drink to clear the cobwebs. “I think I’m done pretending.”

Jozef didn’t ask her what she meant by ‘pretending’, he simply nodded.Do you want to leave?

“Yes.”

He took her arm and led her deeper into the room. At first Shaun held back, unsure why he’d be taking her further into the throng of guests when he was supposed to be getting her out of there. Then she realized he was guiding her toward the doors, which were opened into the rose garden. Relief rushed through her as the fresh air hit her heated skin.

Giselle stepped in front of them before they could reach the door, cutting them off. Shaun was so annoyed at the other woman, that she stepped in front of Jozef to confront her. This was one situation where verbal communication was needed. Bitch just wasn’t smart enough to understand Jozef’s less than subtle fuck off when he threw her into a wall at the club.

“Leave,” Shaun said coldly.

She was standing in front of Jozef so she couldn’t see his expression, but assumed it was something that would back her up.

“Do you have any idea who I am?” Giselle hissed.

“No,” Shaun admitted. “Do you have any idea who I am?”

Giselle looked shocked, clearly having assumed Shaun was a nobody. Which of course she was when it came to the circles these people inhabited. Thank god for that. So far at the hands of their party guests she’d experienced a boatload of fake congratulations, some jealousy and a whole lot of speculation. She was pretty sure she didn’t want to be friends with a single one of them.

“And who exactly are you?” Giselle eyed Shaun as if she might’ve missed something in her previous assessments. Maybe Shaun was the American heiress to a perfume fortune? Or maybe she was the illegitimate love child of a king.

“I am Dr. Shaun Patterson of Montréal, Canada,” Shaun told the other woman, her voice strong as she defended her right to be there. “Six weeks ago, I reached into an open chest cavity and pumped a heart with my bare hands, the blood of my patient slipping through my fingers. I saved that man’s life. What have you done lately?”

Giselle stared with her mouth open. She suddenly looked less glamorous in her low-cut black evening gown, her neck and wrists dripping in Cartier diamonds. Her eyes moved over Shaun’s shoulder; Shaun assumed to meet Jozef’s gaze. Whatever Giselle saw there crushed any last hope the tenacious woman might have had.

Shaun was suddenly seized by a painful cramp in her stomach. It was everything she could do to remain upright and not ruin her grand moment. Eyes bright with tears, Giselle drifted away without saying another word.

Shaun moaned and doubled over, clutching her middle.

“Jozef!” she gasped.

Something was wrong with her, but she didn’t know what. She’d barely eaten that day, only snacks from a tray in her room sent up from the kitchen. Multiple people, including Jozef, Dasha and Saskia had shared the food she’d eaten and no one else looked sick.

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