Page 27 of Cruel Vows

After putting on a spritz of my favorite perfume, I take my time descending the winding staircase, heading past the hallway that leads to the theatre and gym and instead taking the one that leads to the living room.

Sean is sitting in one of the cream armchairs, his heels on the table and an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips.

A small pool of heat builds in my lower stomach, but I extinguish it as fast as possible.

The devil is only attractive to lure his victims in before punishing them.

Kara is standing to the side, two other bodyguards behind her. Both of them are big men wearing matching scowls with muscles that nearly bulge out of their black t-shirts.

Sean glances at me, cigarette falling to the ground as he gets to his feet. “What the hell do you think you’re wearing?”

“You told me to get changed. I got changed.” I hold my arms out to the sides slightly, twirling in a slow circle. “What do you think? Personally, I think it really shows off my legs.”

The way his teeth grind together only makes me smirk.

He crosses the room in two large strides, his chest nearly brushing against mine. I have to tilt my head back to meet his heated gaze, and when I do, the air is stolen from my lungs.

Alarm bells ring in my mind, telling me that I’m messing with the wrong man.

I don’t care.

Everything else in my life that I love has been taken away already. There’s nothing left for him to steal. Every single piece of me has been given to my family and their war.

Sean’s lips are too close to mine, the scent of his cologne making my head spin. “You’re not going out in public dressedlike that. No wife of mine is going to parade around in a dress that barely covers her ass just so men can stare at her.”

“I’m wearing it because I like the dress. Not because men are going to stare at me.”

He scoffs, putting a couple inches between us, but not enough. “Men are going to stare, and when they do, I’m going to gouge their eyeballs out.”

The way he says it is so casual and unbothered that I believe him.

His finger traces under the thin string masquerading as a strap before he rips it. “Looks like you’re going to need to go change.”

I tuck the broken strap into the front of the dress, my skin stinging from how hard he pulled it. “It’s fine.”

“When it’s just the two of us, you can walk around naked for all I care.” He slides his finger beneath the other strap, pausing for a moment.

“Fine, then. I will.”

Sean’s jaw works overtime before he pulls hard on the other strap. It digs into my skin like the first before it gives way. “Go get changed into something you can wear to the gun range.”

Another argument is on the tip of my tongue, but I don’t miss the way Kara and the other two guards are watching us.

Continuing to disobey him when he’s given me an order in front of his people isn’t an option. Until he demanded that I go upstairs, this could have looked like foreplay to them.

It’s more like two people holding blades to the other’s throat and playing a deadly game of chicken.

I spin on my heel, one hand clasped to the front of my dress to hold it up as I climb the stairs.

After getting changed into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, I head back downstairs.

Even though I would rather stay home and look into ways to improve my patient’s quality of life, some time at the gun range is needed.

Years of martial arts training wasn’t enough to protect me from Noah and his men, but sharpening my gun skills might be.

“Having three guards is overkill.”I follow Sean into the small gun range, leaving our bodyguards outside to watch over the building.

He punches a code into a glowing panel on the cement wall, and a door opens, revealing enough guns to stock a small armory. “Pick something.”

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