Page 84 of Cruel Vows

If he’s trying to get me too horny to argue with him, he’s got a big surprise in store.

I drive my knee up between his legs and he gasps, rolling to the side. He struggles to get to his feet, glaring as I spring to mine.

“What the hell was that for?” He lunges at me, grabbing me around the waist and tossing me onto his shoulder.

He carries me over to the pool at the opposite end of the gym, opening the little gate that surrounds it as I pound on his back. He tosses me in.

I fight to get to the surface as the cool water rushes around me.

When I come up gasping for air, he’s standing at the side of the pool looking smug.

“You’re being ridiculous.” I grab the edge of the pool and haul myself out, only to be tossed back in.

I’m fuming when I come back up, and there’s a little voice in the back of my mind urging me to drown him just to be done with this controlling shit.

“Next week, I’m going to be going back to work whether you like it or not.”

“You don’t think I already thought about you going back?” he asks as he crouches down at the side of the pool, his hands clasped together. “I considered knocking down the security surrounding you at work, but then I remembered the brand on your back that’s barely healed.”

My stomach drops to my feet. “Sean, this is important to me.”

“And having you trained and ready for whatever comes your way is important to me.” He holds out a hand and helps me out of the pool. “Which is why next week I’m going to hunt you through the property.”

“Like I’m an animal?” I scoff and wring out my hair straight onto his feet. “That’s not happening.”

“More like someone who is trying to escape Noah and needs to be able to find her way around when she’s scared.”

“This is overkill.”

His gaze drops to my chest and the way the already tight sports bra clings even more to my breasts.

The front of his shorts is bulging more than it was when he had me pinned to the ground and for just a moment, I lose track of what we’re arguing about.

And then I remember and I’m more annoyed than ever.

“Stop looking at me like you want to fuck me to distract me.” I snap my fingers in his direction. “We need to get on the same page about all of this and fast because I’m not going to sit around for the rest of my life being reduced to nothing but your wife.”

“It’s not for the rest of your life. But until this issue with Noah is settled, you’re going to do what I say.”

My blood boils as I bite down on the inside of my cheek, trying to keep calm and resist shouting that this isn’t fair like a child.

I know this isn’t fair, and I’m well aware of the fact that life has never been fair. I have to work with the hand that I’m dealt, but right now, it feels like the dealer keeps switching cards on me.

Sean sighs. “We’re not going to keep arguing about this right now, Ellie. I have work I need to get done.”

“At least one of us does.”

I shoulder past him, heading for the door.

Though I have no clue how I got to this point in my life, I know I’m not going to spend the rest of it just sitting to the side and being a mafia wife.

Somehow, there has to be a way to blend my two lives together, though that would involve cooperating with Sean.

And at this point, it seems like dying would be easier than getting along with Sean for more than a day at a time.

Hopefully it doesn’t come to that.

24

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