Page 47 of Reckless Promises

She’s trying to fucking break me.

Or kill me.

Maybe one then the other.

Tonight I should be focusing on the people we’re hosting at our house and the potential business opportunities they can offer, but all I can focus on is her.

“I don’t ask for impossible things, Odette, so no, I don’t expect you to behave.” I walk toward her because the woman is magnetic. “But you need to stay by my side at the very least.”

“What are you saying, Cillian?” She tips her chin up at my approach. “Worried you can’t control your enemies in your own home?”

She loves testing me, and I can’t help but grin at the attempt.

“You know I can.” I stop in front of her, my eyes dipping to her cherry-red lips. “But I’d prefer not to spill any blood on the new marble, and if anyone so much as looks at you wrong, I’ll have to.”

She presses her lips together and inhales through her nose.

The possession I feel over this woman consumes me, and from the way she reacts, I don’t think she minds it.

Her emerald eyes hold mine as she stands up tall and reaches for my tie, running her fingers over it. “Well,husband, I’ll do my best. But like you, I don’t make promises I can’t keep. So I apologize in advance if I’m a little bad.”

Her hand brushes over my chest, smoothing down my tie. And when she pauses at the top of my slacks, she bites her bottom lip.

Dead.

Carve it into my fucking headstone that Odette Vivianne Cross was the one who ended me. Because when she finds a button to push, she holds it down. And ever since the other day in my office, she’s been doing everything she can think of to test my patience.

It doesn’t help that we share a bed—a house, a life. I can’t escape her. And I don’t think I want to anymore.

Odette starts to trail her fingers lower, but I grab her wrist, pausing her descent.

“Don’t start anything you don’t intend to finish,wife.”

She smiles, but it's viciously sweet. “I would never. You’ve made your stance clear,husband. I was just confirming.”

Letting her go, she leans back against the counter, gripping it with both hands. The slit of her dress falls open with the movement, and what I wouldn’t give to spin her around and fuck the defiance out of her right now.

Instead, I shift gears.

“I have something for you.” I walk across the bathroom and into the closet, trying to divert my thoughts.

“You know, you don’t have to keep getting me things.”

“This is different.”

Walking back over to her, I hold a knife out between us. It’s small compared to the three I carry on me at all times, but it’s something.

“What is that?” Her eyes widen.

“Protection.” I kneel in front of her. “May I?”

She nods, watching me, and once more biting her bottom lip. What I wouldn’t give to get a taste of it again.

Reaching up, I peel the slit of her dress open to reveal both of her legs.

It takes all my control to not focus on the fact that she’s paired the most seductive dress in her closet with the smallest scrap of black lace covering her pussy.

I slip the knife into its holster and carefully wrap it around the thigh that will be hidden by her dress.

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