I’ve reached the end of my patience. “You should do that anyway, since we are engaged if you recall.”
He catches my hand in his own, my left hand, and shows me my naked ring finger. “It’s a little hard to pronounce your engagement when your betrothed doesn’t even wear the ring. Did you lose it?”
I jerk my hand from his grasp. “Of course I didn’t lose it. I just don’t wear it all the time. Only when I need to put on a show. And I can’t get rid of Michail. He’s one of my brother’s men, and my brother doesn’t listen to a damn thing I say. Trust me on that one. I could tell Kai the sky is blue, and he’ll argue it’s green just for the fun of it.”
Emmanuelle’s smile droops at the corners. “How fascinating. Should I count on you to be at the event? I also need to know if the rumors are true, and there’s something going on between you and your bodyguard.”
I tense, eyeing the spot where Michail sat earlier. I wish he was still down here. Not that I think Emmanuelle will make a move on me, but because his presence calms and comforts me. It’s strange how a short time ago his presence grated on me to no end. Now I just feel warm and safe when I’m with him. “That is none of your business, for one. And two, that is none of your fucking business.”
I stand and glare between him and his bodyguards. “You can find your own way out.”
Emmanuelle scrambles to regain his composure. He likely has women crawling over each other for his attention. I appreciate a man who can take rejection in stride. It’s the only reason I don’t hunt down his ring and lob it at his face. That and he and his men got rid of the drive-by shooter.
“We are still engaged, correct?”
I turn as I reach the stairs. “As long as you don’t piss me off too much in the meantime, sure.”
25
MICHAIL
She creeps down the hallway, checking each room as she passes, looking for me. I shouldn’t let her off the hook, but I know what it means to put on an act. She needed to convince Emmanuelle so she can get what she needs from him.
I understand it, but I fucking hate it. Upstairs, I heard what she said to him and what he asked her. Why didn’t she end things right there? She told me she would, but maybe that was before…what she said to get me into her bed and nothing more.
I monitor her progress, and the second she breaches the shadows of her bedroom door, I snag her in my arms, one hand over her mouth, the other around her waist, and pull her into the dark.
Her shades are heavy-duty, and there’s not much light peeking into the room. But she relaxes, only slightly, enough that her shoulder blades press into my chest, and her heels don’t batter against my shins. She knows it’s me. That floods me with a sense of awe. This powerful woman recognizes something in me and relaxes at my touch.
No sooner than I relax my grip, she wiggles in my hold, trying to break free again. It’s not the same frantic survival kind of fight she’s displayed before. No, this is more out of annoyance than anything else. Selena doesn’t enjoy being at someone else’s mercy. Not if they don’t force her to take it.
She breaks free, and I hold up my hands, a smile all for her in place when she rounds on me and shoves at my chest. It’s a useless move. I don’t shift, but it seems to deflate her enough to keep her from trying to hit me again.
“What the fuck?” she says.
I crowd close, even if she can’t see my mirrored anger in her eyes. “You don’t get to ask me that when you send me away like the hired fucking help.”
Her jaw tightens, and I step toward her bedside table to flip on the lamp. I want to see her eyes when she answers my questions.
“You are the hired fucking help,” she hisses. “So I’ll treat you any way I see fit.”
She says the words, but her voice trails off on the end as if she wishes she could take them back already.
“Please, Princess, tell me what else you think about me. The man who saved your life several times. The man who took your virginity in a screaming orgasm so very recently. You must see something worthy in me to take me to your bed.”
She scoffs. “You, more than anyone, know that has nothing to do with fucking someone. I can hate you and fuck you just fine.”
Wow. She’s delusional, even more than I thought, if she actually believes that to be true. She doesn’t hate me anymore than I hate her, but she wants to.