Page 36 of Merciless Promise
“I could rail you, but your defiance will not go unpunished.”
“Then fuck me, Kingston. I can’t wait another minute.”
“So eager, but be careful what you wish for.”
I then decided I would rather be home, so we reversed course and headed back to the loft. Once there, I edged her multiple times before leaving the both of us unsatisfied. Going to bed with blue balls wasn’t something I relished, and it wouldn’t happen again.
When I awoke the next morning, I wasn’t sure who would be more pissed off—Ekaterina or me. I was alone, and not the happiest about it, so I supposed I had my answer. I stretched my long legs across the bed, and when I patted the area closest to me, it was cold to the touch, meaning she had been up for some time. Granted, we’d only lived together for a short time, but I had come to realize that she was not a morning person. In fact, she often slept until all hours of the morning while I woke up like clockwork around the same time each day.
A sigh escaped as I placed my hands behind my head and stared up at the ceiling. If I thought my wife was upset about having to attend Cillian’s birthday party with me, she would likely be just as much, if not more, pissed off that I had scheduled a doctor’s appointment for her. The sooner I got her pregnant, the sooner this nightmare could be over.
As was customary whenever I thought about her, I rolled over to my side where a single picture sat framed on my nightstand. It was one of Princeton and me when we were teenagers together. The irony was that he would still be one—forever—as he was dead, and nothing would bring him back. No matter what happened to Ekaterina and when, my kid brother would still be gone.
“Forever young,” I muttered under my breath. “I’ll get you the peace you need, though, Prince. Believe that!”
Finally, I scrubbed my hands down my face. I needed to get up and make sure that she was awake, too. After rising from the bed, I walked over to the railing and looked down at the lower level. There, curled up on the couch, was Ekaterina. She looked so angelic. And she also looked so tiny as the oversized sectional seemed to swallow her whole. She was definitely not an angel, but I knew who was now, no thanks to her. I decided to ignore my thoughts before they ended up consuming me altogether.
A half hour later, I was showered and dressed, so I made my way downstairs. I wasn’t sure if it had been all the noise I had made when getting ready, or if she had actually remembered to set her alarm, but it didn’t matter one way or the other. She was awake, and after clearing the last step, I looked in her direction and our eyes met.
“Going somewhere?” she asked me.
“Ummm, to the doctor’s office.”
“Are you sick?” she asked. “Do I dare hope?”
Either she had perfected this innocent act, or else she had forgotten about this appointment altogether. “No, it’s an OBGYN visit. Have you forgotten about it?”
“Ugh,” she groaned before tearing her eyes away from me. “Can’t we just reschedule it?”
“No, we cannot,” I said to her as I closed the distance between us. “Go get ready because we need to leave soon.”
“I don’t feel good,” she bemoaned to me. “My head is throbbing. I just want to go back to sleep.” And as if she intended to do just that, she fell back onto the couch and attempted to cover her head until I ripped the blanket away from her.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have been drinking it up at the party, allowing yourself to be drugged,” I pointed out.
“Of course, it is all my fault,” is what it sounded like she said. I could hardly make it out because her face was buried in her pillow.
“You didn’t listen to me, so I would say that it?—”
She turned suddenly, then tossed the pillow at me. “Go away, Kingston.”
I slapped her outer thigh a bit harder than intended because the sound reverberated in the room, and she cried out. “You have an appointment for a physical, and to discuss the baby we’re supposed to have. I’m sure you haven’t forgotten that this thing between us didn’t end with the simple reciting of vows, did you?”
“Ugh, of course not. I just don’t feel good.”
“Well, I’m sorry, but I have some upcoming business soon to handle in Boston, so I need to have this over and done with, puisín.”
“You’re going out of town?” she said, and I chuckled as those words perked her right up.
“Yes, but don’t think it means you can escape me or this arrangement. Nolan is staying behind, and he’ll be keeping an eye on you while I’m gone.”
“I don’t require a babysitter.”
“He’s a bodyguard, but I’m not so sure that youdon’tneed a babysitter, too. If I’m so wrong, get up and go get ready like a good girl.”
She flashed me a ‘go to Hell’ look, but little did she know, but she had already sent me there, for months after I watched my brother take his last breath in that dank, cold hospital room. I’d gone on a spiral afterward, and it’d been my grandfather who reined me back in. My brother was gone, as were the chances for any children of his own, but the family business continued. Ourlives went on. Things had been great since, until he’d gotten the idiotic idea to force my cousin and me into not only matrimony, but fatherhood as well.
“I’ll get up and go, but just know that I won’t be pleasant about it,” she muttered as she got off the couch and circled around the damn thing so she didn’t have to brush past me.
