Page 30 of Merciless Promise
A drink would be nice, but I had made a promise to Kingston. I understood what he was worried about, but I hated to break the news to him that I was not pregnant, so there was no need to act like I was by depriving myself of something that would help me settle my nerves.
The man was as stubborn as they came, though. He was also very overwhelming to be around; however, not always in the worst of ways. Still, there was so much he was holding back from me, and I suspected it was nothing good. We didn’t have to love each other. Or, even like each other, for that matter. We only needed to stay together long enough to bring a son into the world so he would maintain his control of the Brannington empire. In return for my contributions, I could finally run away to a place where nothing bad could touch me.
Still, I wish it didn’t suck like this. Kingston wanted me to mingle with these other people, but they were all ones he knew, and not me. They were there for his cousin and for him. I doubted I would even know more than the two Brannington men. Or, so I thought until the moment I heard a deep male voice.
“Ekaterina. Is that you?”
I turned at the sound of Caleb’s voice and smiled sweetly at him. He leaned in to kiss both of my cheeks, then pickedup one of my hands and placed it between his. “Hi, Caleb. I’m surprised to see you here tonight.” Caleb O’Neal was a budding politician in the New York City area. Having started out as a campaign advisor, he was now planning his own run, instead of wasting his time on other candidates. “I thought you’d moved to Washington, D.C.?”
He smiled, and I could remember the few events I’d attended with him as his date, including a special event at the White House about four months back. The guy was in his late thirties, but he didn’t look a day older than twenty-nine at the most.
“I did, but I was invited to this party. Once I got to town, I’d actually looked you up to have you attend it with me, but the agency told me that you were no longer working for them. Have you ventured out on your own? Or maybe joined another one?”
I kept the smile on my face, even though I could feel the heat from someone else’s gaze on me. If it was Kingston as suspected, he could get over it. He wanted me to mingle, so this would count. I shook my head at his question, then held up my left hand so he could see my ring finger.
“I gave up that line of work, and I’m now?—”
“Married, so fuck off,” I heard from behind me. Whirling around, I glanced up at my husband, who was now madder than I had ever seen him before.
Ihad let Ekaterina out of my sight for no more than three or four fucking minutes, and she was already flirting with another man. I shouldn’t have been so pissed off, seeing as I could hardly stand to be around her myself, only I knew that was quickly proving to be a lie, which only infuriated me more. And it wasn’t just that she was talking to the dope, but that she was actually smiling. It reached her eyes and was not just for show. She was actually happy to see whoever this was, and I now began to wonder why.
He looked American, so I doubted it was someone from Russia that she’d once known. If she’d met him here, it meant that he had been a client of hers at one time. I could already see her on the arm of the redheaded male as she smiled sweetly up at him. Jealousy wasn’t something I was used to being on the receiving end of, and that small fact bothered me more than it should have.
Wanting to break up whatever reunion she was having, I arrived in time for her to show him her wedding ring. I took thatas my chance to cut in, almost like someone would a dance on the dancefloor, earning her ire as she glared up at me.
“My wife and I require a few minutes of privacy,” I said to the guy who looked at Ekaterina, which intensified my anger.
She was silent for a few seconds, but then smiled politely at him. “If you don’t mind giving us a few minutes,” she finally told him.
“Are you sure?” he asked her as he looked between the two of us.
I didn’t know which part of get lost he didn’t understand. “You heard the woman,” I said to him as I held my wife against me more possessively.
“It’s okay, Caleb. My husband and I need to have a talk.”
“If you’re sure?—”
I released her and was about to grab this twerp, but she stepped in front of me. “I am. It was lovely to see you again.”
“The pleasure is always mine,” he said to her, and she softly nudged me in the chest with her elbow at the sound of my low growl.
Caleb walked away, and he had taken no more than four or five steps when she whirled around on me. "What the fuck was that?" she seethed.
Venom flashed in those cold eyes of hers. I could so easily fill those glacial depths with flames, but I didn’t trust myself enough to even entertain touching her right now. I still harbored my normal resentful hate toward her, and it was taking everything inside of me not to fuck her right here in the ballroom for everyone to see in an attempt to both mark and break her.
Call it the need to keep up pretenses, or maybe some unfounded twinge or two of jealousy, but it was strong and intense, and so unlike me where she was concerned. Her eyes continued to peer into mine, and the one thing I had alwaysrespected about Ekaterina was that she seemed fearless and backed down to no one. Until now.
I did frighten her, which was what made her agree to help me fulfill my grandfather’s asinine demands to begin with, but her defiance was growing stronger with every passing day. Cillian had just pointed out something that seemed so far-fetched in the moment, but now I couldn’t be so sure.
“You can’t trust her, King. You saw what she did to Prince and got away with it. You need to be careful,”Cillian had warned.
I’d brushed him off, but as she finally rolled her eyes and went to pull away, my hand darted out in front of me. I had my hand wrapped around her throat before I even realized what I was doing. Her eyes widened as I held her by her throat, even though I wasn’t even squeezing her neck. I could, but again, I couldn’t trust myself not to strangle her if I did.
“We know what this marriage between us is, but no one else is to know. What the hell did you think you were doing, flirting with that guy at a party being thrown for my cousin, especially one with a number of my family’s associates in attendance?”
She smacked at my hand, and when I dropped it, she gave me a‘go to Hell’look, but little did she know that marriage to her was one. “I didn’t go looking for him. He found me,” she pointed out.
This outburst of mine still had me shaken, and while it was likely completely innocent, I couldn’t be so sure. Ekaterina wasn’t one who could be trusted. The last Brannington to have done so had been left as roadkill on the side of a driveway.
