Page 43 of Wrapped in Perfection

"No. He's just being a big brother. If you were my sister, I'd lock you up."

She slowly says, "But you two are okay, right? You aren't fighting?"

I trace her lips. "We are fine. There's nothing to worry about, kotik."

We step out of the elevator, and I guide her to the car. The door shuts, and her phone rings. I recognize the ringtone, and her face falls.

"I'm sorry," she says.

"Block him."

"I can't. He'll destroy my stuff."

"You can't go back there."

She nods. "I know. But I have to figure out how to get my computer back. All my work is on it. Everything for my business is on the hard drive. I know I have to start over in Chicago, but I don't want to recreate everything I've done that I'm proud of."

I can't blame her for wanting her things, especially for her business. Chase will send the address, and I can take care of it for her. Then she can block him and never have to deal with him again.

She puts her hand on my biceps. "Please understand."

I pull her onto my lap. "Okay, kotik. I understand. But once you get it back, I want you to block him so he can't harass you anymore."

"I will. I promise." She leans forward and kisses me until we pull up to my place. I'm engrossed in her, but her phone rings again. She sighs and closes her eyes.

"Why don't you turn your phone off? Tell Vivian if they need to get a hold of you to call my cell."

She pulls it out of her purse, sends a text message, and turns it off. "Done." She leans back to my lips.

I almost forget about him, but I know that I'm not going to rest easy until he's out of her life for good. And Chase better send me his address sooner rather than later.

"I think we need a cart for my samples," she says and points to the window. My driver is pulling items from the trunk and stacking them on the sidewalk.

"My building has several. Let me go get one."

"Are you sure you want all this junk in your place?" she quietly asks, frowning at the growing pile.

He used to give her a hard time about her stuff.She doesn't have to tell me. I can tell by the anxiety on her face and how she's twisting her hands in her lap.

I turn her chin back to me. "As long as you come with all of it, you can bring whatever you need into my house. Don't ever question it."

She gives me a small smile and nods, but her expression when she turns back to the pile tells me I've not totally convinced her.

And I wonder how much damage he's done to her. I'm going to have to figure out how to undo it all, but I'm not sure where to even start.

9

Anna

My samples have takenover Dmitri's living room. As I stare at them, my stomach nervously flips.

All my work items were in the spare bedroom in New York. We never had guests nor used it before I started my business, but Mitch would get irritated whenever I had my stuff out. The room wasn't that large, and the queen-sized mattress filled most of the space. I had to work on the bed. I wanted to remove it and put a large table in the room, but Mitch wouldn't let me. The hours I spent leaning over my samples and drawing on my laptop didn't help my back, which already had issues sometimes from my large breasts.

Mitch couldn't stand anything left out and not in order, so I couldn't leave items out when I was in the middle of a project. Every night, I would make sure things were stacked perfectly in the closet so he wasn't upset. But he still would make comments about all the junk in our home.

Dmitri turns on the fireplace and takes the centerpiece off the dining room table, which butts up to the living room. He picks up my laptop. "Do you want this on the table or couch?"

"I can work in here on the floor so your table isn't full of my junk."

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