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“Emmy! Oh my god, I was so worried about you. I know you’re okay, well, as okay as can be expected considering the circumstances but my brain just wasn’t getting the message. I tried to wait for as long as I could. Nikolai kept telling me you were fine, but I was going out of my mind.”
Ivan slid out of bed and pulled his pants up, tucking his still hard dick behind his zipper as I watched wistfully. His body was a work of art and a very immature part of me wanted to hang up on my sister and drag him back to bed. My eyes roamed his lean, muscled tattooed flesh, inevitably landing back on where his dick was distorting the shape of his zipper.
“Emmy,” he chided me in a low voice. He fixed his gaze on me, his brows lowered. “If you don’t focus on your sister instead of my cock, I’m going to fuck you while you’re on the phone with her and I don’t care how embarrassed you get.”
I gasped lightly, my cheeks reddening and diverted my eyes to the ceiling, pulling my attention to Hannah as she continued to tell me about how worried she had been and how guilty she felt dragging me down to the Trinity Club.
Ivan snorted with laughter at my reaction and sat on the bed, looking at his own phone.
“It’s not your fault, Hannah. How could you possibly know that Drew—Orlov would follow us there and I would run out of there all upset with Ivan.”
Ivan’s shoulders tightened at my words, and I reached out to pat his arm, silently soothing him now that I knew he hadn’t been hooking up with the stripper at the club.
“I know, but…I just misread everything. Nikolai was down there to find out information about his mother and I just jumped to all kinds of crazy conclusions. Believe me, Nikolai and I had a long talk about it after they found you. I didn’t trust him and that was totally unfair of me,” Hannah said in a contrite voice.
“It’s okay. I’m okay and it’s all over now and Orlov isn’t a threat anymore. We can all breathe a little easier now that everyone is safe from crazy, stalker psychopaths.”
I noticed Ivan stiffening again, his hand clenching tightly around his phone. Instead of consoling him, I stared at him in confusion. What was wrong with him? What was making him so tense? Did something happen with Orlov? Fear shot through me, and I sat up sharply. Did Orlov get loose?
“Uh, I have to go.”
“Wait! You never replied to my text. Are you coming to the club?”
I rolled my eyes. “You gave me, like, ten minutes to answer your text before you called me.”
“I told you I was going crazy. You’re lucky you got that much time. You know what? You’re going to the club. I need to see you. Everyone needs to see you and we definitely need to celebrate the end of all this insanity. Be there at seven.”
I stared at Ivan because I knew he could hear Hannah and his muscles were practically quivering now. “Uh, yeah, fine. I’ll see you there,” I replied absently, my attention completely focused on Ivan.
I threw the phone down and sat back against the pillows. “What’s going on?”
His head whipped around, and he shot me a surprised look, before regulating his features into his normal, expressionless mask. “What do you mean?”
I crossed my arms, my brows tightening. “I know something is going on. I can tell by your reaction to my conversation with Hannah. Did…did Orlov escape?” I squeaked the syllables, fear leaking into my words.
His eyebrows jumped. “What? No. Fuck no. No way. In fact, they got too rough with him and gave him a concussion, so he’s out cold at the warehouse.”
“Then what’s going on? Every time Hannah and I would bring up going back to normal and all this craziness being over, you’d turn into a piece of granite.”
He stared at me, cocking his head slightly. He let out a deep breath. “It’s nothing, Em. I’m just riled up from this Orlov stuff. Like I said, I’m not too fond of taking you out in public after everything that just happened. It puts me on edge.”
I frowned with uncertainty. He didn’t look like he was lying, but his face was like a cypher, completely unreadable. I didn’t have any reason to not believe him, but for some reason, something felt…off. My gut was tight, and doubt was once again rearing its head.
“That’s it? That’s the only thing you're worried about?”
He leaned down and landed a hard kiss on my pursed lips. “Yes. That’s it. I suppose we should get up and eat. You have to be hungry.”
Instead of waiting for my answer, he got up and walked out of the bedroom, presumably to get something to eat for breakfast. Or more accurately, order something for breakfast.
I slowly rose out of bed, still bothered by our last exchange. Ivan was still worried about something, and I was going to find out what it was.
Chapter 39
Ivan
I kept Emmy close as we walked into The Trinity Club, my hand stationed on the back of her neck. What I wanted to do was march her ass right back to my apartment and hide her away, keep her safe.
It didn’t help that she looked so fucking hot in the little pale blue mini dress she was wearing. All I could do was stare at her legs and imagine them clamping around my waist. The wayward thought had me looking at all the other motherfuckers in the bar, trying to determine if they were having the same thoughts.