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Matthias

“What?” It comes out far harsher than Roman deserves.

“Dude, what crawled up your ass and died?”

I ignore him. “What do you need?”

“I wanted to give you a heads-up. There’s been more movement by the ports.

The Russians are becoming a bigger problem than we anticipated.

They have too much money floating around.

They’re growing in numbers. More men from the motherland are popping up.

Bash is having a hard time keeping track of everything.

Dom’s getting restless. We may need your help.

I don’t know what the hell you’ve been up to at your house, but you need to get your act together.

Something’s not right.” Roman’s voice is calm, but I hear the levity in it. This is serious.

But my mind isn’t on the ports.

It’s on her.

My constant distraction.

“I’ll be on the lookout. Keep me posted. ”

“Good. Talk to you later.” Roman hangs up before I can tell him not to talk to me later.

I have a spitfire to punish.

***

After hours of work, I finally power off my desktop and sit back, replaying this morning in my head.

How did a day that started so good turn to shit so quickly?

I love waking up my sweet girl with coffee almost as much as waking up on top of her. She always stirs when she smells it. She’s adorable when she groggily reaches for it, too sleepy to guard her reactions. Too sleepy to stop herself from checking me out.

Then, seeing her light up when I gave her phone back…

For a second, I almost felt like an asshole for taking it in the first place.

Almost .

I did what I had to do.

But the highlight of my day was our hug.

She initiated contact.

She wrapped her arms around me .

She wanted me.

And she didn’t even realize what she’d done. Her body acted on instinct. And her instinct was to go to me.

Holding her felt like holding the sun. I never wanted to let go.

Then she burst into my office, pale and frantic, and my heart fucking stopped. I was across the room in seconds.

Fear consumed me.

I hated it.

I hated that she has the power to make me feel that kind of panic .

When I realized what she was asking for, I was confused. Why would she want to do something that could open her up to perverts? I have more than enough money to support her. She doesn’t need to work. She doesn’t need to expose herself to disgusting men who would jerk off to her voice.

But she refused to see reason.

And when she spit in my face, I saw red.

Our first fight.

That’s a milestone.

Her fiery temper made me just as angry as it did hard. I wanted to pin her to my desk and fuck the attitude out of her.

I didn’t. But I wanted to.

I can’t let her see that kind of weakness in me.

So, I leaned into the anger instead.

As much as her fire turns me on, I can’t let her disrespect me. I’ve been too lenient. She needs a reminder of who’s in charge. She needs to be punished.

The thought makes my cock throb.

But now that I’ve had a few hours to cool off, I realize I may have been too harsh. I stand by my decision. No perverts get to listen to my girl’s voice. But narrating clearly means something to her.

Maybe I can find a way to make it work.

Maybe I can get Bash to track who listens to her audiobooks?

They can listen.

But I’ll know who they are.

And if I ever find out one of them is getting off to her?

I’ll handle him.

Hearing that she doesn’t record those scenes with another man helps. I would have put a stop immediately. That changes things.

So, I’ll think on it .

But first, I need to apologize.

And remind my sweet girl that no matter how hard she fights me...

She’s already mine.