She was trying to settle me, but it didn’t work. I’d grown up for far too long with dangerous people around me, ready to do despicable things, and if somebody, anybody, managed to hurt my baby boy with their games…

“Lucian,” Leo said and slapped my back.

“Good to see you,” I said.

Elaine got talking to Haley and Leo used the opportunity to talk Morelli business, but my mind was still skirting elsewhere. To Arlo back at home.

Leo picked it up, he could read me like a book.

“He’s with Ella, right?”

“Yeah, he’s with Ella.”

“And you have security outside?”

“Yeah, two of the guys.”

“Then everything is fine,” he said, and I wished I believed him but there was something churning deep, some sixth sense that was niggling me.

Leo carried on talking, and Elaine kept on laughing with Haley. Elaine was enjoying the conversation, her laugh distracting. It was when she flashed me one of her glances that the thump in my ribs hit a whole other tone.

Yet again, my wife knew what she was doing. She knew the look she was giving me and how it would drive me wild. Her knowing smile was alive on her face, even as she kept up her conversation, and it only reminded me more of how she’d grabbed hold of my heart and my dick in one fell swoop at Tinsley’s birthday party.

Yeah, she’d worn that dress with a motive in mind.

She was going to achieve it like a little vixen, and fuck, I was going to make her pay for it.

“I’m just going to the bathroom,” she told Haley, making sure it was loud enough that I heard her.

She swayed her hips in the provocative way I loved, sashaying more dramatically than normal. Leo laughed a sly laugh as she made her way through the crowd.

“Someone is being summoned.”

“Tempted,” I said. “Someone is being tempted.”

“Be careful,” he told me. “Everyone will be watching your moves.”

“They can watch all they want,” I replied. “I’ll be getting what I want, regardless.”

He laughed again. “I’ve no doubt about that.”

Elaine was fumbling in her clutch when I caught up with her enroute to the bathroom, just like I knew she would be. Playing the games of my fantasies.

I checked we were alone before I grabbed hold of her and slammed her against the wall in an alcove, my voice dark and deep as I whispered.

“You’re a dirty little slut, you know that?”

“Yeah,” she said, with that filthy glint in her eyes. “I know that. Are you going to step up and teach me a lesson?”

“Too fucking right,” I told her, grabbing her arm tight enough to shunt her into the bathroom.