“I don’t care if you’re his wife, you tried to kill my brother,” Emmet growled lowly. The blade pushed against my skin.
My temples throbbed and I tightened my grip on my knife. Emmet didn’t realize the mistake he just made.
Nazai narrowed his eyes at his brother, his hand cuffing the wound. “I love you, brother, but touch my wife again and you won’t be performing surgeries for a long time.” Then he faced me and Emmet. “Remove that blade from my wife’s neck before it’s a problem, Emmet.” All playfulness had left his voice.
Lucas didn’t look too bothered by his brother’s threat. “Now isn’t the time for threats.” He hurried to add pressure to the wound.
“She tried to kill you,” Emmet protested, knife still to my neck. “No one goes after my brothers.”
“She wasn’t gonna kill me, E. Everything’s good. Take the knife from her neck. Now!” The last part came out in somewhat of a growl.
Emmet hesitated for a second and slowly removed the knife from my skin. I turned and glared at him, but he looked as unbothered as always.
“What the hell happened?” Ezra asked, coming out of nowhere.
“Our dear sister-in-law just tried to off our brother.” He shot me a venomous look.
Nazai huffed out a laugh then winced. “She wasn’t trying to kill me.” Someone’s tie was now being held to the wound.
Silently I shot my eyes to my knife. Blood still coated it. I still wasn’t sure how to process how I felt right now. The ball of knots in my stomach refused to unravel. My heart hammered behind my breasts.
Too many things were swirling through my head, causing a murky storm of emotions to suddenly erupt.
“My bag’s in my car, take him upstairs,” Lucas demanded. Suddenly we were being rushed in the direction of the office I had just come out of. It seemed everyone was too lost in their own world to notice anything going on. My intentions weren’t to cut Nazai, but after replaying him and the girl on stage over in my mind, I didn’t feel bad about it either.
____
Turns out the knife went deeper than I expected. Lucas ended up adding eight stitches to Nazai’s neck. Nazai had spare clothes in his office for whatever reason and decided to stay while I caught a ride home. I thought he would protest but instead he made Luke go with me and Devin drove us. He didn’t say much in the office either, just stared at me as Lucas stitched him up. He dismissed everyone but the three of us and River. I could tell Emmet still wasn’t happy about what had happened and even Ezra was side eyeing me. I was used to watching my back and being on guard, but I didn’t like it in such an open setting.
When I got back to the penthouse, I dismissed the babysitter then checked on my brother. The effects of the liquor still had me somewhat fuzzy, but my mind was all over the place trying to understand what had happened earlier, so I grabbed a bottle of wine from the wine cellar and downed the majority of the bottle. Jealousy was a foreign feeling to me and I didn’t know how to process or handle it. It scared me to know that in such a short time, I had developed enough feelings for my husband to want to physically harm someone else because of a lap dance at a strip club. It didn’t make sense to me. I’d never cared about anyone else outside of my brother, not even our parents. I’d never felt the need to stake my claim or had the urge to literally slice someone’s hands off for touching someone I deemed off limits.
Growing up, I wasn’t impulsive; there were risks in what I did. Taking my time and not being sloppy was why I was great at what I did. Acting off emotions made you make mistakes and could get you caught. So tonight, when I snatched my knife out and brought it to Nazai’s neck, it wasn’t because I felt threatened or anything, it was solely because I wanted to harm him and the dancer who’d popped out that cake and that angered me.
I ended up finishing most of the bottle of wine and stumbled into the shower before retiring to bed. Since the night of the storm, I found myself in Nazai’s bedroom. Usually I would start on the edge of the bed and at some point my body would gravitate toward him and I ended up tucked at his side. Cuddling and being able to sleep comfortably next to someone was new to me. My whole life was built around fight or flight, but those instincts seemed to be gone when Nazai came into the picture.
I passed out in a drunken slumber at some point. I wasn’t sure when Nazai got in, but I faintly heard the doors open and close in his bedroom before drifting back off.
CHAPTER 23
NAZAI
When I got out of the shower Cashlynn was asleep, snoring lightly, laying on her back. Usually, she slept curled up in a ball as if she was trying to close herself off from the world, but tonight she was laid out with the covers only covering her lower half. I noted the bottle of nearly empty wine from the cellar I hardly ever used.
Smirking, I brushed my hand over the cut on my neck. I saw it in her eyes tonight, Cashlynn was acting off emotions, something I’d never seen from her before. Normally when I made her angry she snapped at me but never truly reacted in a way where I felt like she cared about what I did. Tonight though, she was acting like a pissed off woman. She normally closed her feelings off to anyone who wasn’t her brother, but not tonight. No matter how good she had grown at masking her emotions, that all went out the window.
Wetting my lips, I skipped the briefs and headed to my side of the bed. Another thing, Cashlynn was growing more comfortable sleeping next to me. She tried to fight it, but since the night of the storm she always found her way close to me.
I went into my nightstand and grabbed the cuffs. They were long enough to give Cashlynn a little range, but still keep her secured. Grinning, I crept on the bed and gently grabbed one of her hands, snapping the cuff around it and threading the other through the steel bars on my headboard before doing the same with her free hand.
I eyed her. The alcohol must have gotten to her because she wore nothing tonight, which was good news for me because I had plans for her. Since she’d put that knife to my neck, my dick had been hard, but I also knew I needed to punish her. What she did was reckless and shit could have gone left quickly. My brothers all wanted her head for cutting me, but I shut them down, especially Emmet. Many people let their guard down with him, but when pushed he was the deadliest of us all. Since he was silent most of the time, people never saw him coming.
Getting off the bed, I went to my walk-in closet and grabbed the bag I had tucked into the side. I thought it might take me a little more time to use this, but now it felt right.
Walking back to the bed, I went back into my nightstand and grabbed the blindfold, placing the bag on top of the stand and getting back on the bed. I eyed the front of her body. My hand brushed lightly over her breasts. She moaned softly and her body shifted when I thumbed her nipples. My mouth watered to taste the now hardened gum drops. Lowering my head, I flicked one with my tongue and sucked it in my mouth lightly.
Cashlynn shifted under me and I flicked my eyes up to see if she was awake, but her eyes were still closed. I moved to the other breast, quickly flicking my tongue back and forth over it. I grabbed the cover, pushing it down her body, happy to see she didn’t have on any panties either.
“Were you waiting for me, Wildfire?” I muttered against her skin, prying her legs open and brushing my fingers over her mound down her wet slit.
