372 

Sephie 

“I’m not sure, princess. This has never happened before so I don’t know how to handle it. Your hand on me helps keep me grounded,” Ivan said. 

“I can do that. Adrik knows something is happening. He’ll be able to get most of this conversation when we get back to the table without me saying anything. I’m hoping he can make the meeting shorter. I don’t want to have to look at her make bedroom eyes at my future husband any longer than I have to anyway,” I said. 

Andrei laughed. “She’s worse than Giana about making it obvious.” 

“Right? Is there no subtlety left in this world?” I asked. Before we walked back to the table, I pulled Ivan toward me. I wrapped my arms around his neck, knowing he was struggling to keep it together. “We’ll get out of here as soon as we can. You’re doing great and I’m proud of you,” I said. He held onto me tightly for a few moments before I felt his arms relax around me. 

Andrei and Ivan both walked slightly in front of me as we walked back to the tables. I had a hold of Ivan’s hand still. I was mostly lost in my own head, thinking about Ivan and how to help him when I felt his grip on my hand tighten. I looked up, snapped back to reality. 

The woman was sitting in my chair, turned toward Adrik, talking to him quietly. Adrik had leaned as far away from her as he could without falling off his chair. He was forced to look at her, but would only glance at her before looking away, I said to Ivan and Andrei, “get behind me. hand on my back, I need to let go.” 

Ivan put your 

We still had some distance before we were back at the table, so they moved instantly behind me and I felt Ivan’s hand on the small of my back. I crossed my arms over my chest as we walked the last few steps to the table. We were walking behind the woman and Adrik, so while he knew we were there, she still hadn’t seen us. 

1 cleared my throat as I stopped behind my chair this woman was siting in. She continued talking to Adrik like she didn’t hear me, so I cleared my throat louder this time. She finally glanced at me but didn’t make a move to get up. I could feel everyone’s eyes on me, but I was so angry at her blatant disregard for my presence that I didn’t care. As she was talking to Adrik, 1 could hear the thoughts in her head. I could also feel the hatred she had for me. She was doing this on purpose. 

I looked at Vitaliy, then to Battista. In Italian, I said loud enough that everyone could hear me, “Battista, do you always surround yourself with such ill-mannered women, or you brought her special for us? If you did, I’d like to thank you. It’s been quite some time since I’ve had the chance to make another woman cry.” 

Vitaliy couldn’t contain his laughter. Even Battista looked amused. The woman stopped talking to Adrik, noticing everyone looking at her. She finally made a move to stand up. When she turned around to look at me, I felt Ivan’s hand press into my back at the same time I felt his bubble go up around me. When she looked at me, I saw exactly what Ivan saw. It wasn’t her face that I saw. It was something entirely different and not exactly human. 

As she turned to walk back to her original seat, she looked at me with every bit of hatred she could muster. It was very much the same feeling that I had when Sal and Armando looked at me when they took me and Ivan. I didn’t like it. I felt the panic start, but I pushed my anger to the surface as much as possible, trying to override the panic. Ivan and Andrei both caught on to what I was doing and I felt their anger feed into mine. The panic was pushed down and I was able to hold her gaze until she looked away. 

As she moved to walk past me, I said in Italian, so only she could hear, “try to touch him again and you will no longer have functioning hands.” 

She didn’t respond, but she walked very quickly to her original seat. I graciously sat back down with as pleasant of a smile on my face as I could muster. Adrik moved his chair closer to me, so I could still keep a hand on Ivan. He stretched his arm across my lap, leaning over to kiss me in front of everyone. I had to admit to feeling ecstatic when I looked at her and saw her red face at seeing him give me affection. 

Battista and Vitaliy had been quietly conversing while this was happening. Vitally caught my eye, winking at me. The woman was much quieter for the rest of the meeting, but would still interject occasionally. Her little stunt seemed to irritate Battista, as he was much colder to her for the rest of the meeting. Before, he would let her talk and seemed to take her opinion into account. After, he was very dismissive of her and would interrupt her frequently. 

Ivan managed to hold it together, as long as I could keep a hand on him. I was anxious for the meeting to end so I could tell him that I saw what he saw. I was curious if Andrei could also see it. The woman still took every opportunity to look at Adrik, but he never took his hand off my lap and he made sure to look at me more often than normal. He practically didn’t look at anyone else the rest of the time. 

When the meeting finally came to a close and everyone stood up to leave, I felt his arm around my waist, pulling me as close to him as possible. I made sure that she saw it. Adrik walked to Battista, shaking his hand, never letting go of me. The guys were close behind us. Battista stepped closer to us, taking my hand. He turned it over, kissing the back of my hand as he said in Italian quietly, “you’ve done me a huge favor today. I’m in your debt.” He smiled warmly at me as he stepped back and went back to talking to Vitaliy, 

While Vitaliy and Battista continued to talk, Adrik looked at his watch. I knew he didn’t have anymore meetings scheduled today, but he still told them he needed to get back for one. They both nodded, both of them smiling at me as we turned to leave. I caught her staring at us one last time as we turned to walk away from everyone. I felt Adrik’s hand slide down to my a ss as we walked away. I could barely keep my laughter in until we were out of the restaurant, 

“You’re just as savage as I am now. I f**king love it.”