Wild Billionaire Romance - Chapter 80: Chapter 80

JOSEF
A week after our Las Vegas wedding.
Volkov Towers stood tall and ominous against the graying skies.
We were expecting another fucking thunderstorm.
Nothing unusual for New York City in the Spring. But it was so damn tedious.
Summer was just around the corner, and any day now, there would be nothing but blue skies and sweltering heat.
I usually hated the summer. But I was looking forward to it now.
Maybe I hated it because it used to remind me of her. Of what I lost. But she was here now. With me.
My wife.
The same woman I’d been avoiding for the last seven days.
That little trip down memory lane I’d gone on during the flight home from Vegas was like tearing a scab off a raw wound.
I thought I left all the hurt and pain her betrayal had caused behind me years ago. All that angry indignation and insufferable despair from her rejecting me. The way I felt torn up and lost.
But I guess I wasn’t as over it as I’d pretended to be. But I couldn’t afford to allow all that emotion to divest me of my plan.
I was completely and totally dedicated to seducing my wife. To making her fall for me—for what? I wasn’t going to leave her.
Fuck. Okay, fine.
I’d lost sight of what the hell I’d even started doing this for the second I saw her, never mind touched her.
And not touching her since our ceremony had been pure hell. Just ask my team. I’d been one ornery motherfucker the last seven days.
But working myself to death wasn’t helping. I wanted her now more than ever. Hell, I wanted her so badly, I could taste it.
I’d had her stuff moved into the penthouse condominium located beneath Marat’s, even though he was currently staying more and more at the house he’d bought next door to his brother’s in Long Island.
Meredith hadn’t commented on the penthouse, or on the fact her things were already there waiting for her when we arrived.
The day after we returned from our wedding, we held the private funeral for Franklin Gray. Meredith and I went alone.
Well, it was us along with a team of my men whose sole job was to ensure we were undisturbed.
I watched my wife as she sat silently throughout the mass.
She’d been raised Catholic, and while I wasn’t particularly religious, I’d been to my fair share of funerals. The priest was perfunctory. The ceremony was brief.
None of that surprised me.
What did surprise me was that Meredith did not shed one single, solitary tear for the man.
Also, she’d refused to place a rose on her stepfather’s casket before he was sealed inside the mausoleum.
I wasn’t judging.
I just didn’t understand.
Meredith was the most compassionate person I knew. Well, once upon a time she was. The girl I’d known was a bleeding heart.
I supposed this just solidified the fact we were sort of strangers now.
Married. But strangers.
Fuck.
The night of the funeral, she went to bed early.
I slept in the guest room. Working the hours I’d started to keep, I continued to sleep there every night since. It was easier that way.
Until it wasn’t.
Not touching her. Or smelling her. Or talking to her was driving me mad.
It was torture. Hell. I was in actual Hell.
Without her, it felt like I’d been thrust back into the cold, dark void after only the briefest, sweetest glimpse of the sun.
I’d barely spent two minutes in her presence since Vegas. I left before she woke up. I returned when she was in bed.
According to Mario, she never left the condo.
Except for this morning.
I began my morning commute before the sun was up and was on my first travel mug full of coffee when my phone buzzed, signaling an incoming text.
I almost dropped the fucking thing on the floor of the SUV when I saw it was from her. I’d added her contact information under the nickname I loved to call her. It was how I thought of her all the time, might as well make it easy on me.
Little Red
Hi, I’m not sure how all this works and we haven’t had the chance to talk, but would it be okay if I took a car? I need to go to my new job site. My boss needs me to fill out some forms before I start my new position at our Manhattan location tomorrow.
Josef
Mario will drive you wherever you need to go. You’re not a prisoner, Meredith. But I need to know the address of the Manhattan location.
Little Red
Thank you. Of course. Sending it now.
Of course, I’d send the car. I wasn’t a complete asshole. And she wasn’t my prisoner. She was my wife.
Maybe you should treat her like it then, shithead.
Rolling my eyes at my inner asshole voice, I rubbed a hand over my face. It had been a long fucking week, and I hated that the only way she felt she could talk to me was via text.
Your fault, shit for brains.
All. Your. Fault.
I’d already assigned Mario as her permanent bodyguard. He’d reported to me in regular half hour intervals. Just as I demanded.
That’s it.
Meredith was making me lose my mind. She’d turned me into a goddamn stalker.
I gritted my teeth just thinking about her working in that place. Exposed to violence and to so much damn heartache.
She didn’t cry for Franklin, but I knew she must bring some of this home with her. I only wished she’d confide in me.
When would she have the chance, ass face? You’re never there.
I was going to strangle my inner voice if he didn’t shut the fuck up.
“Everything alright, Boss?” Edgar asked, pulling up outside the towers.
“Fine. I’ll call when I’m ready to leave,” I told my driver.
I knew what it meant to the women and children who went to St. Elizabeth’s Shelter for safe harbor. I wasn’t that much of a monster to pretend it wasn’t a good thing my wife was doing with her time.
But it left me uneasy.
I didn’t like her working some place I hadn’t thoroughly vetted. So yes, I set my people to work.
My team had only just finished going through the files of all the staff and residents at the Jersey City location. Today, they started doing the same for the Manhattan shelter.
I needed them to be fast and thorough. Not just current employees and residents. They needed to go back three years, minimum, before I’d be satisfied.
As I rode the elevator for my morning meeting with Adrik and Marat, I sent half a dozen texts to my top team with new tasks and specific instructions.
I wanted the rest of the background check I’d asked for on my wife now.
One week was more than sufficient for them to find every skeleton in Meredith’s closet. And I needed to know every fucking thing there was about her.
“Whoa! You look like shit, brother!”
Marat raked me over from head to toe with his black gaze and chuckled obnoxiously as I stepped out of the elevator.
I rolled my eyes, checking him with my shoulder as I passed, and headed straight for Adrik’s office. I was in no mood.
“Seriously, is married life not agreeing with you?” Marat asked, his grin even wider.
“Shut up,” I grumbled.
My phone buzzed, and I looked down, exhaling a slow, steady breath. It was more of the report on Meredith. Actually, it seemed like it was everything.
Everything she’s done. Everywhere she lived. Every person she came into contact with over the past fifteen years.
This was everything I’d been waiting for.
So why did I feel like a fucking monster for even considering opening it?
“Josef, do you need to answer that? Or can we get on with our meeting?” Adrik asked from behind his enormous desk.
“Sorry. I’ll do it later,” I said, putting my phone away.
“Good. Andres, proceed with the predictions for the next quarter. Afterwards, we can go over what went wrong and right this quarter,” Adrik directed the newest member of our circle.
Andres Ramirez started as a low level clerk for Volkov Industries, but after years of busting his ass, he’d made it past his already coveted position of administrative assistant to one of the inner circle entrusted with running the Volkov Industries.
Andres was given a new office, a penthouse in Manhattan, a substantial raise, and the official title of president of business acquisitions for Volkov Industries.
“With Marat’s new greener incentive program hitting all of our major mines by the end of the fiscal year, we are looking at better profit margins all around.”
“Explain please. It’s my understanding the greener initiative almost doubles costs for us,” I said.
“Because, costly as it is, major tech companies are very aware of how they’re presented to the world’s media. One false move, and entire product lines are canceled. By signing with Volkov Industries, even with our new increased rates, they are securing their images as environmentally conscientious.”
“I see. Smart,” I said, dipping my chin in acknowledgement.
Andres went on for about thirty more minutes, and I did my best to listen. But the phone in my pocket was burning a goddamn hole in the fabric.
I needed to read that fucking report.
I needed to know more about my wife.
But I couldn’t read it. I shouldn’t.
Fuck.
But I had questions damn it. Like when she said she hadn’t been with another man. Was she just feeding me a line? Or was she telling me the truth?
My blood heated with the possibility I was the only man she’d ever taken to bed.
Barbaric? Maybe.
But what could I say? Hope sprung eternal, it would seem.
So, like a fucking fool, I sat there dreaming that maybe, just maybe, it could be true.
Maybe Meredith remained chaste for fifteen years.
I didn’t.
Suddenly, I felt ashamed. I could blame the demands of my job or biological need, but however infrequently I indulged over the years, I always felt empty afterward.
I sated my lust with whoever was willing to indulge me on my terms. I could argue that just made me human. But I still felt guilty. It always felt like betrayal.
In the years we were apart, I fucked, but I didn’t date. Never wanted anyone like that. Hell, my stomach turned at the mere idea.
I shouldn’t feel like I needed to apologize for being human. But I wanted to.
Christ, I wanted to confess everything to her. How I tried to drown her out of my brain and heart with booze, battle, and women. How sick I felt during and after. Every. Fucking. Time.
God, how I’d punish myself after.
Rigorous training, dangerous assignments. You name it, I did it. Anything to ease the taint of my sins.
Killing men was simple compared to sleeping with a woman who was not her.
Now that we were legally bound, I would never touch another.
Neither of us would.
Just admitting that to myself eased the burden on my soul.
I inhaled, feeling lighter, unaware of the eyes on me.