When the shove ca, I wasn’t surprised.
What did surprise was how ridiculously strong Serenna was.
Had she been working out?
That stray, irrelevant thought flickered through my head as I dodged at the last mont.
Off balance, her arm swung past and struck Naomi instead.
Naomi stumbled. Her upper body pitched forward and she would have gone tumbling down the stairs if I hadn’t caught her elbow in ti.
Shaken but quick to recover, she straightened with my help, her face drained of colour.
‘You all right?’ My pulse had kicked up a notch too.
She was pregnant, after all.
What would have been nothing more than a bruise for could have been a disaster for her.
‘I...’ Her voice rasped dry in her throat.
‘Naomi!’ A man in a black tuxedo bounded up the stairs three at a ti and was at her side in seconds. He held her shoulders, scanning her anxiously. ‘Are you all right?’
‘I’m fine.’ She finally found her voice, breathing out a shaky sigh. ‘I thought I was going to fall. I was terrified for a second.’
The man, presumably her husband, wrapped her in a fierce hug. ‘You’re safe now. But we’ll go to the hospital just in case.’
‘All right.’ She nodded.
‘Ow!’ Serenna yelped as I caught a fistful of her long hair when she tried to slip away.
‘Where do you think you’re going?’ I hauled her back.
‘Let go! What are you doing?’ She flailed at my arm, but I didn’t loosen my grip.
‘What’s going on?’ Ryan Fenty kept his focus on Naomi, but the question was aid at .
‘She pushed ,’ Naomi muttered to her husband, glaring at Serenna.
Serenna opened her mouth, but I cut in first. ‘Before you spin another story, don’t forget the caras.’ I pointed to the CCTV in the corner of the ceiling, its red light blinking steadily. ‘Too bad for you, the party’s over and the caras are back on.’
Serenna’s mouth opened and shut like a stranded fish. At last she folded. ‘I... my heel... I twisted my ankle and stumbled into Mrs Fenty by accident. It was an accident, really. I’m sorry.’ She leaned hard on the word ‘accident’ as if saying it enough tis would make it true.
‘Really? Did you also “accidentally” trail us down the stairs, “accidentally” aim for , and then “accidentally” knock into Mrs Fenty when you missed?’ I scoffed.
‘That’s not true!’ Her protest was pitiful.
‘I think it is,’ Naomi said firmly. She looked at . ‘She tried to push you first. When she missed, she hit .’
I gave Naomi an apologetic look. ‘She was aiming for . I’m sorry you got dragged into it.’
Naomi shook her head. ‘You’re not the one who should apologise. You’re the victim here too.’
Ryan Fenty’s lips curved into a cold, unsettling smile, edged with nace. ‘You laid hands on my wife?’
He eased Naomi to a safe spot. Then, climbing two steps above Serenna, his voice turned icy. ‘I’m a fair man. I repay kindness with kindness, grudges with grudges.’
He ended the sentence with a sharp kick to her shin.
Serenna shrieked as she flew down the stairs.
The staircase was broad and winding, with bannisters that slowed her fall, but she still took a hard tumble, her cries changing pitch with every bounce.
Ryan Fenty stayed at the top, expressionless.
At the bottom, Serenna lay curled on the landing, clutching her stomach.
‘You all right?’ Ashton stepped past her without a glance and ca straight to , scanning from head to toe.
‘I’m fine.’ I forced a smile. ‘Let’s go.’
He took my hand.
‘Wait.’
I turned. Naomi, steady on her feet with Ryan Fenty close behind, ca down the stairs. ‘Thank you. If not for you, I’d be the one lying there.’ She threw Serenna a pale look.
‘It’s nothing,’ I said, offering a reassuring smile I didn’t feel.
Ryan Fenty’s ruthless retaliation had shaken more than I cared to admit. Instinctively, I wanted to put as much distance between myself and that dangerous man as possible.
Yes, Serenna deserved it. Probably. Still, part of couldn’t help wondering... if Naomi had gone down with , even if it might well be an accident, would he have kicked too?
Naomi and I exchanged goodbyes and promised to keep in touch. Then I left with Ashton.
‘I didn’t know you knew Ryan Fenty’s wife,’ he said.
‘I didn’t, not until tonight. She said her husband’s been trying to et you.’
‘He has. We spoke for a while this evening.’
‘He’s...’ I stopped myself from saying ‘dangerous’. That felt too blunt. ‘Rather unforgiving.’
Ashton had a different take. ‘If it had been you pushed down those stairs, I’d have done the sa.’
I was still chewing on that when we got ho. He went straight to the study to deal with business, while I showered and climbed into bed.
By the ti he joined , I was half asleep.
He stretched out and pulled against him.
‘Mira.’ His voice was husky, restrained.
I could feel the heat in his body, the tension in his muscles, the sharp edge of his breath. Every part of him told he wanted .
So why wasn’t he doing anything?
I shifted against him, murmuring softly, ‘Ash.’
I moved again, and this ti he almost lost it. His voice ca out hoarse. ‘Don’t. Stay still.’
I could feel his want trying to poke its way through his pyjama bottoms. Yet even as desire burned through him, he held back.
Since leaving hospital, he’d been insatiable, practically glued to like a conjoined twin.
So why the sudden restraint tonight?
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