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    Nicole fiddles with the napkin beside her ce setting, staring at the kitchen doors of the restaurant where we’re having dinner. She wiggles in her seat, but it’s not going to help her situation.


    Since she showed her willingness to use the butt plug I’d bought for her, I saw no reason not to y with her.


    “Something wrong?” I ask as I bring my beer to my lips. Her dark eyes flicker to mine and her blush deepens. Who knew my hellcat was so shy? Apparently, it only took pushing a plug up her ass for the evening to get her fullpliance without hesitation.


    “No.” She raises her chin a fraction, but I can see the defiance glowing in her eyes. She’s ufortable, but she won’t admit it. Well, she will, but she thinks she won’t.


    It makes this game all the more fun.


    “You keep squirming in your chair. Is the cushion not good? Should I ask for a new chair?” I make a point of raising my hand.


    We’re at the best Polish bistro in the city. Everything here is homemade. The dishes remind me of spending my weekends at my grandparents’ house when I was little. No one cooks as well as my grandmother did, but the chef herees in a close second.


    “No!” She reaches across the table and grabs hold of my arm, mming it to the table. “Stop trying to embarrass me,” she warns before letting me go.


    I raise my eyebrow. “Why would you be embarrassed?” I lean across the table and spread my lips with all the eagerness of a child given free rein of the candy store. “Could it be because you have arge butt plug in your ass right now?”


    Her eyes go wide, mortification radiates from her expression, and she grabs hold of the side of the table.


    “If you run off, I’ll have to call you back here,” I warn her. She really makes this too easy for me.


    Her face might actually burst into mes, so I take some pity on her.


    “Sit back and rx.” I pat her hand. “I won’t mention your situation again. But you really should stop wiggling. It’s only making it worse for yourself.”


    Her lips scrunch together like they are getting ready to let loose a barrage of insults, but the waiter saves me from her temper. He ces a bowl of red borscht in front of her and a bowl of mushroom barley in front of me.


    Once he’s gone, Nicole eases back a bit and smiles down at the soup.


    “You mentioned you had a taste for it,” I say when she looks up at me.


    “I was going to make it for us,” she says, picking up her spoon.


    “Do you like to cook?” I ask, grabbing a warmed bun from the basket and tearing it in half.


    “No, not really, but there are a few dishes I’m pretty good at. This is one of them.” She sinks her spoon into the red soup and drags it across the bowl then brings it up to her lips. With the first taste, she closes her eyes. “This is really good.” She points to the soup with her spoon.


    “I told you, this ce has the best Polish food in the city.”


    It’s not a fancy high-end restaurant, but Nicole is more at home in a family restaurant like this. The look of reprieve that washed over her face when I told her she didn’t have to get dressed up for dinner told me I’d chosen the right ce.


    Nicole is gorgeous when she gets all done up with her hair pinned up away from her neck, and when she drapes her curvy body with a fashionable dress. But when she’s like this-her natural wavy, dark hair loose around her shoulders, small traces of mascara, andfortable shirt and jeans-she steals my breath. The woman has a natural pull I can’t fight, and since she’s my wife now, I don’t have to.


    She seems to forget all about the plug in her ass and dives into her soup. I recalled she wanted to make the borscht for us, but she never got around to it. The opening of the new restaurant and cigar room is only a few nights away, and she’s been working herself too hard to getst-minute publicity underway.


    Aside from the marketing she’s been dealing with, I’ve been overseeing the new hires and training of the staff. Thankfully, Nora took over the tastings and menu issues, so I didn’t have to worry about all of that. But in two nights, all of our hard work is going toe to fruition. And then we can rx.


    “That was amazing.” Nicole sits back from her empty bowl and wipes her mouth with a napkin. “So good.”


    I push away what’s left of my soup.


    “I’m d you liked it.”


    “You didn’t finish yours.”


    “I’m saving myself for the Goabki.”


    She screws up her lips and shakes her head.


    “No?”


    “Cabbage isn’t my thing. When I was little, I unrolled the cabbage until the meat and rice came out. I’d eat that and give the cabbage leaf to my dad.” She takes a sip of her water. “Did you order anything else?”


    I let my hands drop to myp under the table. If we were seated closer, I’d be able to touch her, to tease her.


    “Pork chops and pierogi. You’re definitely a carb girl.”


    “A carb girl?” Sheughs.


    “Mashed potatoes, chips, noodles, you love them.”


    Her cheeks flush with the acknowledgement I’ve been paying attention. It’s not hard, noting the details of her desires, when she’s the only thing around me that draws my focus.


    The restaurant is crowded, but I’m always watchful of our surroundings. So when the front door of the diner opens, I nce toward it.


    My back locks.


    Nicole, seeing my reaction, checks over her shoulder. “What are they doing here?”


    I put my hand out to still her. “Don’t react. Look at me, Nicole.”


    She turns back around, cing her hands on the table. Piotr Kaczmarek walks through the tables with that prick, Henry, waddling behind him, straight toward our table.


    “Sir, your dinner will be right out.” The waiter stops at our table on his way to the kitchens. He must sense something’s off and looks over his shoulder. “Sir?”


    “It’s fine,” I tell him and he shuffles off to the kitchen.


    “What are you going to do?” Nicole whispers.


    “Nothing.” I loosen my shoulders and grab my beer, taking another sip. “We’re here for dinner.”


    While sipping my drink, I watch them as they maneuver around a table and keeping toward us.


    “Ahh, I see we have the same tastes.” Piotr steps up to our table, Henry nks him to his right, standing right in front of Nicole. She doesn’t give him so much as a peek, but rather keeps her focus on me.


    “Imagine that. Polish men enjoying a meal at a Polish restaurant,” I say, not fighting my sarcastic side.


    Piotr clenches his teeth. He’s used to men scrambling to give up their seats for him, to bend a knee to his power, but I’m not that sort of man. And he doesn’t have that sort of influence here.


    “Hello, Nicole,” Henry dares to say to my wife.


    “You don’t talk to her,” I say, moving my re up to Piotr. “I see you found him.”


    “I did. We’re celebrating tonight, and he’s headed back to New York in the morning.”


    “That is something to celebrate,” Nicole says, lifting her ss of wine and toasting the air before drinking. I press my foot on top of hers beneath the table. Her mouth isn’t helping.


    “I’m getting married,” Henry says, still staring at my wife like she’s a piece of veal cutlet he wants to devour. My irritation is quickly morphing into outrage that he dares to disrespect me so openly.


    “My condolences to your future wife.” Nicole turns a sharine smile up at him. Henry’s eyes darken.


    Piotrughs and nudges Henry. “You thought you’d capture this one? She’s strong, much like her father.”


    Nicole’s bravado drops at the edges when her father is mentioned.


    “Don’t let us stop you from your meal,” I say to Piotr.


    He shrugs. “That’s all right. We’re still waiting for a guest. Victor Stephenson is joining us.” He jerks his hand outward and looks at his watch. “He’s running a littlete.”


    The hairs on my neck stand up. This fucker is having a meeting with the union rep he was told to stay away from.


    “Then I suppose you don’t want toe to an agreement with my family.” Victor Stephenson is on the board of directors in charge of new construction at the Willis Tower. My father and Dominik have been in talks with him for months.


    “We’ll see what he has to say. Maybe a deal is worth the trouble, maybe it’s not.” Piotr turns his beady little eyes toward Nicole. “It’s such a shame you didn’t see through your agreement with Henry. Your father was such a loyal soldier to the Kaczmarek family. I wonder what he would think about this new arrangement you’ve made for yourself.”


    Nicole’s smile freezes. She gives a pointed look to Henry before turning her full fury on Piotr, all while keeping a cold grin on her face.


    “My father would wonder why the family he was so loyal to would send men to hurt his daughter. He would wonder why a man he thought was good enough for his daughter would treat her so disrespectfully.” She arches her eyebrow. “And he’d wonder why a family he thought was so honorable would be turning their back on long-standing agreements.”