Page 67

Stefan

Chapter 21

Coming to this event had been a big mistake. I wasn’t even sure what had driven me to make such an impulsive, spur-of-the-moment decision. With all the upheaval at work, the last thing I had time for was a student mixer at my wife’s school. I had no reason to play the doting, supportive husband. That was the role Tori and I played for our parents—for my father and for hers. To supporttheirbrand,theirimage. That was the whole purpose of our marriage, after all.

So attending this event, where the only possible networking opportunities would be with Tori’s fellow students or professors, would do nothing to further either of our fathers’ goals. Nor our own.

And yet, for reasons I still wasn’t sure of, I was here. I hadn’t even planned to come, but I’d found myself wrapping up my projects early, changing into a less formal suit of clothes I kept at the office, and then getting in a car to go straight to UChicago’s campus. To spend what would doubtlessly shape up to be a total waste of an evening drinking cheap wine, making small talk with a bunch of academics, and blowing countless hours of my time. Why had I agreed to this?

In a word, because I was a fucking idiot.

I’d made a huge mistake when it came to Tori. I was normally an excellent judge of character, yet I kept finding that she surprised me. I thought I’d be marrying someone who knew the game, but was well aware of her appointed role in it—and of exactly how to behave like a good girl. And those things were true enough. But lately it seemed like she had lost any interest in acting like a good girl. She was starting to spread her wings, rebel against her boundaries. And like it or not, I had to respect her for it.

Despite her guileless charm and her obsession with pursuing a higher education, I had ultimately expected her to be just like her father—self-absorbed and hyper-focused on her ambitions, to the point of being oblivious to half the people around her. But with Tori, her ambition was benign. And self-absorbed was the last word I’d use to describe her.

But even still, I’d come to realize that she was far more of an innocent than I had thought. She didn’t have any idea of the dark, grotesque work that lay just below the surface of what our families did. She was hopelessly naïve about the ways of the world.

It should have disgusted me. Should have pushed me further away from her.

Instead, it just inflamed my desire.

And tonight, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. That dress of hers was something else. It was modest—everything was covered—yet it only managed to accentuate her curves, clinging to her tits and ass like a second skin. I couldn’t wait to get her home and rip it off. To discover what she was wearing underneath.

It hadn’t escaped my notice that she wore nothing but fragile wisps of lingerie when I came to bed every night. My animal desire, my rough destruction of those expensive items, the torn scraps of lace and silk on the floor the next morning; all of it only seemed to make her hotter. I spent all day thinking about what she’d be wearing and how fast I could get it off her.

In fact, I was thinking about that even now. Wondering what she’d put on for me, and only me, underneath that silky blue dress of hers.

It wasn’t just desire revving me up tonight. That was the main thing driving me, but I felt a sense of pride for her as well. This was a room filled with intelligent, ardent academics, and I knew Tori could hold her own with the best of them. It was irrational, I guess. I probably didn’t know her well enough to be proud of her. I barely knew her at all.

Yet I could see the fire in her eyes as she chatted with her co-eds and instructors, brimming with enthusiasm and passion for language. Forwords, for fuck’s sake. It should have been merely precocious. It shouldn’t have been impressive, or be affecting me in any way.

Somehow it was.

I watched her hold court, charming her professors and the Dean, and found myself smiling at how animated she seemed. I didn’t like the way that most of the men in her department seemed to be undressing her with their eyes, but I couldn’t blame them. She was gorgeous, but sometimes I fucking hated the fact.

Didn’t they know she belonged to me?

I’d never been possessive before, but Tori made me that way. Made me want to blacken the eye of any man that looked in her direction. I wanted them to know that she was mine.

It was illogical. I knew that all of this was temporary. That whatever was happening between us was going to be over as soon as I got what I wanted.

I never should have fucked her.

That was where everything had gone wrong. I prided myself on my self-control and I had been able to hold out up until the honeymoon with hardly a second thought. But by the time she’d been called home to care for her father, I had secretly thanked god, because I hadn’t known how much longer I would have been able to resist.

Apparently not long at all. The moment we’d been alone, my control had shattered. First, when she’d stood in front of me naked, in the closet, begging for my touch. Then, afterwards, when she had pushed me past my limit. Pushed me past the point of my reasoning mind.

Now that the floodgates were open, there was no stopping me. She was like a drug I couldn’t resist. I wanted her all the time. I couldn’t think about anything else but her tight, inexperienced body and all the things I wanted to do to test her limits. She never stopped me. Never resisted. She wanted everything I gave her.

It was hotter than I could have imagined, and completely unexpected. And entirely, utterly perfect.

That was the problem. I was becoming too accustomed to our new routine. I was beginning to look forward to the end of the day, eager to get home and fuck her. Make her come, moaning my name. It was all I could think about, the way her body felt under my hands, the way her pussy felt around my cock. Everything was new to her, and everything I did made her wet.

I shouldn’t have liked it as much as I did.

Almost two hours had gone by, and I was becoming impatient with the situation. I shouldn’t have come in the first place, and I wasn’t going to stay any longer. Tori would come home with me and I planned to punish her for dragging me out to this event in the first place. I’d remind her what this relationship was. Nothing more than a contract, a marriage of convenience. Sex and convenience.

I put my hand on her back, leaning in to whisper in her ear.