Chapter 0228

As subtly as I can, I sit back in my chair, lifting my glass of wine to my lips and pretending to take another sip as I slip my gaze

towards Daniel, who is already looking at me with his eyebrows slightly raised. I flick my eyes away quickly, not wanting to give

anything away, but grateful that he, too, sees what is happening.

Slowly, Kent turns his head towards Natalia. “I seem to be doing fine as a bachelor, no?” he asks, and I’m surprised to hear a

little bit of an Italian accent come into his voice, perhaps harkening back to his younger years when he spoke Italian with her

every day. Those days when he fell in love with her, and told her about it, and asked her to marry him, all in that language.

But I smirk a little, inwardly, to think that they’re all speaking in English at this dinner for my sake. I still have a little power here,

even if she’s trying to take it all.

“You are doing all right,” Natalia replies, leaning even closer to Kent and letting her eyelids drift down so that she’s looking up at

him through her lashes. “But with the right woman, Kent? You could do so much better. Be so much more relaxed.”

And I feel the inner urge to bare my teeth at her as Natalia slips a hand onto Kent’s shoulder and then lets it drift, ever so

casually, down his back — the fond kind of gesture that could be friendly but which we all know in this moment is so, so much

more.

Kent, going a little stiff at her touch, turns his attention back to his meal and picks up his knife and fork as he takes a deep

breath. His voice is different now — harsh, controlled, as he begins to cut at his chicken. “I’ve decided never again to marry,

Natalia,” he informs her, and then looks around the table at Daniel and Alessi, as if remembering suddenly that they're here. But

I'm very, very interested to see that he does not, in fact, look at me.

Natalia shifts herself subtly, pulling her hand away from him and reaching for her own fork. “Ah, Kent,” she breathes, a subtle

smile on her lips. “You will change your mind. You just need to...pick the right woman.”

Kent doesn’t say anything, just continues to cut his chicken and lift bites of it to his mouth as the table goes silent. Daniel chimes

in after a moment, breaking the awkwardness in his own particularly skillful way that makes the change of conversation seem

natural as he asks Alessi about some of his own memories of childhood.

I don’t say anything at all, instead sitting in my seat, stewing silently at Natalia’s gall. Clearly, clearly, she thinks that she is the

“right woman.” And god damn it, as I stare down into my glass of wine, my stomach twists with jealousy and hate for her.

And I act...maybe a little impulsively.

Maybe a little stupidly.

But I don’t let myself think about it too much as I drain my glass of wine and then, careful to be discreet, I slide my hand off of my

lap and move it across the few inches that separate me from Kent. Hardly daring to breathe lest it attract someone's attention, I

slip my hand across the fabric of Kent’s pants and dip between his legs so that my fingers come to press against the soft flesh of

his inner thigh.

Kent immediately goes tense as I

squeeze his leg, letting. bi Kadal hot

btlyy that hee thine, not hers.

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And that he'd damn well better remember it.

Kent is only still for a moment,

though, before taking a deep breath

and continuing to caiatd naiking '

hag changed. Match the others

around the table and am grateful to

see Natalia laughing with Alessi and

Daniel, concentrating on something

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Satisfied that no one has noticed, I

give Kent a final squeeze an Pep

letting m nails yake/4biPagainst the

Acar his pants, I slowly move my

hand back to my own lap. Please

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