Free The Life by Bethany-Kris Page A

to send him out on an errand and hope he figured it out on his own when he got to the pharmacy. Then, by the time he got home, he’d be over it.”
    Laughing loudly, Jen said, “That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard.”
    Even Viviana had to admit she hadn’t thought out her plan well enough. “I know.”
    “He only worries because he loves you.”
    That was exactly the problem. If every little thing Anton did could be explained or excused away simply because he loved Viviana, then everybody would be happy. A lot of his decisions were attributed to his intense feelings for her. More often than not, he didn’t think things out when it came to her because his first reaction was to fix the problem and make whatever it was go away.
    Unfortunately, sometimes it backfired.
    God knew Viviana loved Anton. She did , more than anything. What she didn’t want to do was overlook things because she loved him. Beyond the mob boss suit he wore, he was her husband first. He was damn well going to act the part whether he liked it or not.
    “Vine, you can go upstairs now.”
    Viviana jumped in surprise at the new voice. She’d expected Anton to come down and find her, not Ivan. That didn’t bode well for her husband’s mood. Sighing heavily, she pushed herself off the stool and frowned at her lawyer.
    “Is he terribly mad at me?” she asked.
    Ivan shot her a look. “Does that man ever really get mad at you? I don’t mean frustrated, or annoyed, no I mean mad . We’ve all seen Anton get pissed off at one point or another, but is it ever at you , particularly?”
    Point taken , she thought.
    “Thank you for letting me know the meeting was done.”
    Ivan disappeared with a wave and nothing else.
    With a quiet goodbye to Jen, Viviana made her way back through the club. Biding her time, she made her way up to Anton’s office with a slowness she hoped gave him the same kind of time she needed to think through what she wanted to say to him. Sure, Ivan had been right. Anton never got angry with her directly, but sometimes his fury with others bled off onto the people surrounding him when he didn’t mean for it to.
    She didn’t want this to be one of those times.
    Knocking on the office door with two of her knuckles, Viviana asked, “Can I come in?”
    “Yep.”
    There was no missing the bite in his tone as she slipped inside the office and closed the door behind her. “First things first,” Viviana rushed to say, “I’m sorry for earlier.”
    Anton said nothing, his head still bent down over the papers he was reading. Viviana scowled at her husband’s blatant attempt to ignore her.
    “Anton?” Again, nothing. Irritation bubbled through her blood. “Funny, Ivan said you weren’t angry with me.”
    “I’m not. I’m terribly pissed off that I just let Kalvin walk out of here alive, though.”
    “He said something nastier about me than just the leash comment, I assume?” she asked softly. It was the slightest tick of his strong jaw that gave her the answer. “I am sorry for barging in on your business. I know better than to be doing crap like that during your work hours, and I didn’t mean to cause problems.”
    Sighing, Anton raised his hand in the air, waving at his wife. “Come here.”
    Viviana didn’t waste any time. Crossing the distance of the office floor, she sunk into his opened embrace before either of them had blinked. Anton had her body curled up on his lap without saying a word before he buried his face into her neck and inhaled deeply. Then, his warm hand rolled along the base of her stomach, gliding carefully under the waistband of her black skirt until it came to rest on her public bone.
    “He’s an asshole,” he mumbled against her flesh. “He told me that maybe— maybe —if I could learn to spend less time at home, and more time having fun elsewhere, that my wife would become accustomed to not needing me around so much. Perhaps then, he said, she would find more respect for her husband