“We’re not done.” Standing on the edge of the pool, I looked down at her. The tick in my jaw refused to quit.
“I know you don’t like it,” she snapped. “Idon’t like it when you take my things without asking! Then you have the audacity to have Eunice replace it with—” she slapped her palms against the water, cool droplets landing on my legs “—a bathing suit that’s the equivalent of a muumuu! Did you even see it, Brando?”
“No.”
“Of course not! You’d rather me go around looking like a monk! No offense to monks, but I’m not one! I’m a married woman!”
“Men don’t look twice if a monk passes by.”
She made a noise that conveyed exactly how she felt. If she possessed superhuman strength, the entire pool would have been knocked over my head. She went under again and came up a few seconds later. Scarlett couldn’t hold her breath for long; she had picked the wrong place to start a fight. Her eyes narrowed into slits. Her mouth was set into a severe line. We stared at each other for a few minutes, neither of us willing to budge.
“Why?” she said, breaking the silence. “Why does it matter? Do you think men won’t look at me if I wear sweatpants instead of jeans? Or Eunice’s bathing suit instead of this? My bathing suit was nothing like this one!”
I watched her for a moment before I climbed in after her, the water a cool balm to my skin after the heat and my temper. She tried to push away when I took her in my arms, but it wasn’t going to happen.
“Let me go, Brando Fausti!”
“You really want me to.”
She looked up at the sky for a moment, before her eyes met mine. “No,” she whispered. “I don’t. But this doesn’t mean I’m giving in!”
“No,” I whispered. “And even if you wanted me to, you know I’d never fucking let you go. I’d hold you until you loved me again.”
“Hmph,” she went in that snooty way that I loved.
I grinned. “Do men look at you when you wear sweatpants? Be honest.”
“Perhaps,” she said. “Though I don’t wear them that often.”
My mouth twitched. She was so adorable sometimes that I couldn’t help it, but hell if I’d call her that. It seemed to insult her when I did. “You don’t,” I agreed. “And you’re right, they do. I see everything. However, trouble follows you. You know it does. And when I’m not around, it’s even worse. I seem to be able to ward off the demons, at least most of the time. The men we’re around are not your ordinary men. They’re used to getting what they want, when they want, no matter what the cost. You attract them.” I ran a finger underneath the strap over her right shoulder. “Even if I was with you, I wouldn’t like this bathing suit out in public. Self-explanatory.”
“I wouldn’t wear this bathing suit out in public.Self-explanatory.That still doesn’t give you the right to take my things. It doesn’t!” she added, knowing what my response was going to be:you’re my wife, it does.She could answer me before I even spoke the thought aloud. “I don’t think the bathing suit I had would’ve attracted any more trouble than a pair of jeans.”
“Tell me what you want me to do.”
She wasn’t expecting that. Her body tensed before it relaxed. “To be respectful of my feelings. Don’t just take—talk to me first.”
“All right,” I said, giving her a kiss. “The end.”
“You say that after the fact!”
I grinned and she did too. “I can afford to,” I said, swimming her around the pool. “I’m not leaving you again.”
We continued to swim for another fifteen minutes or so before Scarlett decided to get out of the pool to read her romance book. She didn’t like to stay in too long.
My head popped out of the water as she rose from the steps of the pool, running a finger behind the fabric between her cheeks. It had been a while since I had seen her entire legs, including her feet. She’d been wearing the wool socks she bought in Scotland to bed every night.
Water filled my eyes and I tried to blink, but the chlorine made the world hazy. “Stay still, Scarlett.” The tone of my voice made her freeze. Slipping out of the pool, flinging water like a wet dog, I got to her just in time to slap at her heels.
“What is it?” The panic in her voice made me swipe even harder, trying to get them off.
“Ants.”
“On my feet?”
“Your heels.”
She froze even harder.
