Her eyes narrowed. “You don’t own me.”
“Don’t I?” He flicked a glance at the ring on her left hand. An ostentatious cluster of rubies and diamonds that she’d wanted and that had cost him several months of his hard-earned pay. Rubies for his wife…the irony didn’t escape him.
“I ’ate you.”
Rage rubbed off her polished accents. So much for the blunt he’d spent on their elocution lessons. His irritation grew: he was a man on the rise and, by God, she dragged him down.
The thought stabbed him with guilt. For despite everything, he still loved her. She couldn’t help who she was any more than he could quell his own ruthless need for power and revenge. Unlike love, he thought cynically, those two things might actually bring a man peace.
“I wish me and Garrity ’ad never rescued you from the river. We should’ve left you to dine wif the fishes!”
“Nonetheless, you will stay put in the house tonight,” he said curtly. “If not to respect my wishes, then for your own safety. The war with O’Leary isn’t over. He’s not going to sit back and let me take over his territory. There will be bloodshed, and I’d prefer it not be yours.”
“What do you care what ’appens to me? You leave for your precious work, and I’m stuck in this ’ouse all day. I’m lonely, bored out o’ my bleedin’ skull!” She hugged her arms around herself. “No one’s e’er given a damn about me. I ne’er should’ve married you, you selfish bastard!”
Despite her lashing words, he saw the shadow of his first love in her vulnerable pose. His sense of responsibility warred with impatience; in the end, the latter won out. She was a bucket that could never be filled. No matter how hard he tried, a new leak sprung. Another night spent arguing with her wouldn’t make a difference…whereas the meeting he was already late for could be the next step in building his empire. A step closer to avenging his honor and that of his mama.
Numquam obliviscar.Never forget.
“But you are married to me, which means you will obey me in this,” he said firmly.
Her lips quivered, her eyes sheening.
Stifling a sigh, he crossed over to her, curled his finger under her chin. “Tomorrow night, I’ll take you somewhere. The opera or a play.” When she didn’t take his olive branch, he sweetened the deal. “You can buy yourself a new gown for the occasion, hmm?”
Still, she said nothing.
His patience at an end, he left.
The next time he saw her, she was lying in a pool of blood.
“Adam. Wake up.” A soft voice called to him. “Wake up, darling.”
He surfaced from dark, obscure depths, his lungs straining, his heart hammering with panic…from what he didn’t know. As his vision adjusted to the glow of lamplight, he saw her leaning over him, looking at him with worried eyes.
Gabriella.She was safe. His wife was safe.
“You were having a bad dream—”
Her words ended in a gasp because he’d hauled her against his chest. Wrapped both arms around her, pressing her warm, vital softness against his rigid muscles until he was convinced that she was truly there. That his beloved was alive and well.
She murmured softly to him, didn’t protest at his suffocating hold.
Only when the tides of fear receded did he loosen his embrace.
She stayed in his arms, caressing his jaw. “What was the nightmare about, darling?”
“I don’t remember.” Drawing a ragged breath, he searched for details and found none. There was only the remnant of that gut-wrenching terror. “When I woke up, I had this feeling of…panic. That I was going to lose you.”
“You’ll never lose me.” She pressed a kiss on his chest. “It was just a dream.”
He tunneled his fingers through her silken tresses, holding her against his heart until it calmed.
“Do you know what I think the dream was about?” she asked.
“What?”
“Our time here coming to an end.”
