On the inside I melt, but I try not to let that show on my face. I fail — miserably.
“Well, I have other plans with a girl, her sister, and some dragons.” Rolling my eyes, I move to stand, daring him to command me again.
“Hai,” he’s nods. There’s an apology there I refuse to acknowledge as I leave him in the tub.
Making my way into the living room of the suite, I tuck myself into the corner of the sofa, picking up the iPad he tossed there. He’d better be glad he didn’t knock it to the ground, cracking it while he was having his little spell, or I would’ve tore his head up.
Both of our tempers can use taming, but I’m proud of myself for not clawing his beautifully cruel face. I promised myself after the table incident I wasn’t going to let him get me out of my character.
I feel like I’ve been winning every battle until now. He yielded when I refused to eat. He offered to play Go, with me, and now he’s showing contrition. The old behavior of constantly fighting him at every turn got me nowhere. Now, I have his ass flummoxed. I can nurse my anger in silence, but getting my revenge will come.
Takashi and the men of his family forget that the women they decided to force into these marriages of inconvenience are just as formidable as they are.
Ev and I didn’t become one of the most profitable tech firms right out of college with BITE by accident. We drew the interest of the tech side of Takeda Industries long before Akchiro laid eyes on Flower.
Comforted by knowing all I have to do is bide my time until the opportunity arrives to give my husband his comeuppance, Isettle into my story, not even having to pretend when he strides into the room to be engrossed in the fantasy I’m reading.
“Bri-chan,” the deep grumbling voice has me straining to see him in the bed. “Come to bed.”
“I’m reading.” Training my eyes back on the passage when the hero nemesis kisses the morally gray heroine, I get back to my story.
“Hm,” is all I hear.
A shadow falls over me right before I’m scooped up in strong arms. “You can read in bed,” he mutters, depositing me on the side farthest away from the entrance to the room.
“Read to me.” Crossing his arms behind his head, he pointedly ignores my look of disbelief.
“You don’t even like fantasy.” Keeping my calm by the fingernails, I slide him another glance.
“I do, just not the sanitized Western version where everything ends happiness. History has shown us this is rarely so for people, regardless of wealth or power. The poor die horribly at the hands of tyrants, as do the wealthy, often through a coup or revolution. But I’ll indulge your fairytale.” Closing his eyes in anticipation, he waits.
“Ahem,” I say, diving right into the kissing scene. He shifts, listening to how the hero devours the heroine on page.
“She sounds like you,” his voice sounds low and heavy with longing as I take a breath after the passage.
“What do you mean?” Turning, I’m caught in the obsidian of his gaze.
“You’d never been kissed before me.” He sounds so sure.
“I’d been kissed?—”
“Not by a man. Not the way you needed or deserved to be.” Turning, he partially covers me, making me slide down so my head presses into the pillows.
“I often think about it, you know,” he muses, his eye searching mine for an answer I don’t know how to give.
“About what?” My words are thready, swept away between our breathing that has now picked up with anticipation.
“Kissing you.” His gaze drifts down to my lips. Gently he pulls the bottom one I’ve somehow managed to trap between my teeth. Frowning, his mouth firms in disapproval.
“Don’t injure yourself.” His harsh command is softened by the gentle slide of his thumb.
“It’s not intentional.” Speaking in my defense is so hard when he poses such a distraction. The press of his hard body is disconcerting. I just know without feeling all of him that other parts are just as hard as the thick arms caging me.
“I make you nervous, little vicious one?” He’s pure seduction. “Not my brave girl.”
My body melts at his words. The promise in them is clear.
“You thought of me while so many talented geishas entertained you?” Grabbing desperately for anything to put a distance between us until I can regain my resolve, I try to shift away from the heady prison he’s trapped me in.
