Casey frowned again, biting at the inside of her lip and wondering why she hadn’t had the foresight to wait outside.How would she ever get past the memory of this much man covered with such a small, insignificant towel?
“Sorry,” Ryder said, and gave his hair a last, halfhearted rub before tossing the wet towel back into the bathroom floor.“Didn’t know you were here.”
Casey tilted her chin, determined he not know how shaken she was.
“Obviously,” she said shortly, and then pointed toward the clothes on the bed.“I gave you money to get uniforms, not all this.”
Ryder’s eyes narrowed, and Casey knew the moment the words were out of her mouth that she’d ticked him off.He walked to a bedside table and withdrew a handful of money, then stuffed it in her hand.
“What’s this?”Casey asked.
“Your money.”
“But how did you pay for all this?”
He didn’t answer, and she glared.But when he spun and started toward her, she took an instinctive step backward.When he bypassed her for the dresser beyond, she caught herself breathing a small sigh of relief.Determined to get to the bottom of his behavior, she struck again, only this time with more venom.
“I asked you a question,” she snapped.
Her relief was short-lived.When he turned, the anger on his face almost stopped her heart.
“Don’t go there,” he said quietly..
“Go where?I don’t know what you mean.”
“There’s one thing we’d better get straight right now.I don’t take orders from you, and I don’t take your money.I pay my own way.”
She couldn’t imagine how he’d obtained the clothes.For all she knew he might have stolen the stuff.She would have been shocked to know he had a gold credit card with an unlimited line.And, if she’d known, would have been even more surprised to learn he hadn’t used it in months.
“But the uniforms… why didn’t you do as you were told?”
As far as Ryder was concerned, what was in his past was none of her business.Suddenly-he was right in front of her.His breath was hot, his words angry.
“Because you’re not my boss, you’re my wife.I gave you my name, and I’ll drive you and yours anywhere they please for the next twelve months, but I’m not wearing a damned monkey suit to do it.”
Casey’s mouth dropped.Never in her entire life had anyone had the gall to defy her in such a manner.Before she could think of a comeback, he turned away, opened the top drawer of the dresser, withdrew a brand-new pair of white cotton briefs and dropped his towel.
She bolted, taking with her the image of a long-limbed body that was hard and fit and brown all over.
A few minutes later he emerged from the bedroom in his bare feet, wearing an old and faded pair of jeans and no shirt.The casual are-you-still-here glance he gave her made her furious.
Disgusted with herself for not standing her ground, she watched from across the room as he sauntered into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator.When he bent down to look inside, the urge to hit him was so strong it startled her.She was not the type of woman to resort to violence.Then she rescinded her own opinion of herself.At least shehadn’tbeen.But that was before she’d driven into the flatlands and brought out a husband.
He set a package of raw hamburger meat on the counter then went back to the refrigerator.She didn’t know what angered her most, the fact that he was being deliberately mutinous, or that she was being ignored.
Smoothing her hands down the front of her blue summer suit, she tossed back her hair and slipped into the sarcastic mode she used to keep Miles and Erica at bay.
“Are you finished?”she drawled, wanting the bathroom all to herself.
Ryder straightened, looking at her from across the open refrigerator door.He stared at her, from the top of her hair to the open toes of her sling-back pumps.A slight grin tilted the corner of his mouth as he stepped back and closed the door.
His thoughts went to the year stretching out before them, considering which one of them would be the first to break.“Finished?”he muttered.“We haven’t even started.”
With that, he moved toward her.
Panic came swiftly and Casey wondered if the family would.be able to hear her scream from here.She held up her hand in a warning gesture.
“Don’t you dare!”she said, and winced at the squeak in her voice.
