She folded her arms. “Yes, I suppose there is,” she said. “I want you to tell me what it is you want fromme, Colin.”
He took a step toward her, his nostrils flaring slightly. He looked hard as stone in that moment. Not like the man who had passionately made love to her, but a different man. One who viewed her with nothing but contempt.
“I want nothing, Jane,” he said through clenched teeth.
She shook her head. Letters hadn’t changed him, time hadn’t, even making love to her hadn’t softened him in the slightest. Perhaps she was an idiot to believe she could ever break past all he threw between them.
Perhaps she should stop trying.
“If you want nothing,” she said, wishing her voice didn’t tremble, “then I suppose the best thing I could do is return to my sister’s home so I will no longer be in your way.”
She turned to step away, but his voice cut through the air between them. “No!”
She halted at his sharp tone and turned back. “No?”
“I command you to stay,” he ground out.
She arched a brow. “Youcommandme,” she repeated, her ire raising, her frustration.
“It is my right,” he said. “I’m your husband.”
She caught her breath at the arrogance of that statement and the absolute falsehood of it. Without thinking, she took a long step toward him, fists clenched at her sides.
“My husband? Oh, no, you are not, Colin. You are a man who married me, then banished me without explanation. You do notdeserveto be called husband. You are nothing but a cruel coward.”
She saw that the barb hit its mark, for he recoiled ever so slightly. His eyes were wide as he looked her up and down.
“Iam the coward, am I?” he asked at last, his voice dangerously low. “I could say worse about you, Jane.”
She threw up her hands. “Then say it. For God’s sake, Colin, sayanything.”
Colin turned away. She was a fine actress, he would give her that. He almost believed she actually cared that they were estranged. That she actually wanted to bridge the gap between them and start again.
But when he thought of her on a terrace on their wedding day, letting some other man kiss her, his stomach turned and his heart hardened to her.
He would not give her his pain. He would not give her his emotions. She didn’t deserve that.
“You said I wasn’t your husband,” he said, hardly managing to grind the words out as he slowly faced her. “That hasn’t escaped the notice of others. So you ask me what I want.”
She nodded, but her gaze swept over him. The desire hidden beneath her anger took him by surprise, just as it had in his bedroom not so very long ago. And it made him want her. It made him feel other things that he pushed aside with violence.
“You will stay here with me for the duration of your time in London,” he explained. “And you will be my wife in public, until you go home.”
She lifted her chin, defiance brightening her face. Making her look like a warrior. It was strangely erotic to see her like that. Certain of herself, challenging him.
“Only a wife in public?” she asked.
His eyes fluttered shut at the bold question. So she would try to use her body against him now. That was her best move yet, for it was the one thing he knew would be impossible to resist. Now that he’d touched her again, he couldn’t have her under his roof and not do it again and again.
He would just have to be careful he didn’t allow himself to be entangled in other ways. More dangerous ways. More impossible ways.
“You are trying to toy with me,” he said softly, but found himself moving toward her.
She cocked her head, defiance in her stare, drawing him in even if it should have repelled him. “I think that’s what you want, Colin,” she murmured. “Or will you deny you desire me?”
He reached out and caught her hand, keeping his gaze locked with hers as he gently placed it on the placard of his trousers. His cock, which had been hard against his clothes since the moment she marched into his office, twitched at the pressure of her palm.
“Does it seem like I’m denying it?” he asked.
