She grabs her purse and shoves her things into it, and has to run to catch up with me. A mischievous smirk touches my lips. Why is it that I enjoy toying with her so much?
I hold the elevator door open for her, and she glares at me, clutching her belongings to her chest as she steps inside.
It carries us down to the ground floor and she sorts out her things, packing them into the bag and straightening her hair in the elevator's mirrored wall.
The door chimes, and she steps out.
At the car, I hold the door open for her, which earns me another annoyed glare.
“It’s just a door, Kayla, stop being so dramatic,” I tell her.
Her mouth drops open and she huffs loudly as she ducks into the passenger seat.
Inside the car, the air is thick with silent tension. She has her arms folded across her chest, and she’s pouting. Literally pouting. It’s fucking cute how angry she is.
Unfortunately, it also reminds me of the number of times I’ve been driven crazy by how beautiful she is since she came back into my life.
Fuck. It’s been a challenge. A challenge not to take what I want from her. A challenge not to make a move. A challenge to keep my hands to myself.
And sometimes, at home, she roams around in those soft white sweatpants and that white, almost transparent crop top with no bra on. Does she not realize how fucking sexy it is?
I clench the steering wheel tightly, forcing myself to look forward at the road as I drive towards the mansion.
At first, it’s going okay, and I think we’ll get home without any issues. The drive is quiet. It’s uncomfortable, but we’re almost home.
Except Kayla is too agitated to hold back.
“I don’t need you to follow me around watching me the entire time. I have my own life, and if I want to stay late somewhere, I don’t need your permission to do that! And during the day at work, you don’t have to keep your eyes on me every second of every day. It’s driving me crazy. You act like youownme. And you don’t, Josiah. Let me make that incredibly clear to you. You don’t own me.”
The words are flowing from her mouth like an avalanche. I get the feeling she’s been keeping this inside for a while, and now that she’s started, she can’t stop. I’m sitting here calmly waiting for her to get it all off her chest, but inside me, there is something raging. I want to shout back.
“I’m not a kid. And I don’t belong to you,” she snaps.
For some reason, of all the things she said, the last line pushes me over the edge.
“Actually, youdo belong to me,” I snarl as a possessive streak snaps through me.
It’s been a long day, Josiah. Don’t take it out on her.
“Excuse me!” she snaps.
I clench my jaw, trying to stop myself from falling down this rabbit hole, but I can’t. I’m under immense pressure to make the deal with the West Coast Pakhans work, and to find out who is messing with my operations, and of course…to try and keep my hands off her while she is my face every second of every day.
“I do own you, and you do belong to me, Kayla. Don’t forget that you are my wife. You are the mother of my children. Everything about your life is tied to me.”
Her cheeks are burning red with anger as she glares at me across the darkness of the car.
“You are so arrogant that I think you are incapable of stepping back and listening to how condescending and selfish you sound. You act like I’m a possession. Like one of your cars. But I’m not. I’m me. I’m a real person with her own dreams and her own thoughts.”
I park the car outside the mansion and switch it off.
Kayla is still lecturing me.
I turn my body to face hers. She’s furious.
She’s fucking gorgeous.
She’s passionately angry, and it’s turning me on like crazy.
