Yeah, right.
I wasn’t that stupid.
“I’m almost done,” he added and popped the tab on the extinguisher. As the smoke alarms began their piercing wails, Liam dowsed the mattress.
I coughed and stumbled a few more steps, not out of disobedience, but because the billows of yellow chemicals stank worse than all the rest.
The fire was out in seconds.
Liam reached to the raised the metal tube and smacked the alarm clean off its base. The disc fell to the ground. “The lads will remotely stop the others.”
The calmness in his voice was deceptive.
I raked my hand through my hair, careful to breathe through my mouth because of the fumes. The way my body trembled….
This wasn’t real. The devil didn’t just burn the place I slept. Yet the heat in the room, the stench of destruction, and the charred mess were undeniable.
Liam turned—and prowled toward me.
I stilled.
The look in his eye had my mouth opening. The words died on my tongue. He dropped the extinguisher on the floor, bent slightly, and tossed me over his shoulder. The contact snapped me out of the lull.
“Put me down!” My fists pummeled his back.
It wasn’t until we were down the hall that I noticed my book was on the threshold of my room.
“Liam!” I yelled and threw a bruising punch at his ribs. My hand stung. I bit my lip to keep the yowl at bay and shook it.
Damn him.
His voice turned to gravel. “Say my name again and see what happens.”
I wanted to. O, Santa Madonna, I wanted to! Scream his name at the top of my lungs. Yell until my voice was raw.
But I knew what madness came with tempting a monster.
I was dumped unceremoniously on his bed. Scrambling back, I spewed venom at him. “Answer me!”
“This—” he stabbed a finger at the mattress “—is where you sleep.”
I was breathing hard. So hard that my chest hurt. “What, because I’m your wife?”
“Yes.”
Such a simple explanation for the madness. He burnt my bed, so I was forced to sleep here.
“Well! I’m not having sex with you, caveman!” I crossed my arms over my breasts, noting too late that I wasn’t wearing a bra. That my nipples were hard. That they peaked against the material. A shiver that I knew all too well sizzled through my veins.
“That’s just fine, cailín.” Liam kicked the bedroom door closed and stomped into the bathroom. The shower rattled on a moment later.
With a huff, I threw myself down. My legs shifted together, and I realized with a rush of embarrassment how damp my sleeper shorts were. Angry at myself, I tried to ignore the arousal pulsing deep in my belly.
“He could have just asked me!” I muttered.
Would you have said yes?
I tugged on my bottom lip, grinding my teeth into the flesh. The answer I refused to give was exactly why he’d done what he’d done.
