“Couldn’t keep away, princess?” Bronx comes up behind me in the bedroom.
“We were being followed.” I peel off the sweatshirt I’d found hanging on my side of the closet earlier and sit on the stool by the mirror. “Professional hunters everywhere.”
“I know,” he says. “As soon as I heard, I sent the car for you. That’s the last time you go sightseeing on foot.”
I exhale a heavy breath and turn towards my reflection, cocking my head at the woman staring back at me.
She’s wearing a vest top and lacy bra she didn’t buy and has clean hair that she dried after unboxing a hairdryer that was left out for her on the vanity.
I have nothing of my own. No weapons, no autonomy. Even the food in the fridge came from his money.
“Do you know how lost I am here?”
Bronx moves in behind me and bends a little to bring his face next to mine so we’re staring at each other. I lean back half an inch without thinking.
“You’re not lost when you have me,” he says.
I close my eyes for a beat because even my husband isn’t truly mine.
“Back home, I had the location of safe houses burned into my brain. Contacts I could run to if I needed weapons. Escape routes and cash at my disposal.” My voice rises higher as my emotions get the better of me. “I hate being this helpless. Being useless and having to depend on you for everything.”
His hands settle on my shoulders and his mouth comes to my ear. “You identified the threat, didn’t you?”
A shiver runs through me, the warmth and gritty texture of his voice reaching places inside me that should stay numb.
“You won’t lose that, Tierney…in fact it’s important that my wife predicts the threats so she can remove herself from a dangerous situation and not get hurt.”
“Wouldn’t it be so much easier for you if a sniper wiped me out?” I slip out from under his hands and stand. “Not that I want to die, but it would solve all your problems. You’d be free of this pantomime and free to marry a woman who actually likes you.”
Bronx widens his stance, folds his arms, and skims his bottom lip with his thumb as he considers me. “I’d say you’re more of a challenge than a problem.”
He takes a step closer, and I back up. “And I won’t settle for a woman who just likes me, princess.”
In three strides, he’s crowding me against the closest door, one hand braced above my head and his face lowered so we’re almost breathing the same air.
His fingertips skate down the curve of my throat. “I want my wife to be crazy in love with me. I want her to be wet when I touch her. I want herto beg for my cock.”
God help me. I swallow hard and press my thighs together.
There’s a knowing curve to his lips as he trails featherlight fingers down my arm, igniting a flurry of goosebumps. “I want her to shiver when I touch her. I want her knees to weaken, her pulse to rocket, her body to melt into mine.”
He goes quiet for a racing heartbeat, studying me. “I want her legs to fall open as she lets out a moan because she just can’t help herself.”
For a breath, maybe two, his mouth hovers close enough that I brace for his lips to take mine. I hate that I’m almost panting.
However, his gaze drags from my mouth to my eyes, and he takes a slow breath, then he steps back.
He runs a hand through his dark hair and exhales through his nose as if he’s reining something in.
“What do you feel like doing tonight?” he asks, voice rough but measured. “We can go out for dinner and drinks. Or stay in. Your choice.”
It takes my brain a second to catch up after everything he just said. “What?”
He shrugs, adjusting the cuff of his sleeve like he’d been thinking about dinner, not screwing me against the wall. “How about I introduce you to my city, my way?”
I straighten my spine and ignore the ache buried so deep inside me that I’d almost beg him to cure it if I wasn’t furious at myself for feeling it.
“What about the people who were following me?”
