I flushed, angry that he kept twisting my words and throwing them back at me.
“Why can’t you ever tell me what you’re doing, or where you’re going?” I cried. “You keep everything from me, running around god-knows-where with people I’ve never even met, and meanwhile I’m stuck in a hotel where you expect me to wait for you all day.”
His eyes were cold, that impenetrable green, but something in them seemed to waver. Just as quickly as I noticed it, though, it was gone.
“I’ll have my assistant forward you my itinerary, then,” he said with a wave of his hand. “Are we done now?”
“That’s not good enough.”
“Victoria Lindsey, you are so much more work than I anticipated. And I am fucking exhausted,” Stefan said, shrugging off his shirt completely and tossing it onto a chair.
“I’m your wife,” I reminded him.
“This is a marriage of convenience,” he told me. “And none of this is convenient for me.”
I couldn’t believe his cruelty. His outright dismissal of me and my feelings.
“None of this is convenient for me either,” I spat back at him.
“Why don’t you just go out and buy something with my money?” he said, glaring at me. “That seems to be the best way to shut you up.”
“Why don’tyoudecide what you actually want?” I said. “Because I’m pretty sure you have no fucking idea what that is.”
He stalked toward me, his eyes intense on mine. “I always know what I want.”
He was so intimidating up close that my mind nearly went blank. Not only was he staring at me, his gaze unblinking, but his naked chest was inches from me, his entire body radiating heat and strength and power. It was hard to say if I was more angry at him or aroused.
“You never know what you want,” I told him. “Not when it comes to me.” Michelle’s words came echoing back to me then, and I took a deep breath. “Tell me what you need.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I need to live my life, and so do you. Getting in too deep won’t benefit either of us. When this is all said and done and we go our separate ways, we can have a clean break—but only if we have boundaries. And this is one of them.”
I shook my head. “You act like you know what you’re doing, and you think you have it all figured out, but the truth is you’re just as mixed up as I am. Neither of us knows what this marriage is supposed to be.”
“I knowexactlywhat this marriage is supposed to be,” he said, but he didn’t move. “You’re the one who seems confused.”
But I wasn’t confused, or delusional. I saw his eyes rake down my body and back up again, right then and there, proving my point. This was infuriating.
I lifted my chin, ready to fight.
“Bullshit. You’re hot and cold,” I accused him. “One minute you’re holding my hand on a ferris wheel in Vienna, the next you’re parading some brunette across the lobby of our hotel. You take me to the opera one night, and lock me up in our room another. I think you want me, and I think you hate it. In fact, Iknowyou do.”
“And what makes you so sure?” he asked, his voice low and tense.
I closed my eyes, just for a moment.
“I saw you watching me,” I answered. “When I was in the shower. And I could see that you…” For the first time I faltered. “I saw your…”
“My cock?” he asked, his voice cruel. He laughed. “Don’t fool yourself, little kitty cat. I would have gotten hard watching any woman finger fuck herself.”
He turned, as if to dismiss me, but I grabbed his arm, stopping him. His bare skin was hot beneath my palm.
“Don’t,” he warned.
“You want me,” I taunted him. “You want to put your hands on me.” I looked him straight in the eye. “Do it.”
For a moment, I thought he would shake my hand off and walk away. Instead, his eyes flashed hot and before I could blink, his hands were hard and rough against my hips, his fingers gripping the flesh there. Holding me in place. My heart was hammering in my chest.
Immediately, I regretted pushing him. I opened my mouth—intending to apologize—but he kissed me before I could say a word.
