Page 64 of My Husband Problem

All of that is accurate.

I remember that day vividly. The wind was from the north. The room smelled like peppermint and vanilla. My mother’s hug, after eighteen years, nearly sent me to my knees.

And Astrid had been the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

The second I walked into that room, I’d thought,mine.

I was not leaving that island without her. And I’d behaved accordingly. Damn the consequences.

But I had been so wrapped up in how I felt about everything and my mission that I hadn’t worried about her feelings. I’d told her that I didn’t care what concerns she had. I would fix any issue and take down any roadblock.

I’d meant it.

“And you were just like ‘okay, yes sir?’” Beckett asks. “That doesnotseem like you.”

Laughter ripples around the table.

“It really doesn’t, does it?” Astrid asks, still studying me. “But I found it…”

My entire body tenses, waiting for her to fill in that blank.

I continue to hold her gaze even as images from that day flip through my mind.

I was definitely not flirtatious.

I was wound so tight that day that I was even more demanding than usual. I’m always direct when I want something. I don’t worry about how I’m perceived, about hurting people’s feelings, or about whether people like me. When I need or want something, I just go after it.

I wanted Astrid.

That’s what I was focused on.

But, while that works in business, in marriage maybe not so much.

IneededAstrid to marry me that day. There was no other option. I was also on my grandfather’s turf again, home afternearly two decades, seeing the family I had been estranged from for years. I was not at my best.

I’ve spent all of the months since then trying to make up for being an over-the-top asshole that day by leaving her alone and letting her do whatever she wants.

“You found it…” Beckett prompts.

“Funny,” she finally fills in. “He was really full of himself, and I was amused by how sure he was I was going to just swoon into his arms from the very first minute.”

I feel my lips twitch. She didnotfind it funny. Of all the emotions I read on her face that day—shock, exasperation, even anger—amusement was not one of them.

“But you did say yes to him,” Teddy points out.

She nods. “I did.”

“Why?”

“To teach him a lesson,” she says.

Several people laugh, but I can’t look away from her.

“What lesson?” Beckett asks.

I almost answer before she does. Because while she’s never said this to me, I justknowit.

“That he can’t always get what he wants just because he’s hot and rich.”