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She tried to keep her voice level. “You can’t control this situation, Cullen. I know you’d like to, but it’s my job.”
He rose to his feet, his chair clattering loudly on the stone flags underfoot. “I will protect you ‘til my dying breath, Yasmina Sunitra Chambers.”
His eyes burned into her with the seriousness of his intentions.
She pressed her lips together and counted to ten.
The delay in discussion made him even more irate and he paced around, grumbling under his breath. She got as far as eight, flipped, and stood up too. “You have to let me be the hero.”
“You? You are a woman!”
“And women in my century—and for a long time before—do not need a man to win their battles for them, and don’t you forget it!”
As soon as she’d said it, she wished she hadn’t.
His expression turned to thunder. Like a wounded beast, he lashed out. “You are tiny and delicate. I am strong, I know Nathaniel Fox, and I can take him down, easily.”
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sp; She groaned aloud in frustration. “The man, maybe, but he’s not just a man anymore, is he?”
Cullen rubbed his hand through his hair, still pacing. “‘Tis not right, I tell you. The man’s duty is to protect his woman.”
“I made the deal.” She folded her arms over her chest, standing firm.
He ground to a halt and pointed at his chest. “The deal was made on my behalf. Fox is my responsibility.”
“No, Cullen. He’s mine, and the sooner you accept it, the easier this is going to be.”
He cursed loudly, lifted his hands in the air, turned his back on her and stomped off out the back door and away into the orchard.
She collapsed into her chair.
The disagreement left her feeling horribly bereft.
She’d feel like this all the time, she realized, if he disappeared from her life. She knew it, but it had to be done. Cullen Thaine needed to learn that women in her time could stand on their own two feet, charming though it was to have a swashbuckling man leaping to your defense.
She sipped her coffee and waited for him to come back.
He didn’t.
She pushed the coffee away. Eventually, she noticed the time and went upstairs to get ready for the day ahead.
When she came back down there was still no sign of him.
He reappeared quite suddenly when she opened the front door to leave for Eben’s workshop. She paused, looking at him expectantly. He’d obviously heard the front door and given in.
“I’ll walk down with you,” he said gruffly. “I need to go back to this “do yourself” store.”
Sunny mellowed at the sight of him. It seemed he wanted to compromise. She was hugely relieved. “Do you mean the do-it-yourself store?”
“That’s the one.”
Apparently he’d forgiven her for putting him in his place, thank goodness. She couldn’t bear it if he decided to go back home to 1820, simply because he couldn’t accept modern women’s independence and abilities.
She nudged his shoulder with hers.
He smiled down at her, although it was rather forced.
