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Was that really what she’d been thinking? Pasta for breakfast? A first for him, too …
There were more firsts for him this morning than pasta.
Early-morning conversation with a woman. Breakfast with her. No thought at all of business. That alone was inconceivable, that he should have awakened as he had, his thoughts not on the day’s business agenda or how the New York market would open but on, of all things, a woman.
And what, exactly, did that mean?
The water began to boil.
Draco lowered the flame and wished he could lower the boiling point of whatever it was that was happening inside him.
A muscle knotted in his jaw.
Anna was still at the stove, concentrating on stirring the sauce as if her life depended on it.
Was she as confused as he was?
Yesterday he’d told her that something was happening. The question was, what? He needed time and space to clear his head.
“Draco.”
He looked at Anna. Her face was pale.
“I have to leave.”
He didn’t answer.
“Go back to New York, I mean.”
Still he didn’t respond. Anna expelled a breath.
“I came to do a job and I’ve done it.” She gave a little laugh. “I mean, I came to do a job and now I know there’s no job to do. The land is absolutely yours. I don’t even know how my father came up with that story, but—”
“I understand,” he said politely … and then he looked at her, really looked at her, and felt himself growing angry. At her. At him. At them both. He moved toward her, clasped her shoulders, pulled her to her toes and glowered. “Goddamnit, Anna, you’re not going anywhere!”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I have to.”
“What you have to do is stay here. With me.”
“No.” Her voice took on a panicked edge. “I can’t. My work—”
“I have work, too. Call your office, as I will call mine. Tell them you won’t be in for a week.”
“Draco. I can’t simp—”
He kissed her. Again and again, his arms hard around her, until she was hanging on to him to keep her knees from buckling.
“Stop,” she whispered. “I can’t think when you—”
“I am not asking you to think. I am asking you to do.”
Oh, he was so sure of himself! So arrogant. So demanding. So certain that because he was a man, he could bend her to his will.
“I have a job,” she said. “A life. I have commitments …”
Dark fire flashed in his eyes. “To a man?”
“No! Never. See? You don’t know anything about me or you’d never have asked me a thing like—”
