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Holy…that was so proprietary, tyrannical and chauvinistic! For him to take that tone with me, as if I were already his, was completely egotistical and unacceptable-
-sweet and wonderful, and please, God, let him say it again, because it sounds so magical on his lips.
No! No, absolutely not! He had spoken as if my saying yes or no to him didn’t matter. As if he were in charge, and his loving me, his wanting me, was more than enough to settle the matter. I couldn’t accept that! I was going to protest. I was going to-
‘If any other man ever caught a glimpse of you like that,’ his cold voice whispered in my ear, ‘do you know what I would do?’
I shivered, and forgot all about protesting.
‘No.’
‘I don’t yet know either, Miss Linton.’ Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a muscle in his jaw twitch. ‘And that should scare you. I have always known what I would do to my enemies. A bullet, clean through the skull, a watery grave, a few sessions with Karim in a remote underground room - there is not much I have not done. And yet, all that seems insufficient when I think of you and another man together. Keep that in mind.’
Lifting my face from his chest, I looked up straight into his icy, sea-coloured eyes.
‘And you had better keep this in mind.’ Raising an arm, I pointed to the sad remnants of Mr Snowman Ambrose. ‘You’re not the only one who doesn’t know their limits.’
Silence hung heavily between us - a silence charged with ice and fire and anger and love. Our eyes were fastened to each other as if we were magnets, unable to let go. Hot need flared up inside me, a need to cross the distance and finally do what had been hovering as a dark promise in the air between us for months now. I could see the same hunger in his eyes. But I could also see that he wasn’t going to do anything about it. Not yet. Not without his ring on my finger.
So, instead of devouring Mr Ambrose, I did the next best thing. Bending down, I picked up the fallen snowman’s carrot and bit off the tip.
‘Hm. Not bad. Bloody hell, I’m hungry! Building a snowman is hard work.’
I caught Mr Ambrose giving me a look and raised an eyebrow. ‘What? Why are you looking me like that? It’s not your nose I’m nibbling on.’ A sudden grin spread over my face. ‘Or is that the problem? Would you prefer that?’
‘Miss Linton!’
I held out the carrot to him. ‘Want a bite?’
‘No.’
‘Come on. Vegetables are good for you.’
He gave me another look. Shrugging, I took another bite of Ambrose’s nose.
‘All right, if you prefer.’
We weren’t standing as close anymore as we had been. Without really noticing, we had put a little distance between us - just enough of a safety radius so we couldn’t touch anymore. But we still watched every movement the other made, every flicker of emotion in each other’s eyes. For a while we just stood there like this, while I nibbled on my carrot, and Mr Ambrose exuded Ambroseness. We kept eyeing each other, trying to discern what the other was thinking, while not entirely sure what we were thinking ourselves.
Finally, I decided to ask.
‘So…what now?’
Silence.
Absolute silence.
How wonderful. Was Mr Ambrose back to normal? Had he gotten this wedding nonsense out of his head?
Suddenly, out of the blue, I felt a painful twinge in my chest.
Wait a minute, Lilly…you do want him to get it out of his head, right?
Of course I did!
Do you? Do you really?
‘Shut up!’
