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“I shouldn’t have pushed the issue. We had an agreement and you’re right to stick to it. I’m sorry.” Confusion swirled through him. What had come over him? He was not an indecisive person. Why the hell couldn’t he just keep focused on the best sex he’d ever had? Not such a bad situation he was in. Why complicate it?
“Sorry doesn’t cut it! It’s not just the dinner invitation. Do you really think I’m using you to give my libido a bit of a run after years of celibacy? That’s so hurtful.”
He shook his head, running a hand through his hair. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“Well, you did. I meant what I said. You’re not the first guy to show an interest, you know.”
“So why haven’t you been with anyone else?” It was childish but he needed to hear that he was special.
“Don’t be a jackass.” She snapped, pulling her hand free and rubbing it with the other. “Do you want me to say that I’ve never wanted anyone like I want you? Surely your ego doesn’t need stroking?”
He cringed at his transparency. “Okay, okay!” His dark brown eyes bored into hers. “This is getting ridiculous. I’ve said I’m sorry. That is the end of it.”
“Oh, well,” she said with a sarcastic smile. “If the great David Trent says that’s the end of it, then of course it bloody is.”
“Katie, I’m not your father. I’m not Roberto. I’m not planning to hurt you.”
“Oh, you would say that,” she snapped fiercely. “You are so goddamned arrogant! You think you know what makes me tick? This has nothing to do with my dad. Nothing to do with Maxie’s dad. This is you, thinking you can change the rules halfway through. Well, you can’t. We both said we’d have fun while it lasted, and that’s what I intend to do.” She turned and stormed away from him, shaking her head with the full force of her rage.
Marcus was not used to being questioned, and women usually fell over themselves to seem pleasant and agreeable to him. He watched her disappear through the trees and then eased himself to the ground, not caring that his jeans were getting covered in mud and his body was getting drenched by rain.
Ever since Iraq, he’d been like a boat on the ocean without an anchor. The business he’d spent his life building suddenly seemed meaningless. His marriage was long over, and his best friend dead. The judgment, which he prided himself on employing expertly, was clouded and he didn’t know how he was going to get his head straight.
His company had always been his solace, and right now, he had no other option but to bury his head in his work and hope it brought him some answers. He stood up and made his way down the path, moving slowly, hoping that by the time he got back to Wadeford House, Katie’s temper would have cooled down.
It hadn’t. She was nowhere to be seen when he walked in, dripping wet, and filthy, but the silence vibrated with her anger. He pulled off his coat and boots, leaving them in the nook by the front entrance, and walked upstairs to his room. Still no sign of Katie. He knew her well enough to know not to seek her out. For whatever reason, she was more furious with him than he deserved. At least, he thought so. There was a missing piece of the puzzle, surely more than how badly that Roberto asshole had hurt her.
He stripped down and replaced his sodden clothes with some of the new stuff he’d picked up in the village, then settled down on his bed with his laptop, ready to get through some emails. But the view distracted him. He let his gaze wander over the rolling hills of the golf course, and slowly, peace oozed through him. Tranquility.
This house was his whole reason for being at Wadeford, and he’d become so bogged down in the fantastic sex he and Katie were having every spare moment they could find, that he hadn’t really done a damned thing more about obtaining it. Telling himself it was a completely separate issue to their steamy relationship, he emailed his assistant and told her to up the purchase price he’d offered by a hundred thousand pounds.
A noise from the room next door caught his attention and, interested, he stepped out into the hallway. Katie, bent over the bed, in the process of making it up fresh. The small of her back was exposed as she tucked the fabric sheet perfectly into place and he swallowed down his immediate response.
He wasn’t used to feeling tentative, but he wasn’t sure how to handle her.
“Need a hand?” He said, finally, leaning with all the appearance of casual calm against the door.
She fixed him with a steely glare. “No. Thank you.”
“Katie, it was a stupid argument. And, unless I am remembering incorrectly, you’re the one who tore me to shreds.”
She bit down on her lip and sidestepped to the next corner. She was the most frustrating woman. He moved into the room and pulled on the sheet, tucking it in at the top of the bed as she had done.
“I don’t need help, David. Please. Just leave me be for a while, okay?”
He took a deep breath, fighting the desire to make her talk to him, or make love to her, something, anything, would be better than this stupid silence.
But he didn’t. She couldn’t make it any clearer that she wanted her space. “You know where I am when you’re ready to talk.”
He went back into his room and shut the door a little more forcefully than he’d intended. He made himself become absorbed by his work, but in a matter of hours, voices outside his room caught his interest. He craned to hear. Katie’s voice, unmistakably sweet and welcoming, made him feel like he’d been punched in the stomach. He hated that she was upset with him. Two voices, a male and a female, were chatting back happily to her. More guests.
He shouldn’t be surprised, or disappointed. Winter was quiet, not dead. He shouldn’t
have presumed he could continue to have the run of the place, and Katie, all to himself indefinitely. He stayed in his room for the rest of the day, and only emerged when it was their usual dinner time.
The downstairs table was set for three, as usual, but Maxie’s plastic cup was missing, and three wine glasses were in its place.
“Oh, David,” Katie said formally, not quite meeting his eyes. “I have two new guests, a couple from Edinburgh. I don’t usually do dinner for guests, as you know,” her cheeks flushed, “but the pub’s booked out for the quiz night, so I’ll serve you, and them, in half an hour.”
