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Mariella leaves to convey my message and not long after Gualtiero enters the room, calm, collected, and not at all impatient.
I bombard him with my plea. “Tiero, please let me go home.”
“I can’t do that, princess. As I said, you’re mine. It goes against my nature to let something of mine go.”
“That’s selfish. I don’t want to be here. I want to go home.” I stomp my foot like a petulant child.
“Go home to what exactly? You have no family left. Your job is gone and your friends aren’t expecting you back for some time, if ever.”
Thanks for the reminder.
My anger at his handiwork is returning at full force. I look around frantically for something I can hurl against his head. Why isn’t there something? A vase, a glass… anything?
“Why do you want to return to a life of mediocrity?! I will give you the world.”
Mediocrity? How dare he?
Just because I’m not rich doesn’t make my life mediocre. I’d bet my life I’m actually happier than he’s ever been… okay, maybe not my life, but everything I own.
Entitled prick.
“I don’t want the world. I want my freedom,” I reply through gritted teeth.
“We always want what we can’t have,” Tiero retorts.
“Is this why you want me, Gualtiero? Because you know you can’t have me? Because I chose not to stay with you?”
“Princess, you know in your heart we’re perfect together. Give it some time. We’ll get back to where we were before. This is only a blip in our happiness.”
“You’re completely deluded! How can you possibly think we could get back what we shared? You took me against my will!”
Tiero taps his fingers against his legs, glaring at me, “You really need to get over this,” he admonishes.
Seriously?!
It’s becoming obvious no one ever opposes him. He has no patience for it.
If I was anyone else, I’d guess he would deal with it differently, but with me he can’t… not if he wants me back in his bed.
He’s in unchartered territory, and the thought pleases me greatly.
“Has it ever occurred to you that there were other ways of getting me to stay? Other than kidnapping? Like, I don’t know… talking to me about what you want, how you felt… stuff like that?” I ask, sarcasm dripping from my voice. “You could have avoided the whole ‘I hate you’ scenario we’re going through now. And for the record, I will never sleep with you again.”
He looks at me incredulously. He truly seems to believe that his way is the only way.
“We’ll be together again, don’t doubt it. But I won’t force you. You’ll come to me of your own free will… because you want to be with me.”
“Did you not just hear me? This willnothappen. You might as well give up now and send me home.”
Guatiero laughs. “Ah, is this your plan? You should know something about me… I never give up. This…”—he’s pointing at himself and me—“Thiswillhappen. You still want me, even if you can’t admit it to yourself. Your body was screaming for me to touch you earlier.”
Bastard, he knows my body and my reactions too well and undoubtedly will use that knowledge against me at every turn.
“Unlucky for you, I also have a principled mind and a long memory,”I challenge.
“We shall see how long your determination lasts.” With these words, he kisses my forehead and leaves the veranda, calling over his shoulder, “Dinner will be served in half an hour. Mariella will come and collect you. Be ready.”
I hold on to the balustrade, fuming, calling him every ugly name under the sun I can come up with.
