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The drive was spent in silence.
He kept his gaze out his window. Left the space between us. Acted as if I weren’t there. The driver didn’t ask him any questions. His knees were wide apart, and his elbow rested on the armrest. His fingertips were curled around his mouth. Sunglasses sat on the bridge of his nose, so his eyes were impossible to decipher.
I was so nervous I felt like I’d been kidnapped.
We passed through his gate onto his property, and then one of the guys took my bags. The two of us entered his home, and his butler didn’t come to greet us, which made me think Bartholomew had already been staying here.
He took the stairs first, and when he made it to the next landing and realized I wasn’t behind him, he gave me a cold stare.
I didn’t need to be asked twice.
We entered his bedroom, the place where I’d slept beside him for the first time, the terrace doors open like he’d been sitting there before he’d left to pick me up at the airport. It smelled the way it did before, with a hint of his cologne, the scent of clean sheets and fresh flowers.
He turned around and faced me.
Looked at me like he hated me.
I’d never been the type to cower, but that look on his face made me suddenly shy.
“What are you doing here?”
Both of my eyebrows rose, because that was a question I should ask instead of being asked. “To see my sister. What areyoudoing here?”
He never answered the question—no surprise there.
“Why did you bring me here?”
Silence.
“You haven’t taken my calls. Responded to my texts…” I tried to disguise the hurt in my voice with anger, but I wasn’t angry at all, just sad.
“Because I didn’t want to. I still don’t want to, but you forced my hand.”
“You didn’t have to pick me up from the airport. You didn’t have to bring my stuff here. You didn’t have to do anything—”
“I’m going to talk now—and you’re going to listen.”
If I didn’t miss him so much, I’d push back. But we stood on fragile ground, and if there was any chance I could get him back, I didn’t want to screw it up.
“Loyalty. I demand it from my men. I demand it from my allies. And I demand it from my lovers. If you can’t give that to me, then we’re done.”
“I am loyal to you—”
“I talk. You listen.” He took a step toward me, his hard face slightly red in anger. “Was I unclear?”
I wasn’t sure if it was a trick question. I chose to stay quiet—and that seemed to be the right answer.
His eyes flicked back and forth between mine before he continued. “If you want to be my woman, then you follow my rules and meet my expectations. If a woman asked me to be her date as afavor, you bet your ass the answer would be no. While you sleep at night, I get offers left and right, and I tell them to piss off. You think I let them down easily? You think I protect their egos? No. I say I have a woman. Simple as that.”
“I—”
His eyes flashed.
Shit.
He stared me down to make sure that my mouth was closed. “You getonepass. That’s it. The only language I understand is loyalty. Show me loyalty—or I walk away. Understood?”
