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“Ma’am.” He bows to me again. “When you need me, just have Patricia ring the guards’ booth.”
“Thank you, Christian.” I won’t negotiate basic freedoms in front of staff, who will gossip behind my back.
When the door clicks shut, Kieran and I stare at each other.
“I want to go back to school in Boston,” I say before I lose my courage. “That goon can shadow me.”
Kieran’s brows furrow. “Even if I had no issue with you living in another city and didn’t want a child right away, I would never let you live completely on your own.Especiallynot now.” He fingers his wedding ring, but it doesn’t appear to bother him. “Have you forgotten yesterday already?”
Crest Diamonds sent our rings in a beautiful velvet-lined cedarwood box. Kieran took his and just stuck the cube in his pocket without even looking at it. At least Shea liked them.
Shea. The Hamptons…
“No, of course, I haven’t forgotten. Then, can I go stay with Shea for a couple of days? You clearly don’t want a wedding night or a honeymoon. I assume you keep your sister well protected.”
“Shea is busy.”
“You’re all too busy for me.” I dump myself on a silk-tufted wing chair and cross my legs, slowly trying to get a reaction out of this savage. “Just for the weekend?”
“Isabella…” Kieran puts his head in his hands. “Did you not listen to a word I said two seconds ago? Not only do I not want you bringing any danger to my baby sister, but I don’t want anything to happen to you, either.” His voice sounds strangled but sincere. “In fact, I’m thinking Ivan courted you to trap you so his uncle could—”
“Stop. No. I don’t want to hear it.” Although, he may be right. “I don’t want you to tell me I’m stupid, too, because I got involved with the Bratva behind my father’s back.” Stifling tears is my new superpower today.
“Isabella, look at me.” Kieran gets up from behind his desk. Kneeling in front of me, he waits until I meet his eyes. “I do not, in any way, think you’re stupid. I think you’re a young woman who was sheltered with false promises from your mother about who you would marry. I’m sure your father had every intention of giving you to a man like me. A man who wants only…” He stops.
“Go on. A man like you who only wants a baby mama.”
He snickers at my reference. “No.” He stands and then sits in the seat next to me. “I confess I wasn’t prepared for this kind of marriage either. I was engaged to a woman I loved and thought that would be it. Then she died, and it became shockingly clear that any marriage thereafter would be for business purposes. But I never really knew what that would mean. Or that I could have a real…” He trails a hand up my leg. “How having a real wife would feel.”
I swallow. “Okay…” For a moment, I take him in and consider his side of the story.
His words make sense, as does the earlier suggestion:We’re in this together.
I glance around and wonder if I can make this marriage work with Kieran. I truly don’t have a choice. I’m married. We don’t live in ancient biblical times, but husbands do have power over wives, even in the courts.
“Thank you,” I say softly to him and rub my temples. “I don’t think I’ve said that to you. For school. For my clothes. My rings.”
“Those were easy.” He nods. “But please understand something about me. I have needs that I don’t expect you to satisfy. They came with the territory after losing Norah. I can’t just turn them off.” He holds my chin and looks like he’s going to kiss me. What’s holding him back? “Do you understand me, wife?”
Why is he calling me his wife if he’s going off to be with another woman?
I pull back. “I’m not getting you all excited when you plan to go sleep with someone else.”
“It’s for your own good. Trust me.” Kieran takes off his wedding ring, breaking my heart a little more.
He stuffs it into his desk drawer, no less. Not even a jewelry box in his room, which I assume he has because he wears expensive watches and even a gold braided chain around his neck with a religious medal of St. Patrick.
Figuring I lost this round, I storm out and go up to my bedroom so I can eat my wedding cake alone in the bathtub.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kieran
She’sonherwayup, boss.
Calder’s text doesn’t affect me the way it should. A gorgeous woman, who loves my style of fucking, and who can handle the savage I become in bed, is on her way up to the suite I keep at my club.
It takes a hot shower and lots of soap to rid my body of the stench and shame of filthy sex. Because deep inside, that’s not me. It’s a product of the man I turned into after losing someone I loved.
