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The bottom of my stomach drops out as an image of a fully naked Rowan graces my mind. I shake my head to clear it. “Second, third, and fourth, absolutely no nakedness around the house. At all. None. No kissing, and under zero circumstances, are we to have sex.”
“Fucking hell, I’m engaged to a nun.” When I give him a sharp glare, he lifts his palms. “Fine. Have it your way. I don’t kiss the women I sleep with, anyway.”
That takes me by surprise, considering he’s so damn good at it.
“Great. We should have nothing to worry about, then.”
His gaze flicks to my lips, suggesting that the memory of the kiss we shared is just as vivid in his mind as it is in mine.
Regardless of his mood swings, the tension between us continues to thrive, thumping through the room like a heartbeat.
“According to the will, the earliest we can marry is April,” he says, but it’s the rumble in his tone that makes my belly clench. “That’s an awfully long time for two people under one roof to remain abstinent, don’t you think?”
“This house is big enough that I doubt we’ll even see each other all that often.”
At least, I hope that’s the case.
He’s so confident, so sure that I’ll give in, when he says, “We can’t avoid each other forever.”
“The hell we can’t.” I press my hand to his chest in an effort to move him, but the guy’s like a steel wall, irritatingly immovable.
“Go ahead. Hide behind your rules.” Rowan’s gaze turns sinful as he rakes it down my body, lingering long enough that my toes scrunch inside my shoes. “You’ll come sneaking into my room in the middle of the night soon enough.”
I half-laugh, nervous he can sense the effect he has on me. “If you think I’m that easy, then you’re going to be sorely disappointed.”
“There’s a perfectly good bed in here if you’re willing to prove me wrong.”
He winks. Winks!
My voice is embarrassingly weak, “And if I said you can forget it?”
“I’d remind you that I have a tendency to get what I want.” The room begins to fade, leaving my attention trained on the salacious curves of his mouth. “And when I want something, I don’t stop until it’s mine.”
Fingerlings of heat whisper through my core, and I’m forced to keep my thighs from pinching together. He says he’s not a liar, but my insecurities rise, reminding me that Rowan could never truly want me.
I’m not the kind of girl who gets the good, or even decent, guys. I’m not meant to have the billionaire husband with the fairytale mansion, fancy cars, and a flashy diamond ring.
I’m cursed to be the awkward girl with a quarter of her face scarred by an ugly, splotchy birthmark. The same girl who was picked last during every P.E. class, shoved into lockers and janitor’s closets, and mostly overlooked by the entire male species.
I’ve never even been in love, and if there was ever any doubt that I was undesirable, that auction only proved me right. I’m not here because Rowan chose me; I’m here because he saw an opportunity to help himself and took it.
“The rule stands,” I mutter, putting a healthy amount of space between us. “Don’t we have somewhere to be?”
After a tense moment of silence, he takes a step back and adjusts his already perfect shirt. “Follow me.”
He leads me back across the living room to an antique double bookcase that stands against the wall beside the piano.
His finger tugs the spine of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and a locking mechanism whines from the other side. I jump when the right side props open to reveal a dark, musty corridor.
“Where does it lead?” I ask, amazed by the hidden stairwell.
He offers me his hand after stepping into the darkness, and I take it, shuddering at the warmth from his palm skittering up my arm. “Patricia made it clear that we’re to follow the will requirements exactly. That means you’ll need a ring if we’re going to make this engagement look real.”
“Which you have, apparently, chilling in your underground Bat Cave?” A flood of nervousness zips through me when, with each step we take, a set of lights illuminates our path.
In the shadows of the long hall we travel down, I’m given an exasperated side eye. “Thomas has a jewelry vault down here, amongst other things.”
We pass two solid metal doors, flanking either side. “What kinds of things?”
