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There was a long moment of silence. His hand wrapped around mine, forcing me to drop my spoon. Then, he pushed my chair back and turned it around until I was facing him.
A finger dipped under my chin and raised it up.
Serious, jet-black eyes inspected me. A lock, streaked blond, fell across his forehead. He looked so boyish in that moment. Before the hurricane, I’d never seen him in anything less than a perfectly fitted and pressed suit, with a tie, cufflinks, and an expensive watch to match. His hair never had a strand out of place.
After the hurricane, it was like Tatum was suddenly unspooling in front of my eyes, looking less and less like the robotic, haughty man I knew him to be. In the moments when I caught him laughing or got a glimpse of him relaxed, like now, I melted like an ice cream cone on a hot summer day.
Despite the gooey and warm feeling spreading through me, I made sure to harden my face and glare at him. It wouldn’t do for him to know how I really felt.
His eyes softened. “Did you not sleep well after I left? Did you have another nightmare?”
I didn’t answer.
“What’s with the attitude, little girl?”
His jaw clenched as if the thought of me having a nightmare or waking up made him angry.
“I’m not a little girl,” I snapped back. “I’m a powerful woman—soon to be the head of my clan, in case you’ve forgotten—so it’s none of your business if I’ve had another nightmare or how I’ve slept.”
He wrapped his large hand around my throat and drove me into the back of the chair.
Thrusting his face into mine, he said, “Baby girl, I don’t care what you are to the outside world. To me, you’re my gorgeous girl. My smart, sassy little doll. My pretty mafie princess with an attitude hiding a generous heart. You can’t hide from me anymore. I see the way you treat Bunica, my mother, Star. I see you—”
“Will you stop?” I pleaded.
Oh, God, his words gutted me, but he was surely messing with me. Why would he say these things when he hated the one and only kiss we’d ever shared? I mean, sure, I didn’t have any experience, but I’d certainly melted. Instead, he’d called it a mistake. How could he say what he just said when he hadn’t even wanted to kiss me before?
My eyes slashed away from him. I didn’t appreciate this little game he was playing. It cut me to my core. He had no right to say what he’d said. As sexy as he sounded, his words were meaningless.
His head canted to the side. “What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?”
“That, right there,” I accused him, poking a finger in his chest. “Will you stop that? Calling me gorgeous and sexy like you mean it when we both know you don’t. Anyway, those things mean nothing. Being tough is what matters in this world, especially for a woman like me. Or being strong and shrewd.”
“I called you smart and sassy.”
Was he purposely dismissing what I was saying? I swallowed hard, pressing into his fingers around my throat. “I don’t know why you’re toying with me, Tatum.”
As painful as it was, I forced myself to lift my gaze and painfully hold his soulful, dark eyes. They turned stormy at my words.
“You’ve made it abundantly clear how you really feel about me,” I said sullenly. Sheesh, I didn’t think I’d ever have to bring up the delicious, awful kiss again.
He got closer until his breath whispered over my lips as he asked, “What the hell are you talking about?”
Oh my God, how dense could one man be? I huffed and waggled my head to throw off his hand, but he only secured my throat more firmly, not allowing any movement.
Fine, if he was going to make me say it, I’d say it. Rip the bandage off and go back to the way things were before. “I’m talking about the kiss that was a mistake, that’s what I’m talking about. Or did you forget what you said afterward? I certainly didn’t.”
Another sharp incision notched itself on my heart at having to speak of that awful moment.
He blanched. “Clara, I didn’t mean for it to come out the way it did. It wasn’t the kiss that was a mistake. Your kiss gutted me.”
I inhaled sharply, my heart in my throat. I’d gutted him? The idea was fantastical and also incredibly enticing.
“It was me taking your first kiss that was the problem,” he explained. “I violated your honor and that of the Lupu clan by touching you.”
There goes that annoying Lupu traditionalism rearing its head again. These Lupu people were obsessed.
“Oh, please, Tatum, I’m not a wilting wallflower virgin,” I retorted.
