Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
She blew me a kiss and disappeared behind her door.
I stared at it after she closed it, and then I realized I had no idea how much time I had, and thus I had no time to waste.
Therefore, I needed to decide, when my husband came to me, where the conversation we would need to have should occur.
And I knew instantly it should not be in the bedchamber.
I did not hurry (in case he came in), but I also did not dawdle on my way to the sitting room.
However, I found myself having to stop pacing because he did not come quickly.
Instead I had to find parchment in his desk, inks and pens, and I took these to the settee to write the missives I had lied to Ines that I needed to write (though it would be good to have them done for a clearer day the next day).
And I did this beginning to feel less flustered and starting to fume.
For apparently my husband took my insincere invitation to reminisce with his old lover as sincere.
And equally apparently, they had much to reminisce about.
Not long after, I found I was beginning not to fume, but instead feel as if I would weep as the minutes ticked by and he did not come to me.
Finally, I realized he did not intend to come to me, and perhaps he thought I would go to him (even if I did not know where he slept at night as I had not asked).
But that would not be happening.
I had nothing to apologize for.
He did.
And this list was ever growing.
He had been dictatorial.
He had treated me like a mischievous child.
He was withholding from me.
He had retreated from me.
And he had introduced me to and made me sit at dinner with that woman.
It struck me that perhaps he had no intention of settling matters a’tall.
I could not finish my letter to Ha-Lah and would probably find on the morrow that it made little sense.
I decided to set it aside, and was about to do this, when the door to our chambers opened.
I looked that way and watched Mars at first walk to our bedchamber.
I did not have time to call out before he turned on his foot and headed my way.
I sat on the settee and watched his approach, hearing the strong cadence of his sandaled feet hitting the tile in a manner that was remarkably but oddly, in that moment, soothing.
He cleared the entryway, saying, “Excellent. You did not disrobe.”
I felt my head twitch and was no longer soothed.
Had he lost his mind?
“My king—”
He arrived at me and wasted not a moment pulling the pen from my fingers.
He tossed it to the table in front of me.
“Excuse me!” I snapped.
He pulled the book upon which was the letter I was writing out of my hands and the book landed with a thud on the table while the parchment floated there.
“Well!” I cried.
And then I went stone still as he planted a fist in the cushion on either side of my hips and he was all I could see.
“If you address me as ‘my king’ one more time, I will redden your arse to the point you will not be able to sit for a week,” he warned low.
Of all the…
“You are my king,” I retorted heatedly.
“Do not try me, Silence. My wife has denied herself to me for a week, and I am in no mood.”
He…
He…
He was in no mood?
And he was accusing me of denying myself to him?
He’d walked away from me!
“Well, by all means,” I hissed. “Take what is yours, husband.”
His anger wafted over me like a wave of heat.
“This is trying me,” he cautioned.
“Well, perhaps I should force you to have dinner with one of my old lovers so you will know the definition of trying,” I retorted. “No, wait. Strike that. There are none I could try you with.”
“Her clan is the most powerful of my realm, outside my own, and she has the eye of the eldest son of the baron, that being the man who will inherit the title. So, although she is venomous as sport, she is not someone I care to bother with right now.”
“But you did care to invite her to dinner,” I returned.
“It would be impolitic not to.”
“Regardless of the fact this meant your wife would have to sit opposite a woman who knows you as intimately as she does.”
“Ines is nowhere near knowing me as intimately as you do,” he growled.
“Truly, Mars,” I bit. “Although there is no possibility of this happening, I suggest you consider how it would feel with the shoe on the other foot. I mean, can you not understand how insulting it was for you to expect me to dine with that woman?”
“It is good we are talking about insults now for there is another one I prefer to discuss,” he shot back.