In Too Deep_ Husband Material & the Sheikh's Bargained Bride - Brenda Jackson [45]
So what was it with the Jekyll-and-Hyde reaction to privacy? Had it been triggered by their wedding ceremony? He sure hadn’t suffered from this affliction before it.
“I’m busy, Sabrina.” His voice was as expressionless as his face. “This can wait.”
Her outrage crested. “No, this can’t wait. You’re not putting me off again.”
He put down his pen, adjusting his pose to that of some one bent on suffering a pest’s interruption with utmost forbearance. “When have I put you off in the first place?”
“Oh, boy.” She huffed a chuckle fueled by all her fury and frustration. “You are a piece of work.”
“I fail to grasp your meaning. It must be a breakdown in communication, originating from our different grasps on the nuances of language.”
“Don’t play the ‘cultural difference’ card. You were educated in the West, and you’ve lived here for big chunks of time since childhood. The only one who has a problem understanding anything is me. But now you’re going to explain. Start by enlightening me about your view of marriage, since it seems it doesn’t coincide with mine.”
The stillness in his body seemed to deepen. “And what is your view of marriage?”
“That of almost everyone on the planet, in any culture. A man and a woman who actually live together.”
“I live with you.”
“You mean you grace whichever residence you happen to install me in with your fleeting presence.”
He gave a slight shrug of one formidable shoulder. “To the world, I do live with you. I come home to you every night.”
“What does the world matter here? I know you don’t. And I demand to know what you’re playing at.”
His body seemed to harden to rock, his face becoming almost inanimate. “I don’t appreciate your tone.”
A frisson of danger arced through her but she ignored it. He could think again if he thought she would be daunted by his dismissal or displeasure. “Well, tough. This is the only tone you’re getting since you refuse to acknowledge my questions. I won’t be brushed aside again until you suddenly remember I’m supposed to be your wife. Only in public, of course.”
His gaze became arctic. Then his baritone drenched her with its pitiless coldness. “If you’re worried this indicates I’m thinking of reneging on our deal, put your mind to rest.”
She dazedly stared at him. “Our deal?”
“Is still in effect. You have no reason to fear I won’t keep my end of the bargain. My father’s edict remains unchanged, and I still need an heir. You know that I already settled your father’s debts, securing the Grant name. And I will, in due course, secure your future.” His gaze panned downward, obscuring his expression, before he looked back up, impaling her on icicles. “But I now realize the source of your anxiety. It seems your father, either due to his rapid deterioration, or because he thought that you knew enough, didn’t inform you of the specifics of the deal he negotiated on your behalf.”
His father’s edict. An heir. Her father’s debts. The Grant name. Her future. It all made no sense.
She heard her own hoarse rasp. “What specifics?”
He rose from his seat. The room felt as if it were shrink ing, as if its walls were closing in on her. “As per the contracts I signed, I’ll run the winery and vineyards until you conceive, then I’ll give you back their rights. When you carry my child to term, I’ll give you the capital and the experts you need to run them. I’ll keep the two hundred acres your father never got around to planting. But since my father’s terms specified that my wife must be pregnant a year after the wedding, and since I’ve already consummated our relationship, I can afford to wait to see if you are already pregnant. In a couple of weeks, if you aren’t, I’ll take you to bed again.” He moved from behind his desk, seeming to vacuum the last wisps of air from her lungs. “Now, if that is all, I have important things to attend to.”
She stood rooted inside the doorway as he advanced on her. She felt as if she was staring at an incoming train.
He brushed against her as he left, leaving her