Page 49 of Hateful Games

“Why would you assume I threatened them?”

“Because you’re a Neanderthal.”

“You’ll run out of insults at the rate you’re going, Rose.” Tilting my head, I don’t dare drop my gaze to her siren red lips. Afraid I’ll want a bite and show her the way I like to draw blood. “As for your silly and pathetic dates, I gave them a choice.”

“What choice?”

“A choice as old as time. Love or money.”

“You paid them off to embarrass me?” Pushing against my chest with all her might, she growls, “To fucking ghost me? And for what? Just to fuck with my life? It isn’t your playground.”

When I don’t budge, she furiously hits my chest with her fists, pouring out her frustration at my betrayal.

Shoving her arms over her head, I tame her with a hand on her delicate neck. Immediately, she stills.

“Behave, Rose.” Her soft pants tease my collarbone when I dip my head. “I told you communication is a two-way street. If all you wish to do is throw a tantrum, I’ll give you a fucking time-out in the corner.”

“Did you smoke this ideology when you sent a bodyguard to follow me around? ’Cause I don’t remember that two-way communication,” she counters. “And do not feed me the bullshit excuse of wanting to protect me. You want to control and micromanage my life, that’s the goddamn truth.”

“If I wanted that, I wouldn’t have been discreet about it and stopped you after the first embarrassing date,” I confess and threaten in the same breath. “Know this, you’re not fucking or flirting with another man ever again on my watch.”

“You’re out of your mind if I’m letting you touch me, wife or not.”

I squeeze her throat, feeling her pulse pound harder. “What do you call this?”

Glaring, she slaps my hand away. Only because I let her.

Pulling away, I shrug with a small grin, “How about you think of it as a favor? I screened those guys and they didn’t make the cut.”

“How about you shove your double standards up your ass?”

“Do you really want to be with someone who is that easy to buy off?”

“What I want is the choice to make the decision myself.”

“Too late.”

Lifting her chin defiantly, she orders. “You will call off your lap dogs, Nova.”

“No. However, your dating days are long behind you. I’ve already taken the liberty of deleting all your dating profiles.”

“I’m telling my father.”

I laugh. I just can’t help it. “I’m sure he’ll agree with me wanting to guard my fiancée from potential rapists and kidnappers.” I smirk before continuing, “And he would absolutely appreciate me stopping my future wife from making a joke out of us by going on dates while being engaged.”

“Oh yeah, like you’ve been such a saint all these years,” she taunts. “For fuck’s sake, the minute I arrived, Malcolm assumed I was just another girl in the long line of bimbos.”

“I trust him to keep his mouth shut,” I reply dismissively and reiterate, “and you will continue to use my bodyguard. It’s better now that you know anyways. He won’t have to hide anymore.”

“A bodyguard without my knowledge or consent is called stalking,” she sneers.

“Then he will continue to stalk you until I say otherwise.”

“Hard to do if you’re blind.”

I still at the blatant threat she innocently utters, pretending to examine her nails. I hate when I immediately notice she’s gotten new nails because today their color is a bright red with glittery edges unlike the shiny black ones she had yesterday.

I cross my arms. “What are you implying?”

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