Page 28 of Bought For The Marriage Bed

‘Where were you today?’ he asked.

‘Um…why do you ask?’

‘I called you for hours but you didn’t answer.’

‘I am allowed to go out, aren’t I?’ She gave him a hardened look. ‘Or is my being a prisoner part of your stipulations?’

‘No, but I would prefer it if you would keep me informed of where you and Georgia will be in case I need to contact you. Do you have a mobile phone?’

‘Yes, but I don’t have it on a lot as it wakes Georgia,’ she said half truthfully.

‘I have something else I would like to discuss with you,’ he added and, reaching into his coat pocket, took out the magazine Elizabeth had shown her that morning.

She took it from him with unsteady fingers and placed it on the coffee table without opening it to the damning page.

‘I take it you have already seen it?’ he said.

‘Yes.’

‘And?’

She met his diamond-hard gaze. ‘That was more than a week ago. Besides, you know how these magazines like to blow things out of proportion.’

‘Did you sleep with those men?’

Nina’s stomach quivered at the steely edge to his tone but she forced herself to respond with a steadiness she was nowhere near feeling. ‘No.’

‘You lying little—’ His mouth snapped shut as if he felt tainted by even uttering the rest of the vilifying sentence.

‘I am not lying,’ she stated quietly.

His jaw tightened and his hands went to fists at his sides. ‘I am going to ask you again where you were today and I expect you to tell me the truth.’

‘I went to the library.’

‘The library?’

She lifted her chin and folded her arms across her chest. ‘Yes, it’s this really boring place full of books where you have to be quiet all the time. I thought I’d check it out, you know, to improve my mind a bit.’

‘You went there all day?’ He looked sceptical.

‘For a big part of it,’ she answered. ‘That’s why my phone was switched off. What did you do all day?’

‘I was working.’

‘Oh, really?’ She gave him an equally sceptical look. ‘Can you prove it?’

He frowned at her. ‘I do not have to prove anything to you.’

She tilted her head at him. ‘Nor do I to you.’

‘If I find out you are lying to me, Nina, you will be very sorry.’

‘I don’t have to answer to you until we are married,’ she said. ‘And even then I will not tolerate you bossing me around as if I don’t have a mind of my own. Now, if you have finished discussing what you came here to discuss, I think you should leave.’

‘I will leave when I am good and ready.’ He closed the small distance between them, one of his hands going to the wall at the side of her head, his eyes holding hers as his body pressed close.

Too close.

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