Eli was nearly always hard around her. She couldn’t miss the state of his body, yet he hadn’t even tried to have sex with her, not even when they lay naked in bed together and his cock was pressed so tight against her. Was she really that awful? Or was it because the challenge was gone? She’d given herself to him and since then, he’d rejected her.
She drew her knees up tight against her chest. Eli had been bad-tempered, moody and even mean with her since that first morning after. She’d never been able to get Cordeau’s attention and as a child, she’d tried. She’d been desperate for someone, anyone at all to take an interest in her. He never had. She’d been cared for just the way he cared for the objects in his home. Now she had the same problem with Eli. She didn’t know how to get his attention.
Eli had used that voice, the one that made her shiver. The one that made her go hot. The one that always sent fire dancing between her legs. Did he know what that voice did to her? Did he realize just talking to her like that made her weak with need? She sighed and pressed her fingertips to her eyes.
She knew that these past four days she did what she always did when she didn’t know what to do. She retreated. Withdrew. Eli had let her. He’d acted almost disinterested in her. He was more worried about how fast she ran and how far. She hadn’t made one complaint, not one, no matter how sore she was or how bad it hurt when they were sparring. She had done every single thing he asked and she cooked the best meals she could think of. Still, that hadn’t been enough for him.
Eli had been in a foul mood every single day. She didn’t know what she’d done or what she was supposed to do. She just knew it wasn’t good enough. Nothing she did was good enough. She contemplated defying him, but it wasn’t worth the effort. She really was tired of it all. She just wanted to go to bed and pull the blankets over her head and just hide.
Catarina dried off slowly and pulled on one of Eli’s flannel shirts. At least she felt clean and alive again after their workout. She wandered into the kitchen. The dishes were still in the sink so she rinsed them and began to put them in the dishwasher.
“Kitten. Come here. Now.”
Catarina heard the rough in his voice. His sensual, sexy growl that always made her wet. Her body reacted with hunger. With anticipation. Excitement. At the same time, she was tired of being ordered around by a man who didn’t care enough to talk to her. To explain anything. She didn’t deserve his foul mood.
She wandered over to the screen, pushed it open with one hand and stood in the doorway looking at him. He sat in the shadows, in his favorite chair, his hair damp from his shower and his eyes all cat. And maybe that was the trouble. He was more leopard than man. “What is it you want from me, Eli?” she asked softly. “More sex? That seems to be all you want from me, but only when you want it. I don’t right now.”
His eyes narrowed. Fury burned. She didn’t care. She stood her ground. She wasn’t backing down.
“Do you think I don’t know when my woman wants me?”
“You’re talking about my body, Eli, which strictly speaking isn’t all me. My body wants you. I’m not denying that. But I don’t. Me. The woman. You hurt me. You didn’t notice, or you didn’t care. You demand all the time that I talk to you – that I tell you everything going through my mind, but you don’t bother to give me that same courtesy. I asked you if you were angry with me and you refused to answer. I have no idea what I’ve done to set you off and quite frankly, right at this minute, I don’t even care.”
That was such a lie. She did care. It hurt to have him upset. She’d trusted him all over again. Given herself to him. Declared she’d stay with him and start their relationship over. She knew she was going to cry and that upset her more. Those leopard eyes staring at her without blinking, coming out of the dark like they did, were terrifying. But she refused to back down.
“You’d better start caring, Cat,” he snapped back.
“Why? So we can have sex and you can walk off a happy man again? That’s all that matters to you, isn’t it, Eli. If you’d just left it there it would have been fine. We could have sex and you could be in control and I’d just go along with it, because really, in your eyes, that’s all I’m good for.”
“Do you really believe that the only thing I value you for is for sex?” he demanded, his voice harsh.
“Why would you value me even for sex?” she shot back. “I don’t know the first thing about it. You tell me to put my mouth on you in the mornings when I wake up and you did so knowing I couldn’t possibly do more than give you a brief kiss. That’s a set-up, kind of like when Rafe forced me to read that poem so he could make fun of me. For you, I’m more like a body you can use, and if I don’t do exactly as you say, you go up in flames.”