“All of this body is mine, Morina,” he murmured.
I bit my lip as his hands left heat in their wake. “For a few more months.”
“Are you so sure?”
I nodded slowly. “Like you said, we’re married until then. But just remember”–I circled him once and then tapped his finger where my makeshift ring sat–“you won’t have to wear this after that day. You’ll be free and so will I.”
“Until then, you’re mine.”
I shrugged and looked at my nails like I didn’t care about his rules. “It’s just an arranged marriage, Bastian. All for you to get some fucking shares in a company.”
The words were hurtful, but I was still mad.
He was too. And I wanted this side of him. I was ready to have Sebastian with me all night long. I wanted his pleasure, his pain, his torment.
I wanted what he hid from everyone else.
Bastian showed his teeth, slow, as if he was smiling. Yet, something was off. There was no happiness. My comment had pissed him off even if he tried to hide it. I wasn’t being a good wife or a wife really at all. I frustrated him instead.
Before I knew what was happening, he pulled me close and kissed me as he backed me against a kennel wall. I took his lips, so soft and yet so demanding, with mine and enjoyed what I hadn’t been able to for weeks now.
Suddenly, he shoved me back and a jolt of surprise ran through my body. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and moved quickly around the kennel’s gate. I stepped forward, but he slammed it in my face.
We stared at each other through the metal bars and I gripped them as I narrowed my eyes at him in question. “What are you doing, Bastian?”
“Locking you up so you can think about what you said.”
I chuckled at the ridiculous notion. “I have the keys to open the kennels.”
“You mean these keys?” He opened his fisted hand, and I stared blankly at the key chain that looked eerily like mine.
The light above us buzzed and flickered before going out. This was my punishment. Of course, the lights would go at this very second. Only the moonlight outside now shone in.
Bastian, the man of allies and good behavior with everyone else, stood before me like a devil shadowed in his fury. The angles of his cheekbones and the lush mouth that I knew kissed much harder than it looked were sinister all of a sudden.
“Ha, ha.” I shrugged like it was no big deal. “Joke’s over. Open the gate.”
“Morina, I don’t intend to open the gate. You have to work for me to do things like that. Show me you’ve learned.”
“Learned what?”
“Learned how to talk to and treat your husband.”
“Because of what? Saying this is arranged?”
“You can add that to the long list of shit you did wrong today.”
“Are you still mad about Quinton?” I smiled as I dropped his colleague’s name.
“I’ll forever be mad about that, ragazza.”
“Bastian, it was a topless beach.” I rolled my eyes. “Let’s not forget you letting Elizabeth hang on your arm.”
“Jealous now, are we?”
“No apologies for that?” The hitch in my voice let some of my hurt show through and he stared at me long enough to probably see it.
“You don’t get it, do you, Morina?” He shook his head, and he swore in Italian. “I shouldn’t be apologizing for a woman flirting with me. I should be apologizing that you even care enough to be jealous about it. I wanted to keep this arrangement clean and I dirtied it.”
“What’s dirty about this? The fact that you feel something for me? The fact that you can actually show me that feeling?”
His finger traced a metal wire. “You go with every gut instinct and emotion, love. I can’t do that.”
I shrugged. “You can with me.”
Like a whip, his gaze flew to mine. We stood in silence only a gate between us. “You sure about that ragazza? Today, I wanted to rip a man’s eyes out for looking at you without your top on.”
“Oh, I’m sure.” I lifted my eyebrows. “Maybe I should have had them look longer.”
“Do you not understand that I’m your husband? That they stared at what’s mine for far too long?” Ah, so this was a respect thing to him.
He wasn’t really jealous. He didn’t really care.
I don’t know why that hurt so bad. Maybe because I’d seen how another woman looked so much better on his arm than I did.
“We aren’t actually married.” I threw out in pain. “A real husband of mine wouldn’t have let another girl hang on his arm.”
He searched my face and then put his forehead on the metal wires before whispering, “I hurt you.”
I nodded once and went with honesty. “You did.”
He winced at my omission like I'd physically wounded him. “You mentioned separating and I reacted poorly. It’s not an excuse. For that, I’m sorry, Morina. I see now I don’t want your pain, not when it looks that devastating in your eyes.”
His words broke away the anger around my heart. Even in his frustration with me, the man still found a way to show he cared about me. He hated my plants, yet he watered them. He didn’t believe in the salt lamp but he turned it on. He hadn’t left even when I was the one person annoying him through the day.
I might only have a few months left with him, but it made me want all of him even for that short amount of time.
I sighed and kissed his forehead before I teased him. “It’s okay, daddy.”
His gaze narrowed as he looked at me, a small smirk on his lips. “Want to go home, ragazza?”
“Of course. Open the gate.” I pointed to the lock.
His lips rolled between his teeth before he said, “Show me you know who your husband is and I’ll let you out.”
“How am I supposed to do that, Bastian?” I stomped my foot.
“Since I apologized, I think you need to also.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes, Morina. Get on your knees like a good wife.” His voice held menace and I wondered if I’d ever been turned on like this before, because my nerve endings went from zero to 100, the shock of it like lightning, fast and electric.
I bit my lip but didn’t really hesitate. He’d see who his wife was. He’d see that I had dirtied and muddled this arrangement just as much as he had, that I owned him like he owned me.
If this was how I’d finally get to have my way with him, I’d take it. I’d slept with enough men to know Sebastian Armanelli was the one I wanted.
I’d pushed him over the edge. When we’d hooked up before, it had just been a fling, something to get out of our systems. I’d tapped into his hidden emotions, the place he wanted to keep confined all to himself.
In marriage, nothing is a secret though.
He slowly unbuckled his belt and I watched how the prong slid from the brown worn leather. His moves were deliberate, like he was waiting for me to tell him this was wrong and disrespectful.
“Is this what you want, Morina? For me to command you all the time, for me to take what’s mine, to make you see every fucked up side of me?”
“I just want the real you,” I murmured, licking my lips as I waited for him to move on to unbuttoning his slacks.
“You’re going to get more than you asked for.”