His eyes darkened into stormy clouds. Lines of stress bracketed his mouth. “Aside from all that, do you have any clue how many times members of my family have been in some sort of extortion or kidnap situation?”
Frowning, she shook her head.
“More times than I care to recount. Marrying me put you in danger. It’s my duty to protect you, and, barely a year into it, I failed.”
There was that word she hated. Duty.
“It was also your duty to tell me all of this before we got married, or even afterward, instead of running roughshod over my wishes, or trying to distract me with sex every time I tried to talk to you.”
His eyes gleamed. “You loved the sex, baby. Almost as much as I did.”
Her stomach fluttered. “Not enough to make it worth staying in the end, Nick. Take this seriously, please.”
A hard smile touched his gorgeous face. “Trust me, I am. You want independence, and you want a baby, or we’re over. Is that what you’re saying?”
Her fingers closed around the rings. The cold stone of the diamond cutting into her flesh reminded her of what was at stake. Her soul shook with the depths of the other thing she wanted—for him to tell her he loved her—but that could wait.
“I don’t want to lay down ultimatums, but for my own sanity I can’t agree to be with you until we work through this. I gave up a lot for you when we got married. Things that were—are—important to me.”
There’s no need for you to work anymore. Hand in your notice.
Okay, Nick.
Tell your parents you’ll see them next week instead of today. I want you with me at the gala.
Sure, Nick.
Your Ph.D. can wait another year. We don’t have time for that now.
Fine, Nick.
She’d let him walk all over her, trample everything she was under the shadow of his overwhelming personality. No more.
“You need to meet me halfway,” she told him firmly.
He swore in Greek. “And if I can’t? You expect me to just let you live your life, forget that you, my wife, were kidnapped and held in a goddamned cave with over a dozen men with guns?” His face had hardened into a tortured mask.
Crap, this wasn’t going well.
“What I’m talking about started long before that happened. You need to see past it—”
“Like hell I do. Oh, and don’t think for a second that I don’t intend to find out exactly what that bastard did to you.” His eyes blazed holy fire.
She swallowed, taken aback, and tried to return to the subject at hand. This might be her only chance to lay all her cards on the table, state the terms of their relationship. She didn’t want to waste it discussing Charles Mwana. Or the possibility that he was still out there, intending to hunt her down. She shivered.
Nick saw it and frowned. “What is it?”
“Nothing.”
His eyes narrowed.
She hurried to speak. “We rushed into marriage on some crazy impulse—”
“Crazy? Yeah. About each other. Simple as that,” he countered, but his gaze remained on her face, and she could tell he was intent on seeing behind her words, on digging beneath to find out what she wasn’t saying.
She licked her lips, her heart stuttering when he followed the movement.
“Are you sure?” she demanded tightly, getting down to the heart of the matter. “I distinctly remember you wanted to sleep with me, and I told you I wasn’t the sleeping around type. So you suggested we get married.”