Page 14 of Professional Liar
Five
Pierce
She scowledat me silently for the entire twenty minutes it took to reach my house. When we arrived, I climbed out and extended my hand to help her, but she ignored it. So I let her stubborn ass wrangle free from the car all on her own.
She followed me to the outer door until I stopped. At least she didn’t turn around and call a cab.
“What?” she snapped, when I stopped and waited.
“I have to carry you inside.”
Another laser glare.
“Tradition. Do you want to miss out on this because you were angry with me? Even if you don’t want me to, I am picking you up and carrying you across the threshold.”
I didn’t wait for her reply. She took a step forward, and I swept her into my arms. One of the guards opened the door, and I carried her through. Another guard opened the inside door, and I hauled my new bride into our home against her will. My viking ancestors would be proud.
The second the door closed, she wriggled, and I stood her up as easily as I could with her fighting me. Once she found her footing, she pushed me back “Get off.”
“We are not going to fight on our wedding night.”
A high heel flew past my head, and I neatly leaned away. “Mature.”
Her face, makeup still flawless, flushed pink from her neck into her cheeks. She spun her back to me. “Help me get out of this damn dress,” she yelled.
I stepped forward cautiously, in case she used taking her clothes off as a ruse to ambush me. The buttons were delicate, and it took me awhile to free them all so she could peel the bodice from her body.
The creamy white corset underneath was laced up with silk ribbon from hip to shoulder blades. And under that, a thong and thigh high stockings in the same colors. “I’m not taking you to bed until you calm down,” I teased her.
She glared again. “I’ll sleep on the fucking couch until I can get out of here.”
We couldn’t even spend one damn day together without a fight. I tried not to groan my frustration out loud. “Why are you being so difficult.”
She straightened from stepping out of the mass of silk and beadwork with her hands on her waist. “Because we’ve been married for five fucking minutes, and you’re already talking to me like I belong to you.”
I stepped forward, crowding her. She didn’t retreat, but met me chest-to-chest. “You do belong to me.”
She swallowed once but remained. “I do not.”
“Yes, you do,” I fairly growled, my voice pitched dark and deep. “Just like I belong to you.”
She blinked once. Twice. Her chest rose and fell hard, pushing her breasts up in my face. I tried to ignore them, but I failed, not with everything in me strung tight since the first second she stepped into the church, her lusciously sinful body shrouded in white.
I pressed a kiss to the swell of one breast, cupped her waist in my hands, and dragged my lips down the front of her until I could press my cheek right above her silk covered belly button. “You’re mine,” I whispered. “And I’ve always been yours.”
I didn’t dare move. I just held onto her. It was the most emotional declaration she’d gotten from me in years. I feared she’d hurl my words back at me, like usual. I braced for it, waiting for each syllable to tear me up from the inside. If I prepared, I could school my features better. Even when she struck me to the bone.
Her fingers delved over my head, and I held my breath, waiting for her reaction.
“Just don’t speak down to me again,” she said. Her heart beat through her underwear against my face. I could feel it fast and frantic.
“I didn’t think I was speaking down to you. I was just trying to keep from escalating a situation I already took care of.”
She wobbled into a crouch, and I gripped her hips to keep her from toppling. “When it comes to my sister, you don’t get to decide. I’ve been taking care of Bianca all her life. I’ve always been more of a mother to her than ours was. Don’t push me out of a situation involving her again, or I will walk out that door for good.”
I released her hips and seized her face. Her knees hit the floor, and she sank lower than me. I adjusted to her height forcing her to meet my eyes. “And you will never again threaten to leave me. We’ve been married mere hours. You were clear about the permanence of this situation. There is no walking out.” I kept my hands gentle, but all I wanted was pull her face into my chest and hold her there until she took it back.
We stared at each other, chests rising and falling. She wrapped her hands around my forearms, and I loosened my grip on her cheeks.
