Phantom stood up as well. “I just came over here to check on Han. Also, Victor’s arranging a surprise baby shower for Dawn in a few weeks, and he wanted me to make sure you knew you were invited too. He’s dying to meet you after you saved Han’s life, and now that…you know.”
I simply stared at Phantom. And eventually, Han said, “Actually, we’re about to go back to Hawaii for Jasmine’s birthday and to check up on Chen. I’ll let you know closer to the date if we can make it.”
It took every hostile fiber of my being not to show my shock. He was taking me home? For how long? How about my classes here?
But asking any of this would mean talking to Han. So I clamped my lips, refusing to let out the questions piling up inside of me.
And Han gave me a disappointed look before dismissing me with a “Go pack whatever you want for the trip.”
Not an order, but at least it meant I could go. I escaped up the stairs without another word and started packing as soon as I got to my room.
I could leave my hooded surf-suit and all my first-time fall and winter stuff, like jeans and sweaters, here. But I opened the one drawer where I stored all of the Hawaii clothes I hadn’t worn since early September and transferred them to the suitcase.
Then I eyed the dresses which the ST’s general assistant, Yolanda, bought for me back in August—back when I liked Han and was actually willing to give up my classes in Hawaii for a time to provide him with emotional support. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! And look how he’d paid me back.
I hadn’t gotten much use out of any of the dresses since Han discovered the hard way that I would most certainly spend an entire dinner out with him, not saying a freaking word to him no matter how good the food and wine was. But they were light and summery and would technically work for Hawaii.
Better not to bring them. I wanted to make it as hard as possible for him to order me out to dinner again.
Just as I made that decision entirely out of spite, a knock sounded on the door.
But by the time I turned around to answer it, Phantom was already walking into the room.
“Figured I wouldn’t wait, just in case you thought I was Han,” he said without any apology in his voice whatsoever.
“What do you want?” I demanded, folding my arms defensively.
“Han’s left out. He thinks I’m using the bathroom before I go too,” Phantom explained, even though I didn’t ask him. “So maybe we can keep this conversation to ourselves?”
I just stared at him, too curious to tell him no, and still too angry to tell him yes.
Phantom took my silence as an invitation to walk further into my room and close the door behind him.
Unlike the suites at the Rhode Island mansion, the rooms in this house were normal sized. So it felt a lot like getting closed in with a bull.
A very uncomfortable bull. Phantom awkwardly scraped a hand over the back of his head. “Han tell you I got engaged? No, probably not. Judging by the ice-cold temperature down there, you two haven’t been doing much talking.”
Anger and long pent-up frustration made me point out, “I don’t know how either of you expected me to act after what he did.”
Now Phantom folded his own arms over his ogre's chest. “I guess he was using the Victor and Dawn example. But obviously, you’re not Dawn. I mean, she’s pretty quick to forgive. It took ten years for her to tell Victor to go to hell and look at them now.”
Comparing me to Dawn was the last straw. The lid I’d barely been keeping on my temper popped right off.
“What is there to understand?” I shouted at Phantom. “That psycho forced me to marry him.”
I thrust my left hand into the air, which now sported a ring of black onyx encircled by two raised bars of steel on my wedding ring finger. Apparently, this was the ring given to all the wives of The Silent Triad. And it galled me that Han wore a matching band on his left hand—like we’d been in any sort of agreement whatsoever about our nuptials.
“I saved his life, and this—this!—is how he paid me back. By forcing me to become his wife.”
“Hey, that rhymes kind of,” Phantom pointed out with a weak chuckle.
But all his levity died under my withering glare.
“Can you go now?” I asked. “Apparently, I’ve got to pack for another surprise trip he didn’t tell me about until the last minute.”
“Yeah, I just….” Phantom unfolded his arms. “Did I mention I was engaged?”
Again with that annoying curiosity. Staying pissed off would be a heck of a lot easier if I didn’t secretly really want to know how one of the most off-putting men I’d ever met came to be engaged over the last three months.
