“Who is she?”
“No one you need to know about.”
Olivia’s laugh was without any true amusement. “You forced me to tell you everything about my mother, which has nothing to do with you, yet you won’t tell me about this Marni? Who your sister believes to be the reason you married me?”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I told you what you need to know. That Selena was wrong. Marni is not the reason I married you.”
But she wanted to understand! Nothing about what he’d done was comprehensible. To have ended up married to a man she hardly knew… and now he wouldn’t even explain his actions to her. She gritted her teeth, and tried to breath through the fury that was taking over her. What was the point? He clearly didn’t intend on giving her the information she sought. No, talking to Tamir was like banging her head against a brick wall. The futility washed over her.
“I’m tired.” Her voice was surprisingly calm, given the maelstrom of emotions swirling within. “Am I to sleep in here?”
“Yes. This will be our bedroom.”
She straightened her back, refusing to show any trepidation. She wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. “Fine.”
Tamir closed his eyes. “There are clothes for you in there,” he nodded towards a doorway, which Olivia would later discover housed an enormous walk in wardrobe complete with designer labels.
“Thank you.” She ran her hands through her hair. “And a shower?”
He frowned. “Your bathroom is separate to mine. It’s… tradition.”
“Fine. Where is mine?’
He linked his fingers through hers. “I’ll show you.”
“Are you allowed?” She responded, a sarcastic inflection impossible to miss.
“Respecting my traditions does not mean I am not allowed to do something. Far from it. My authority is supreme.”
“So you respect your traditions more highly than you do me.”
He stopped walking, and fixed her with a curious stare. “Meaning?”
“Isn’t it obvious? You’ve railroaded me into a marriage without having the courtesy to even tell me.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Would you have agreed?”
She laughed, sadly. “That’s the point. I wouldn’t have. And you denied me the chance to refuse. A basic human right. So you’ll forgive me if I don’t put much stock in your desire to respect me.”
He lifted a hand, and touched the soft warmth of her ch
eek. “You forget, Olivia, that you are a criminal. That you slept with me to give your partner cover for his crime. Do you not agree that you forfeited the right to be respected as an equal when you plotted to defraud me of millions of pounds? When you decided to use your body to facilitate your criminal enterprise?”
She shook her head. “You don’t know anything about me. And you had no right to do this to me.”
“I know that you’re capable of cheating and lying. I know that you desire me. And I know that, in one way at least, you will enjoy being my wife.”
She lifted her hand and slapped his cheek, hard. It surprised her completely. She stared at her tingling palm in total shock. If her temper had been less incensed, she might have apologised for the uncharacteristic gesture. “I have never lied to you,” she said instead, her tone brimming with frustrated anger.
“So you didn’t plan to sleep with me to make it easier for Jack to steal the crown?”
“No! Of course not!” She pushed at his chest. “I slept with you because I wanted to, and you know it. So stop turning it into something… devious and illegal.”
Tamir’s heart seemed to lurch in his chest. “And that is the only reason?”
“Yes,” she promised, nodding her head jerkily. “Tamir, I promise you, I would never steal. I work with priceless artefacts every day. I would never, ever, in a billion years, take something that didn’t belong to me.”
His eyes narrowed, as he looked at her analytically. Olivia held her breath while she waited for him to speak. She couldn’t have said why, but she desperately wanted him to believe her. Eventually, he shrugged. “You still brought a man into my residence who intended to steal from me. That makes you complicit.”