“Well, you’re loyal to your brother. I also think you’re loyal to... Your own sense of honor. You might say that you aren’t good. But you have a moral code. And even if it does extend to allowing you to kidnap me if your brother says it’s the right thing to do, I do not think it would ever extend to hurting someone who couldn’t defend themselves against you.”
He inclined his head. “Fair enough. My father enjoyed inflicting pain upon the weak. He enjoyed exploiting his power. I have no desire to ever involve myself in such a thing. It is an act of cowardice.”
“And you’re not a coward,” she said confidently. “And I think that you might even want to help me prove to your brother that I don’t need to marry him so that I can get back to my real life.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I genuinely don’t care about your plan. Not one way or the other. Happiness, in that fleeting immediate sense, is quite immaterial to me. What matters is the greater good. If my brother feels the greater good is served by marrying you, then that is the goal I will help him accomplish. Not what will make you... Happier. As you said, you had a happier life than most. Drugs, parties and rich men, from the sounds of things.”
“But I had none of those things,” she said, not sure where she had lost the conversation. “It’s just that I had access to them. I haven’t experienced them. I have too much to live for. Too much experience to explore.”
“It seems to me that you had ample opportunity to do so prior to your engagement to my brother.”
“I am not engaged. I am kidnapped, as you just stated.”
“Walked onto the plane with your own two feet, I think you mean.”
“You were the one that introduced kidnap again.”
“You’re the one who seems hung up on the terminology.”
“I’ll prove it. I’ll prove that we don’t need marriage.”
“Fantastic. Feel free. In the meantime, I will set about to fulfill the items on my brother’s list. Because that is all I care about.”
He turned and began to walk away from her. “Do you have any feelings about anything?”
When he turned back to face her, his eyes were blank. “No.”
“You must be a great time in bed,” she shot back, not sure where that came from. Except she knew it made men angry when you called their prowess into question, and if she couldn’t elicit sympathy from him, then she would be happy to elicit some rage.
“Thankfully for you,” he said, his tone hard, “my bedroom skills will never be a concern of yours. You are not meant for me.”
And then he was gone. Leaving her in the oppressive silence created by those thick, wealth-laden walls.
And she had a feeling that for the first time in her life she might have bitten off more than she could chew.
Except, it wasn’t even her bite. It was her father’s. And she was the one left dealing with it.
CHAPTER FIVE
HER WORDS ECHOED in his head all through the next day, and when he finally received the memo from his brother’s assistant, his irritation was at an all-time high. Because what Violet King thought about him in bed was none of his concern. She had an acerbic tongue, and she was irritating. Beautiful, certainly, but annoying.
Had he been the sort of man given to marriage, she would not be the woman that he would choose. But then, marriage would never have to be for him. He didn’t have to produce heirs.
He charged down the hall, making his way to her room, where he knocked sharply.
“Don’t come in!”
“Why not?”
“I’m not decent.”
“Are you undressed?” The image of Violet in some state of undress caused his stomach to tighten, and he cursed himself for acting like an untried boy. She was just a woman.
“No,” she said.
He opened the door without waiting for further explanation. And there she sat, at the center of the massive bed looking...
Scrubbed clean.