Rather than back out into the hallway like any sane person would do, he steps fully into the room. “In case you aren’t aware. You’re treading on thin ice. I’m already displeased with the way you conducted yourself back at the school.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask, guarded and searching my memory.
“Don’t play dumb with me. You were against me being placed in your file as a contact person. You made the mistake of voicing that disapproval in front of the woman who was helpful enough to pull strings for me.” He folds his arms, and I can’t help noticing how it makes his sleeves bulge. This is a strong man, a powerful man. He’s proven it to me countless times already, hasn’t he?
“You took me by surprise,” I point out. My voice is shaking. Dammit, I don’t want him to hear how he’s affecting me.
“You’re going to need to learn to hide your true feelings if you’ll have any hope of surviving our marriage.” There’s not so much as a twitch of his lips to tell me he’s joking. The man is dead-ass serious. A chill runs down my spine at the implications.
“I won’t talk back anymore,” I vow. “Really. If I have any questions, I’ll wait until we’re alone to ask you about them. I won’t say anything in front of people.”
“I’m afraid I can’t believe you, though I appreciate your assurance.” He shakes his head slowly. It’s the flatness in his voice that makes my blood run cold. “You aren’t abiding by our agreement.”
“How so? I was confused and concerned that Catherine lady was going to see through your request. It sounded sort of abusive, honestly. Don’t you see that? Red flags all over the place.”
He raises an eyebrow—something tells me I’m not getting through to him. “I had it under control. The woman was in the palm of my hand.” I look down at my books, but not in time to hide the eye roll I can’t hold back. “What? You don’t like the idea of me finding it so easy to make her do what I wanted?”
“No. It was kind of pitiful, if anything. The way she caved.” The way he took advantage of it. I can’t say that out loud. I might as well ask him to hurt me.
“Pitiful? Or useful?” He’s enjoying this way too much, but that’s no surprise. He gets off on this kind of thing. Toying with me. “Because from where I’m standing, we couldn’t have gotten luckier. Imagine if a man had walked into the office.”
Then maybe I would’ve been the one who had to turn on the charm. When Enzo’s brows draw together in an angry slash over his narrowed eyes, I have to wonder whether he’s thinking the same thing. If he is, he doesn’t like the idea much.
“Don’t waste time pretending.” He’s grinning again. “You didn’t like hearing me talk to her that way, did you? I was almost touched by your jealousy.”
That gets my attention. “I wasn’t jealous.”
“Bullshit. I know a jealous woman when I see one.”
“If you say so.” I wish he wasn’t so good at seeing through me. I wish I was better at hiding what I felt in the office earlier. Not jealousy—I’d never be jealous of the way he speaks to another woman, not after how he’s treated me—but disgust. Discomfort. Anger at how easy it is for him to turn on the charm whenever there’s something he wants. Meanwhile, it was all I could do to keep from blurting out the truth of who he really is. Wouldn’t Catherine have been surprised if she knew the real man she was basically flirting with?
Okay. Maybe I was a little jealous. But I’d sooner bite off my tongue than admit it.
“I do say so.” His voice is hard again, the grin having dissolved into something closer to a scowl. “I think you would rather be my good girl. Is that it? Would you rather be the one I call a good girl?” He pushes away from the wall, and now I’m really getting nervous. This is more than teasing, even more than reprimanding me for talking out of turn earlier. That look in his eye. I know that look.
It’s enough to make me get up on my knees, torn between wanting to stand my ground and wanting to run away. Far away. “I really do have a lot of work to catch up on,” I remind him, but my voice is weak. Shaky. He’s going to see right through it.
And he does. “You have plenty of time to catch up on it. Up until the start of the next semester, if I do recall.”
“Sure, but I have to sit through lectures and have no idea what the hell is going on, too. I’d rather try to at least catch up with the coursework, if not the assignments.”
He reaches the foot of the bed and looks over the work I’ve spread out before sweeping an arm over it, knocking it all to the floor. “Keep your eyes on what’s really important. I could not give less of a fuck whether or not you pass your courses. And I sure as hell don’t care if you ever catch up. The idea was to keep you in school until you manage to reconnect with Elena. That’s all. I can’t believe you took any of the other shit seriously.” My heart falls into the pit of my stomach.
“I still want to finish school. I’m not going to give up on it.”
“What the fuck do you care?” he asks with a disbelieving laugh. “You don’t need it. You’ll be taken care of once you fulfill your end of our bargain.”
“That doesn’t mean I have to give up on my dreams.”
“Dreams?” he parrots with a snicker. “Aren’t you studying to be a nurse or something?”
I can’t help myself. “You weren’t scoffing when I was saving Prince’s life, were you? It was pretty important then, wasn’t it?”
That did it. That was when I stepped over the line.
“Off the bed. Now.” When I don’t move quickly enough, he takes me by the arm and pulls me the rest of the way, making me stumble and almost hit the floor. “This is what I get for going out of my way for you. Having to sweet-talk that bitch at the school, all so you can get an attitude problem. Maybe that was a mistake. Maybe you’ll have to find another way to connect with Elena and settle the score.”
He looks down at the floor and lifts his lip in distaste. “Pick all this shit up. Hurry.” I’m too confused by his sudden shift in tone to hesitate, following orders quickly, my hands trembling but not so hard they slow me down. I stack the books and papers and place them on the nightstand, keeping my back to him after I’ve finished.