As if from a great distance, I heard Charlotte cough again.
I narrowed my eyes to slits. “Exactly. Do you think I’d be doing this if I weren’t utterly desperate and if you weren’t my Very. Last. Option? So, throw the money in my face if you will, but don’t act like you don’t need me too. Don’t act like you’re not just as desperate as I am. And don’t act like I’m not your best and only prospect. You said it yourself. For someone who came here begging, it’d be in your best interest to treat me with some respect.”
Her cheeks flared with even more color. “Begging?” she hissed. “Begging?” Heavy cascades of dark fire fell around her face as her hair came completely loose from whatever she’d been using to hold it back. I almost sucked in a breath. I hadn’t realized she had so much of it. It surrounded her face and swung around her shoulders, looking as if it went halfway down her back.
She stood up slowly, and I did too, until we were both glaring at each other across the expanse of the kitchen table. The space between us crackled with…something, the heat in the air practically shimmering. And strangely, that tingling heat was now dancing through my blood in a full-blown performance much like the Kenyan welcome dance Kira had described, making me feel vitally…alive.
“I was out of my mind to come here. This”—she waved between us—“is crazy. It’ll never work. We should call it off. I could find someone else to marry. I can’t imagine why I chose you. I find you…exceedingly difficult to like.”
“I agree. It’s ridiculous. And vice versa.”
“Good. It’s off,” she hissed.
“Good,” I growled. We stared each other down, her eyes dancing with angry fire. And why the hell did I like that so much? After several tense, heated moments, I made a conscious effort to control my breathing, raising an eyebrow at her. “And by the way, next time you offer to marry someone, you should try to be a little more meek. A man likes some obedience in a wife.” I’d said it purely to anger her and was rewarded by heat flashing in her narrowed stare. Another undeniable thrill shot from head to toe.
“Charlotte,” she suddenly said very sweetly. “Do you have a pen and paper I could borrow?”
“Oh, yes,” Charlotte said, grabbing a pen and pad of paper out of the junk drawer and practically running it over to Kira, as if she were suddenly at her beck and call.
I watched Kira closely, waiting to see what she would do next.
Kira smiled politely at Charlotte and then uncapped the pen carefully, putting it on the end with deliberate slowness, and then holding the pad of paper up, the pen poised before it. “What was that now? I want to make sure I get every single word of wise advice,” she said, stretching out the word every. “Meek, was it? Does that have double e or is it ea? I can never remember.”
I regarded her through lowered lashes, resisting the urge to laugh at her overdone display of sarcasm. “I wouldn’t worry so much about the spelling of the word meek as how to embrace the concept.”
“Hmm,” she hummed. “Noted. And obedient, you said?”
“Yes.”
“Obedient—yes.” She made a big checkmark on the paper. “And?”
“Your sarcasm—that will be a turnoff to future husbands.”
She pretended to write that down. “Sarcasm—no.” She marked a big X on the paper. “What else?”
We stared at each other for a few more strained seconds, her expression a phony look of intense interest and mine a mild smirk. The truth was, I didn’t even know if the legal aspects of the fake marriage she’d proposed were legitimate. But talking about calling it off before even knowing caused disappointment to descend. I hated the idea, hated the little spiky-tongued witch standing in front of me, hated that in reality, she did have more power in this situation than I did…but at the same time, it was the first thing in a long while that had given me some hope. And I didn’t even realize until that moment how sweet that hope tasted.
I looked away first, breaking the intensity flowing between us, but she was the first who spoke as she set the pen and paper on the table. “Listen, this situation is…unusual to say the least.” She paused again and I looked back to her. The spark had gone out of her eyes as if the idea of calling it off wasn’t exactly what she wanted either. “I called the executor of my trust before I walked over here. He can see us late in the day tomorrow. Maybe we could find a way to coexist at least until we’ve determined that everything is as I’ve said. And then we can make a final decision from there.”
“I can agree to that.”
She took a deep breath. “Okay, good.” She held out her hand. “Truce?” She arched an eyebrow. I looked at her hand and held out my own from across the table.
“Truce. Come here so we can shake.”
“You come here,” she challenged.
I smiled slowly. “Meet in the middle.”
She narrowed her eyes but nodded, stepping away from her chair. We met next to the center of the large table and I took her warm hand in mine and shook it as we regarded each other warily. With a concise nod, she returned to her seat and so did I. When Charlotte came over to refill Kira’s wine, she regarded her not with disdain but with a guarded curiosity. Interesting that somehow our fighting had ingratiated Kira to Charlotte. Women were all a mystery to me.
“Would you like to see the rest of the house?” I asked, trying to make a small peace offering.
Kira looked surprised but nodded yes. We got up from the table, and Kira thanked Charlotte for the delicious dinner. Charlotte smiled a smile that seemed genuine but didn’t offer me one.
I brought Kira back to the main foyer and we started from there. “My father had this place designed to mimic a French chateau.”
Kira nodded as we entered the formal living room. “It really does. It reminds me of a smaller-scale fairy-tale castle. There’s something…enchanting about it.” She gasped when she spotted the large window overlooking the back of the house. The pool was directly below, down a set of steps and off a natural stone patio. However, her head was lifted and I knew she was staring at the hedge maze just beyond that. She whirled toward me. “It’s a maze!” she gasped. “And it’s massive.”
I clenched my jaw just as I did each time I looked at that hateful thing. “It’s completely overgrown. If I had the extra money, I’d have had it mown down when I moved back.”
“Oh, why?” she gasped. “It’s incredible! Can I go inside sometime?”
“No. Absolutely not.” I gentled my tone, though when I said, “It isn’t safe.” She didn’t know why I hated it and she never would, but I had spoken the truth—it was too overgrown to be safe.
She was studying me with those bright, penetrating eyes. I could feel them boring into the side of my face. When I made eye contact, she raised one delicate brow. “The heart of your lair, I suppose?” She smiled prettily. “Where you were…hatched?”
I attempted a scathing look, but I knew she was joking and I couldn’t resist the smile that made its way to my lips. “Perhaps.” I raised my own brow. “But in all seriousness, just stay away from it.”