Reign A Romance Anthology - Nina Levine Page 0,68

exactly how this works, Emilia, and you know it.”

“Why? Because you’ll be in charge of the cartel after the weekend? You don’t seriously think the power that brings you will also bring you power over me, do you?”

I narrow my eyes at her. “Why did you agree to this marriage?”

“I’m doing it for what I assume is the same reason you are. For my family.”

“Yes. As such, I expect you to behave like my wife.”

“I can only imagine what you expect of a wife, but what you’re going to get is a woman who expects equality in a relationship. And as such, I won’t ever be ordered to make myself unbusy when I have something important on.”

I work my jaw.

I expected her to fight me, but perhaps Lorenzo was right; perhaps I underestimated her.

“You’re still pissed that I ended our relationship,” I say.

Her eyes widen. “I’m pissed at how you ended it. We’ve known each other since we were fifteen, and we’ve been through a lot. I never expected you to treat me the way you did.”

Emilia has no idea why I did what I did, and she can never find out. As far as I’m concerned, she can continue thinking I wanted the relationship to end. She can also continue thinking I’m an asshole for telling her I was done with the relationship and then showing up with another woman on my arm at a dinner that night. A dinner she and I were supposed to attend together.

“You need to move past that. There’s a lot at stake with the cartel, and in particular, with your brothers. They’re looking for unity between our families. You and I need to give them that.”

Her lips flatten. She’s fucking beautiful, but when she’s pissed at me, her beauty is undeniable, as much as I want to deny it. “You never fail to find a way to work things in your favor, do you?”

“Trust me, Emilia, if any of this was in my favor, this marriage would not be happening.” I check my watch. “I have a meeting. I’ll expect you in my suite at seven tonight.”

Without waiting for her response, I turn and exit her room, certain of only one thing.

I need to strengthen my resolve to keep Emilia at arm’s length.

She’s already testing the determination I had.

I can’t afford for her to shatter it completely.

3

Emilia

Seven o’clock comes and goes without my appearance at Javier’s suite as ordered. I’d already arranged a Zoom meeting with Bob to go over his new proposal. I wasn’t changing that for Javier.

My phone sounds with a text at 7:01 p.m.

Javier: Where are you?

Me: I informed you I was busy. If you’re nice to me, I may come to your suite once I’m finished what I’m doing.

Javier: I have another meeting at 8pm.

Me: It’s good to know you scheduled an entire hour for your fiancé.

Javier: Don’t keep me waiting.

“Emilia,” Bob says over Zoom, drawing my attention back to our conversation. “Are we going to come to an agreement on this tonight?”

“If you agree to give me another 5 percent, we will.”

“Fuck,” he says, looking pained. We’ve been going back and forth for an hour on this, and I know I’m beating him down, so if he says no, I just need to keep going. However, he exhales and nods before saying, “I’ll give you another 5 percent.”

“Good decision, Bob. This is going to bring you a lot of money.”

“I don’t doubt it, but I would have preferred that extra 5 percent.”

He should have done better homework on me. Everyone I do business with knows I don’t back down. They know I always get what I want.

“I’ll have the new contract drawn up and sent over first thing tomorrow,” I say, and we end the call.

I close my laptop and take a deep breath as I think about what I have to do now.

Javier.

I have to have dinner with the man who will be my husband in less than forty-eight hours.

God knows what he wants to discuss. My guess is he’ll attempt to tell me how our marriage will be run, at which point he’ll discover what I think of that idea.

With one last check of my appearance, I exit my room and head up to the next floor. I made sure to choose a red dress for tonight even though wearing a dress for Javier is the last thing I want to do. I have my reasons, though, the low-cut style with a slit that reveals my