Reign A Romance Anthology - Nina Levine Page 0,80

as we walk to the elevator after dinner. It was the longest dinner of my life and I’m in no mood to hear bad news.

“Why the fuck not?” I demand, jabbing the button for the elevator.

“Maybe because he’s an asshole who’s fucking good at evading us.” The glare he shoots me matches the glares I receive from Emilia these days. “The fuck is wrong with you tonight? You’re being more of a motherfucker than usual.”

We step into the elevator and my sense of being caged in is stronger than ever. The restraint I’m practicing in all areas of my life is close to breaking point.

I need Perez found.

I need this wedding to take place.

I need Emilia to fucking submit to me.

“Just fucking find him,” I bark.

Lorenzo continues glaring at me as he turns silent. We ride up to his floor without another word and he exits with “I hope you wake up in a better fucking mood tomorrow.”

I reach my floor and stride into the suite, every muscle strained, every thought strained, every fucking sense strained.

Emilia tested every ounce of patience I have tonight.

She defied me at every possible turn.

Her shoes.

The conversations she had with people in which she talked about living in New York after our wedding rather than dividing her time between America and Colombia.

Her refusal to stay with me after dinner when I requested her presence during a conversation with our fathers.

She needs to learn that I will tolerate a lot from her, but that I won’t tolerate everything.

And she needs to learn that now.

I find her in the library on her laptop. When I enter the room, she looks up at me like a wild gusty storm blew in. Eyes wide, she swallows hard and has the good sense not to utter a word.

“Tonight did not go well,” I say, my tone harsh, my angry stare harsher. I might not be able to see my own eyes, but I feel the weight of my fury in them. “In future, when I request something of you, you will give it to me, no questions asked. Am I understood?”

She puts her laptop aside and stands. “You have always been perfectly understood, Javier. That is not our problem here.” She takes a step toward me. “Our problem is that I’m a woman who likes compromise in a relationship and you have never been a man who can do that.”

“You need to move past what happened two years ago, Emilia.”

“I won’t ever move past that. I loved you. I gave you my all. I would have given you my life. And you threw it all away for reasons you never shared with me and turned up on the arm of another woman at a dinner hours after breaking my heart.” She takes the last few steps to stand in front of me. Jabbing her finger angrily into my chest, she continues, “Until you tell me why, and until you figure out how to compromise, our marriage is going to be nothing but a headache for you. I promise you that.”

I don’t fucking doubt her.

Her anger is as savage as mine, and if there’s one thing I know about women for damn sure, it’s that anger like this causes them to act in ways that make no sense.

I squeeze my hand around her wrist. “Headaches are my specialty. I make them go away when they don’t suit me. Don’t ever forget that.”

She tries to flick her wrist out of mine, but I grasp it tighter, keeping her where she is. “And I thought you said you didn’t want to put a bullet through my head.”

“I don’t, but there are other ways for me to achieve what I want. If you keep testing me, you will discover what they are.”

Her breaths come faster as she contemplates that, and I’m helpless but to take in her beauty. Fuck, Emilia simply breathing turns me on, let alone when she stands in front of me with her red hair surrounding her wildly, her flawless face, and eyes that burn with the very essence of her that I can’t get enough of.

“Let me go,” she finally says.

“Not until you indicate that you understand what I need from you going forward.”

“I’m not going to indicate any such thing.” She glowers at me. “Let me go.”

“Fucking hell,” I thunder, gathering her into my arms and carrying her into the bedroom, ignoring the way she struggles in my arms. Depositing her on the bed, I return her glare. “We