In the Eye of the Storm

16. In Dark Alleys

Caviar on toast didn't actually taste very well. A bit salty, and not more. But maybe the fact that I didn't enjoy my meal didn't actually stem as much from the meal itself, as from the fact that Mr Ambrose's frozen dark glare bored into me the entire time. It's hard to enjoy your food with that kind of evil force focusing on you. The minute I was finished with my meal, I sprang to my feet and began to hurry back to our suite. I wasn't going to stick around for wine and desert and give him a chance to glare at me some more!

Halfway up the stairs, a vice-like grip closed around my arm.

'Where are you going?' Mr Ambrose's cool voice said right into my ear. I hadn't even heard him approach!

'To bed! I'm tired!'

'How unfortunate for you. The night is not over yet. Not by a long shot!'

'What do you mean?'

Without a word, he began dragging me down the stairs again, and into a corridor leading out of the dining hall.

'Hey! Let go!'

'Act, Mr Linton, act. You're my loving wife, remember? Wives do not speak like that to their husbands.'

'And husbands don't manhandle a wife like this!'

'Actually, many of them do.'

My temper flared. 'Well, they shouldn't! That's outrageous!'

'Depends.'

'On what, pray?'

He gave me a look that froze my toes and set my heart on fire. 'What their intentions are. I might be dragging you off to a secret place for a romantic tryst.'

My eyes went wide. 'Y-you aren't, are you?'

'No.'

'Oh.' I felt relief flood through me – mingled with a tiny bit of disappointment.

What? What's disappointment doing inside you, Lilly Linton? You have no business being disappointed!

Clearing my throat, I hurried to get my thoughts back on the right path. 'So, where the bloody hell are you dragging me off to?'

Mr Ambrose halted abruptly. We were standing in the middle of an empty corridor. Throwing a quick look around to check for an audience, he whirled around to face me. Before I could move a muscle, he had picked me up right off the floor, pushing me against the wall. His hard chest dug into places on my body I couldn't mention in polite society.

To judge by the look in Mr Ambrose's eyes, he was not going to be polite.

'Damn you!' His eyes flared with cold fire, ferocity and... fear? 'Can't you act like a loving wife for two minutes in a row?'

An involuntary smile appeared on my face. I had no idea why! Shouldn't I have been afraid? Pressed up against a cold wall in a strange country, in the clutches of a ruthless man whose morals were more than questionable – yes, I should have been afraid. But with his strong arms around me, and his gaze burrowing into me as if it wanted to dig itself into my soul, all I felt was powerful. The feeling rushed up inside me like a hot geyser, and wouldn't be contained.

'That depends,' I breathed. 'Can you act like a loving husband?'

He surged forward. Pinning me to the wall like butterfly, he claimed my lips for one single, hard, ferocious kiss – and then pulled back.

'Loving enough for you?' he growled.

'It's a start.' My voice sounded strange in my own ears – full of a thousand emotions I couldn't comprehend, let alone name. Neither could he, to judge by the look in his eyes. For a moment, he just gazed at me, the silence between us stretching. Then, finally, he spoke.