Three Wishes(94)

Once Lily arrived home, she halted in the entryway and looked around.

She didn’t know what to do. She had nothing to do anymore. No chores, no errands, nothing. And that made her frayed temper completely disintegrate.

The master bed chamber, as Fazire sarcastically anointed it, that Nate had commanded wasn’t due to be finished until the next week.

Her office, the only other room upstairs now due to the enormity of the master suite, the living room had been moved to the garden level, that Nate had ordered her to decorate wasn’t finished yet either.

Nate had hired a housekeeper who came in once a week and cleaned and did the laundry and the ironing too, which made Fazire none-too-happy. “What next?” he’d demanded to know. “A chef so I won’t be able to cook either?”

Nate paid the bills. Nate had groceries delivered. His secretary set up an account on the Internet with Waitrose, no less, and all Lily had to do was click on her choices and voila! they arrived the next day.

She was, quite simply, overwhelmed by him. He was everywhere, taking control of everything. Or taking care of everyone.

Except he wasn’t there at all.

“Lily?”

It was Nate’s voice and she swung around and glared at him, automatically determined to make some headway, penetrate his shields, get some reaction from him, any reaction.

He was standing in the inner doorway, the hall was shadowy, the sunlight was coming in behind him and she couldn’t see his face.

“You!” she yelled nonsensically.

He started to move forward, the powerful masculine grace of his movement, and Lily’s admiration of it, somehow grating on her nerves and he ignored her bizarre outburst.

“Laura said you had a headache. Is it a migraine?” His voice was soft and normally she would have thought his concern was sweet.

But she was beyond that now.

“No, it’s not a bloody migraine!” she cried, stamping her foot in frustration.

Nate stopped less than a breath away, his hand reached out to her waist and his fingers bit into her there. Lily could see his face and his concern was plain as day. And still, it didn’t stop her.

“What is it?” he asked, his voice low, his tone guarded.

She should have read it, been more considerate with her words but she wasn’t in the mood.

She grasped his hand at her waist and pulled it up between them.

“It’s this!” she exclaimed. “It’s the housekeeper, the workmen, the decorators! It’s everything!” She finished with, “It’s you!”

At that, she abruptly released his hand and watched the shutters instantly go down in his eyes, shielding her from his thoughts, cutting her off.

“That’s it, Nate, close down. I expected no less.” Lily’s voice was edging toward bitter.

He moved into her and Lily stood her ground.

“What’s this about?” His voice was even lower, a different kind of a low, a rumble that was so lethal it skidded across her skin like the flat of a blade.

“You tell me!” she shouted, tilting her head back and moving into him in an unsuccessful attempt to be menacing.

He said nothing. She waited. He still said nothing.

Then she stopped waiting, pulled away and ran up the stairs to their bedroom, threw open the wardrobes a shade hysterically and started to throw her clothes on the bed. She had no reason to do this but it seemed a good attempt at a grand gesture.

If he was worried she’d leave, she’d make him think that she would, she’d force him into the confrontation they should have had eight years ago.

Lily decided a grand gesture was the only thing that would get a reaction from Nate. And, for some reason, she needed a reaction from Nate. She needed it desperately.

She’d thought she could do this, live together and keep her heart apart. But, apparently, she couldn’t. It just wasn’t in her.

Because this was Nate. She’d known the instant she laid eyes on him that he was hers.

And he was hers. Except, he wasn’t.

On her second pass to the wardrobe, Nate’s hand seized her wrist and he swung her around, clothes flying everywhere.

“Talk to me, damn it,” he snarled, his dark eyes glittering with menace and something else she could not read.

“You’re a fine one to tell me to talk to you. If you were a superhero, they’d call you Silent Man,” Lily yelled.

He used her wrist to pull her closer and he leaned into her, his face barely an inch from hers. “You were talking to Laura, what did she say?” he bit out and Lily realised he was angry.

No, furious.

And it was barely contained and it scared the hell out of her.

He seemed no longer sophisticated and urbane. He was dangerous and predatory.

But still, Lily didn’t heed the warning look in his black eyes.

“Nothing!” she shouted into his face. “Not one damned thing. I asked her about you but she wouldn’t say a word!”

She saw a flash of relief cross his face before he hid it and she actually growled.

“What is it?” she cried, twisting her wrist free and grabbing fistfuls of his shirt at his chest. “What’s the damned secret about you that everyone is so intent on keeping?”

Nate’s hands hit her waist and he brought her closer but she resisted. He won, not surprisingly.