Page 18 of An Inconvenient Marriage
“Natalie?”
Dammit, I forgot Everlee was on the phone with me. “Sorry. I’m here.”
“What the hell just happened?”
Zach happened. “Uh, nothing.” I stared at the door, my mind—without my permission, I might add—conjuring up all sorts of things he might be doing in there. “I gotta go but I’ll call you later, ’kay? Love you.”
With that, I pressed the red button on the screen and blew out another breath. Goodness. What the heck was wrong with me? Shaking my head, I made my way to the sliding doors. I’d gone from being afraid to feeling loved to feeling confused within a short amount of time. My father scared the life out of me. Everlee plugged the holes he’d left as best she could.
And then there was Zach…
Everything about him confused me. And terrified me if I were being honest. But it wasn’t the fear I had for my father. This was something different. Something I didn’t quite understand.
“Who were you speaking to just now?” Zach’s voice boomed somewhere behind me.
My entire body jerked. Slapping my hand against my chest, I spun around just to choke on air. Big and imposing, Zach stood beside the bed watching me with an intense stare in his eyes… again.
He’d swapped his Armani suit for a pair of beige cargo shorts and a black short-sleeved button-down. He was utterly magnificent.
Wait, what? Nope. I was definitely not supposed to be thinking that.
“I asked you a question.” His voice had a slight edge to it. Normally, when my father spoke to me like that, it meant his patience had run out and I’d get whatever punishment he saw fit.
But Zach wasn’t my father.
And he also didn’t need to know any of my business.
So for the first time in my life, I squared my shoulders and lifted my chin, and when I spoke, my voice was clipped. “No one.”
Zach took a few steps forward and didn’t bother to hide the anger mixed with disgust he clearly felt. “You expect me to believe you held your phone against your ear and spoke into thin air?”
Two or three more steps put him almost toe to toe with me. “I will not be made a fool of.”
I was shaking like a friggin’ leaf on the inside but I refused to back down. It was about damn time I grew a backbone and stood up for myself. And maybe if I practiced enough on Zach, I could do the same with my father.
Tilting my head back so I could look him in the eye, I let the words roll off my tongue. “No one is making a fool of you, Zach.”
“Then tell me who were you speaking to? Was it one of your many lovers calling to arrange a rendezvous? Did you forget to inform them you are now a taken woman? For the next six months, at least.”
He stared down his nose at me like I was a thing to be despised. Something inside me snapped. Everlee was right. If he was vain enough to believe what was written in a bunch of articles, then he was an idiot.
I wasn’t perfect. But then again, who was?
Holding his gaze, I drew strength from somewhere deep inside me. “Whoever I was speaking with is none of your business. I don’t belong to you, Zach. You have no right to tell me what I can or can’t do.”
He glared at me for a few heated seconds, then nodded brusquely. “Dinner is in an hour.” Taking a step backward, he spun on his heel and stalked out of the bedroom.
I waited until I couldn’t see him anymore, then rushed to the door and closed it.
When the lock clicked in place, I turned and sagged against the wood. My butt hit the floor a second later, and I immediately burst out laughing.
I didn’t even know why but I couldn’t stop. I laughed and laughed until tears spilled from my eyes and my stomach ached.
When I finally caught my breath, I shook my head and dragged my trembling fingers through my hair. Standing up to Zach like that was without a doubt the scariest, most exhilarating thing I’d done in my entire life.
And I’d loved every second of it.
7
