Page 34 of Fairy Tale Marriage

Chaz sighed. Clearly, he needed to redefine the word “employee” again. This time he’d do it with his fists. “Not even a little.”

“When you went to that fancy-pants ball you should have bought yourself an obedient sort of wife. Not that there’s anything wrong with the one you did buy. It’s just that with a different sort, you could tell her straight out that she's to mind the house and take care of your kid and she wouldn't get her feelings hurt.”

“I did not buy a wife! Inever said that.”

“Not in so many words,” Jumbo concurred. “But we caught your drift.”

To his alarm, Shayne shoved back her chair and tossed her napkin to the table. Aw, hell. “Honey, Idid not tell anyone I bought you. Iswear.”

“Would barter be a better word?” Jumbo asked pensively. “You know. You agree on a trade-off. You give her a home, she gets to take care of it. That sort of thing.”

She shot to her feet. “Excuse me, please.”

Damn and double damn. “Honey, wait—”

She listened to him as well as everyone else in his household, doing precisely the opposite of what he requested. She didn’t run, but she did move at a good little clip, hastening into the hallway and toward the bedrooms at the rear of the house. He’d lay odds that she was crying.

Chaz turned on his employee. “Have Mojo put together a light meal that’ll keep. Then you stick it on a tray outside my bedroom door. And do it quietly, or I swear, you won’t see another dawn.” He slammed his finger into Jumbo’s chest. “Tomorrow, you and I are going to conduct a little experiment.”

“What sort of experiment?” Jumbo asked warily.

“We’re going to experiment with how many times I can punch you in the jaw before all your teeth fall out.”

Not waiting for a reply, Chaz left the dining room and gave chase. He found his wife at the end of the hallway, looking around, clearly without a clue which door to try. He settled the issue by swinging her into his arms and carrying her into their bedroom. Twilight had settled in, bringing a deepening gloom. But when he reached for the light switch, she stayed hishand.

“Don’t,” she whispered.

Now he knew she’d been crying. Chaz fought for patience, fought to be the sort of man she deserved instead of the one she’d ended up marrying. “Honey, we have to talk.”

Darkness filled her voice. “Not really.”

“Yeah. Really.”

“Then talk. But no lights.”

“I can’t see your reaction to what I say without lights,” he argued.

“I know.”

Okay, fine. They’d do this her way. All things considered, it seemed only fair. He settled her onto the bed before moving away, giving her a bit of space. He snagged a ladder-back chair from against the wall and brought it closer to the bed. Spinning it around, he straddled the seat and folded his arms along theback.

“I’m sorry, Shayne,” he began. “First for the things Jumbo said. But also because I should have told you about Sarita before we married.”

She curled up in the center of the mattress, hugging his pillow in a way that sent white-hot desire bolting through him. She’d hugged him like that the night of the Cinderella Ball. Of course then she’d been wearing only three things—amask that sang of her desire, her petal-soft skin and the secret scent of a woman’s passion.

“Why didn’t you? Why keep Sarita a secret?”

“Because I was good and pi—”

His wedding band caught the final rays of fast-dying light and he broke off, rethinking his language. The irony wasn't lost on him. Forty-eight hours ago, he'd have blistered the air with his opinion. Now he was learning the fine art of husbandly caution. Amazing.

“I was good and ticked at your deception. Ididn't feel I owed you a thing at that point, sure as hell not an explanation.”

“I see.” She lowered her head and her hair spilled forward, the deep reds and purples filling the evening sky catching in the pale gold color, like a molten sunset embracing a field of wheat.

“Look, Shayne. Iknow I hurt you. Not only didn’t I tell you about Sarita. But I hurt you through the mere fact of my daughter’s existence.”

“We weren’t married.” She wrapped herself so tightly around the pillow it was a miracle the seams didn’t burst. “You weren’t under any obligation to remain faithful to me. Iunderstand.”

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