Tried for Love (TSATD)

Chapter 19

Leah

Dear God. My despair had pushed me to madness. Accepting a marriage in less than a month after my fiancé's death? Absolutely insane.. Standing toe-to-toe with Gabriel Valentine and accepting a damned challenge from him. Well, I must had lost my mind.

And yet it wasn't a challenge. It was a life-changing decision. Surely, only for the next six months, but— Heavens, there was so much more into it than just papers. So much more than a simple 'I do'.

I had just accepted a game that I wasn't even certain I understood, let alone play. A game of seduction with the brute criminal that held my life in his hands.. That wolfishly grinned at me and so boldly took in the sight of me.

I held my breath. With my heart pounding so harshly against my rib cage, I wasn't certain the air was even reaching my lungs.. My ears buzzed for a second, and I felt dizzy.. As if I might go faint and expect him to catch me.. As if this was a game of heart not one of desires.

  Managing to hold my chin high, and my back straight, I spoke. "Once I get my money, I'll go back to my villa." My eyes never left his.

  "Oh no you won't." With an intimidating step closer, he rose his finger to make his point clear. "If we do this, we must make it believable for the public that our marriage is real. For Owl, especially. He cannot suspect a thing. In his eyes, it must seem like I had married St. Clair's daughter out of love." And to the sound of that, my heart skipped a hollow beat. "You'll live with me. You will be my wife.. For meals, work, events. It will function just as we functioned till now."

Just with a few changes.. Drat him. Him and his ridiculous handsome looks. There was no mistaking the authority he held, or the desperate acceptance of it on my part.. As if I was seeking some kind of control. As if I didn't trust myself enough with power and needed him to possess it.

Certainly, he was the man that had saved me, that I had shared quite an intimate weekend with him in France.. But that did not make him any less a criminal. One that knew how to play with fire, tame it and in the end, extinguish it.

But when he recognized the fire in me, he sought to make me burn with it. He teased every little ounce of resistance I had, with every bold glare, every little touch and word he said.. Even if it was to shock me, anger me.. He found amusement in it.

  A sigh rose from my chest. There was no further arguing. "Alright. Fine. But—" It was I that poked his shoulder with my finger to make my point this time. "You'll allow me to go back to work. Without any of your guards at my back."

  A sharp frown knitted his brows together. He took a step back as some kind of bewilderment crossed his face.. Staring down at me as if I had lost my mind.

  "Absolutely not."

  I crossed my arms over my chest. "Then we've reached no understanding."

  And it was only then that I had woke up the fury in him. With a rough growl dying somewhere in his chest, he took that usual intimidating posture that as always towered over me, and with a slight scowl and a well threatening lean closer to me, he rose his voice.

  "You'd endanger your life, for— For sitting behind an office desk, instead of doing as you please around here—" To stop his useless waving around, I interrupted him with the same confidence in my voice.