Page 22 of You Belong to Me
She closed the door quietly behind her. She would have preferred to slam it, to throw things, to scream, but there was no point when she had already lost the battle, at least with her father. She still felt hurt and betrayed, and doubted she’d ever forgive him for that. And to think she had awakened this morning to an ordinary day. Now her whole world had been turned upside down, and it wasn’t going to be easy to right it.
But she would. It might have been a jolt to hear that the wedding was still on, when she had thought she had settled the matter to her satisfaction, but she was not defeated yet where the Cardinian was concerned. The anger still simmering inside her was no longer just for her father. She was now infuriated with that pretty-faced popinjay. How did he dare to still want her after what she had told him? And how did he dare to drag his feet in getting here, so that she had to be rushed in leaving?
Her hands were clenched as she marched up the stairs, and still tightly fisted as she pounded on the door to the guest room she assumed the count had been put in. Vaguely she noted that three of the upstairs maidswere loitering at the end of the corridor, but she gave it no thought, unaware that her betrothed was like a flame to moths in the way he drew females to him. Since she would rather be doing anything except having to deal with him again, it wasn’t surprising that she failed to make the connection.
She’d picked the right room, though. Abruptly Vasili Petroff stood before her, half dressed, his coat and boots removed, his white shirt open, the wrinkled tails pulled out of his pants, a wide stretch of chest and belly showing. Her eyes got ensnared, could move no farther than his chest, which was sparsely sprinkled with hair so light it was barely noticeable. He really was golden all over, like a tawny lion, and like a lion, he was a predator, and very, very dangerous. She knew this instinctively.
“Just the little wench I wanted to see.”
His tone was utterly condescending and contemptuous of her. It wasn’t difficult to guess why. She was still wearing her work clothes, minus her hat and coat. She hadn’t even bothered to repair her hair after returning from her ride. The tight coiffure she had started with that morning was now quite straggly, and without her hat to stuff the loose ends into, she had a number of errant, silky strands streaming down her back and shoulders. The people who knew her were used to seeing her this way, she tended to pay so little attention to her appearance. Guests were not.
When she looked up at his face, she was startled to see that he was smiling. And whata smile. Her stomach seemed to turn over, which was such a funny feeling, she was appalled by the urge to giggle. Shenevergiggled. She was never at a loss for words either, but for the second time that day, words deserted her.
Incredibly, in the space of a few hours, her memory didn’t do him justice. He was so beautiful, she found it hard to look at him with any calm, much less coherent thoughts. For God’s sake, was she going to have to mentally pull herself together every time she saw the man?
Getting yanked into the room and hearing the door close behind her brought her back to her senses real quick. With some contempt of her own, she cocked her brow and said, “Is this where you try to seduce me?”
His eyes had been inspecting every inch of her, yet it still disconcerted her to hear him ignore her question and remark with considerable surprise, “Jesus, you look like you’re fresh out of bed.”
On top of his condescension, that observation was more than she could easily tolerate, and recalled to her every bit of the anger she was feeling—for him. “It will be a wonder if I find my bed tonight at all. Thanks to your inconsideration, I’ll be packing all night.”
He stopped looking at her as if he’d like to see her back in bed, his in particular, and said with an indifferent shrug, “To answer your question, this is where I tell you that I’m on your side. I have no wish to marry, either, soif you’ll just inform your father that you won’t have me, I’ll be able to leave here tomorrow without you, and you needn’t lose any sleep tonight packing.”
“You expectmeto break the betrothal?”
“Certainly,” he said, his tone patronizing. “Women are known to be notoriously fickle.”
“I wouldn’t know. But in this case, there is a little matter of honor and sworn oaths that happens to mean something to me, much as I wish it didn’t. So you’ll have to be the fickle one and do the crying off, and I would appreciate it if you got around to it before you waste my time with a trip to Cardinia.”
“Impossible,” he replied, his exasperation beginning to show. “Just tell your father that you don’t want me. How difficult can that be for you?”
“I’ve already told him that, you dolt, clearly without result. But I’ve also given my word that I would marry you—if you don’t cry off.” And then she sighed. Getting into a shouting match with him was not going to help. She forced herself to use a reasonable tone. “Look, as long as we’re being honest with each other, Count Petroff, and are agreed that neither one of us wants to marry the other, why don’t you use the most obvious excuse and simply tell my father that I wouldn’t make a suitable wife for you?”
“An excellent idea, except it would be a lie. As a baroness, you are, unfortunately, quite suitable. That I don’t want to marry you, or any woman for that matter, is no reason to goagainst my father’s wishes—at least, that is what my mother assures me.”
She gave him a look of disgust. “You let yourmotherdictate your life?”
She’d managed to get to him with that. He flushed, snarling, “You let your father dictate yours!”
“My father is one of the two parties who arranged this ridiculous marriage. I couldn’t face him again if I failed to keep his word. But your father is deceased.”
“All the more reason I can’t get out of this damned trap. My father is not available to be argued out of it, but yours is. So change your mind, wench—or do you need to hear how it will be if we marry? I promise you that you will never be anything to me but a nuisance, though one that I will endeavor to ignore. To please my mother, I’ll have an heir from you, and then you will be free to pursue your own amusements, as I intend to do. My life won’t change one bit, but yours most certainly will. Does that sound acceptable to you?”
Alexandra had to grit her teeth for a moment before she could manage a smile. “Certainly, as long as you don’t mind embarrassing public scenes.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Be warned. If you force me to marry you, you will be mine, and I don’t share what’s mine. And you won’t be able to ignore me, I promise you that.” And then she threw his words back at him. “Does that sound acceptable to you?”
He took a step toward her so that his height would intimidate her, but she didn’t budge an inch. “I don’t like threats, wench.”
“Who’s threatening? You told me how it’s going to be, and I merely told you how I’ll react. I’d sleep on it if I were you, Petroff. It’s liable to be the last night of untroubled sleep you’ll get.”
10
Alexandra managed to close Vasili’s door quietly, just as she had closed her father’s door, but she couldn’t quite manage to do the same with her own, which was just down the corridor. She was so angry she could spit and chew nails. How did that man dare to threaten her with a loveless marriage, with mistresses—she hadn’t misunderstood hisamusements—and with babies? Babies! He was tempting her and didn’t even know it, the cad, the arrogant swine! to mention the one thing shedidwant. But not from him. From anyone but him.
Her room wasn’t empty. Her loud entrance startled both Nina, who’d been bending over a valise on the bed, and Bojik, who gave a short growl before he realized who it was and charged Alexandra with a demonstration of apology.
