Page 60 of You Belong to Me
“And this is a flick,” she said and demonstrated.
The coil flashed across the room, the tail curling around the leg of a chair, and the chair came sliding across the floor, to bump into Vasili’s knees. His frown was turning thunderous, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“Sit down and let your friend tend you,” she told him,orderedwas more like it, and still in that bossy, chastising tone.
“Shut up, Alex!”
She was treating him like a child again, and in front of Lazar and everyone else this time. And her angry advice during the fight might not have come only because she thought him so inept, as he had assumed at the time. It could also have come from concern, and the mere possibility, unlikely as it was, was making him panic, which didn’t help him handle the situation at all well. If she showed the least bit of gratitude on top of the rest, he’d probably murder her.
Alexandra was experiencing her own emotional upheaval that was two-thirds panic, but hers had started last night, when she’d heard they were so close to Cardinia. What was turning her irrational and bitchy now was her actually having been afraid for Vasili during the fight, and that absolutely infuriated her. And it didn’t help that she was definitely beholden to him now. Feelings of gratitude in connection with this man just didn’t sit well with her. And that she was going to have to own up to it was galling.
But the worst of it was her knowing that he was in pain, and having the ridiculous urge to ease it for him somehow, not knowing how, and not daring even to try. All in all, her emotions were making her crazy, and she had about as much control of them as he did right now, which was none.
If it were otherwise, she might have noticed that he wasn’t himself, that it wasn’t the pain making him testy, but Alexandra herself. She really should have heeded him and said no more. Stubbornness definitely had its pitfalls.
“I have to thank—”
Vasili stopped her before she went any further. He knew one sure way to get rid of the gratitude he didn’t want from her, and short of murdering her, as had been his earlier thought, he didn’t hesitate to use it.
“Before you say something you’ll regret, Alex, you should know that I didn’t get those horses back for you. If the worst comes to pass and we end up married to each other, I wasn’t going to lose the profit they’ll bring me when I sell them.”
She took that news exactly as he’d expected. For a moment, he was in danger of her using the whip in her hand on him, and with a skill he wasn’t likely to appreciate. He knew it. Even Lazar knew it. Vasili had never seen her more furious.
Yet amazingly, she answered him with a degree of calm, for all that each word was gritted out. “You’re not selling my horses.”
“I don’t believe you’ll have any say in the matter,” he replied.
The dam broke then, her voice raised to the rafters. “I’ll see you in hell first!”
He responded in kind. “You’ll be putting me in hell if you don’t end this damn betrothal!”
“I told you, I can’t. I made a promise!”
“Jesus, women break promises every day. What makes you so different?”
“Honor,” she said acidly. “Something I’m not surprised you aren’t familiar with.”
Having delivered that deadly insult, Alexandra stalked off. Lazar had to pull Vasili back when his fury made him start after her.
“For God’s sake, let it go, before you end up with worse welts than you’ve already got.”
Vasili turned on him, demanding, “Did you hear what she said?”
“Yes, and you asked for it, if you want my opinion,” Lazar said bluntly. “What the hell possessed you to tell her you’d sell her horses?”
“That was necessary, or didn’t you hear her? She was about to shower me with gratitude.”
“Well, heaven forbid.”
“Gratitude and hate don’t go hand in hand,” Vasili said, trying to explain his reasoning, but then he sighed. He even sat down in the chair Alexandra had fetched for him, suddenly exhausted. “You know, Lazar, this damn feeling I have of being trapped isn’t going away.”
The change in subject and Vasili’s sudden deflation made Lazar wary, yet he replied, “Possibly because you’re depending on your mother to now settle this matter, and you don’t quite trust her to react to Alexandra as you hope.”
“No, she’ll be horrified by Alex, I have no doubt, so it’s not that. It’s as if something’s trying to tell me I’m never going to escape the wench.”
28
The royal city of Cardinia was a jewel in a fog-shrouded valley, glittering brightly despite its present gloomy setting. That was how Alexandra saw it from afar, and the dismal weather on the day of their arrival matched her mood perfectly. Even when the fog lifted long before they reached the first cobbled streets, and the sun actually made an appearance, her mood didn’t improve.
