"What's wrong?"
"I've never come through the front door before."
I frowned at her. "Of course you have. We came this way—"
I stopped myself. No, she hadn’t seen it then because her head had been covered with a bag. Because I’d been a dick, as my mother had made a point to shove it in my face several times. "Sorry about this morning."
She turned to me. "Are you?"
I grinned at her then. "No, not really."
"Wow, at least you're honest."
"Unlike some of us."
"Enough, Bridge. Enough. You can choose to stay mad at me, but I'm not fucking Mina. I haven't been conspiring with your father for years. I never even met the man until the other day. He called saying he had something important to tell me that would affect our marriage. My whole goal was to tell him to go fuck himself. Tell him to stay the fuck away from your life because there was nothing he could do to stop us. We were already married. But then he hit me with a goddamn sledgehammer. Should I have talked to you before I went to see him? Yes, but I’m done apologizing. I'm prone to impulsivity. You know this. That's the thing with you, Bridge; instead of addressing your own feelings about something, you will punish and punish and punish. Fuck, I'm tired of it. You have to deal with me, eventually. You married me. Then you kidnapped me and brought me here. I'm stuck with you. So one way or another, you and I are going to have a conversation whether you like it or not. Personally, I could do this forever, but there's information you really need to know."
I shook my head. “He sold you a bill of lies."
"You know what? That's the thing. I believe he told me a bill of lies too, but you still need to know what they are so we can deal with it appropriately, not this childish bullshit of you not speaking to me. That's not how this works. That's not trying to sort things out. Guess what? When you're in a relationship with someone, you have to expect that they will fuck up once in a while. That's being human. I'm not some perfect paragon. And if you didn't know that from the start, then well, the joke's on you. But here's a bigger joke; you fucking kidnapped me."
I scowled down at her. “Stop shouting, Emma."
"Oh what, my shouting makes you uncomfortable? Fuck you, Bridge."
She stormed away, and I snatched her wrist and tugged her back. "Watch your mouth with me, Emma. I only have so much patience."
"Or what?" She furrowed her brow at me. " Seriously, or what? You'll kidnap me and hold me against my will?"
I opened my mouth to answer but then I had to shut it again.
"Yeah, that's what I thought already happened. So, what more could you do? I know you. I know you to your core."
The soft jab of her fingertip against my sternum had all my breath leaving me. She did know me. And I hated that. I hated that she knew me and still met with the old man.
So is this really about your hang-ups and not necessarily what she did?
Fuck off, I told myself, because I couldn't say that to Emma right now. She was likely to blow. "That's enough.”
"No, it's not. It's not nearly enough."
She was on another level tonight. "What the hell has gotten into you?"
"I realized tonight that I'm not alone. As alone as I feel sometimes, I saw a family. East, Ben, Drew, they all know about your father, so they were stiff with me. Because they don't know why I did it. I could have explained to them, but I was not explaining to them before I explain it to you, and if you won't listen, well fuck you. None of you get to know. But Livy and Nyla and Telly came to talk to me and your mum. Your own bloody mum. She called you a twat, you know."
I scowled. "Yes, among other things."
"Your father fucked you up so bad you think everyone's out to get you. I'm on your side, but you won't even listen. So fuck you too."
Suddenly, Emma lost three inches. I glanced down and realized she'd taken off one of her heels and shifted her weight to take off the other one.
"What the fuck are you doing?"
“I'm making myself comfortable. If you're going to hold me against my will, I might as well be comfortable, don’t you think? This house is what, eight thousand square feet? I'm sure I can walk around this whole place and not once have to run into you again until tomorrow morning. So go ahead, lock the doors, or the windows, or whatever the fuck it is that you're going to do that's going to keep me in my room. Because I don't care anymore."
And then she was unzipping the side zipper of her skirt. I swallowed. "Emma, what the fuck?"
"I am going to continue to make myself entirely comfortable. What’s it to you?"
“What the fuck are you doing?" She was stripping.
"I'm getting undressed. Isn’t it obvious?"
I scowled down at her. The fuck she was. "You will stop that right now. I already told you, it's not happening again."
"Oh, don't worry. I am for sure not shagging you again because I'm not going to allow that. We have something else we need to deal with first. But since you're not in the mood to listen, I'm going to keep doing what I’m doing."
When she shimmied her skirt down, sure enough, I nearly swallowed my tongue. "What the fuck, Ems?"
"What? This is just me making myself comfortable."
She bent down with her back to me, and I gritted my teeth.
Do not look. Do not look. Do not fucking look at her.
But goddamn it, my gaze slid down her form as she bent down and picked up her shoes.
She was wearing the kind of stockings that had the seam at the back. Fuck. Like some kind of pin-up girl, and I just… Goddamn it. I was weak. I wanted her. I’d always wanted Emma. That wasn't some new condition. But I could weather this. This was not the end. She wasn't going to own me. I was a grown man and in complete control of my emotions.
My dick stirred, the blood rushing to the tip, knowing exactly what he wanted to do and where he wanted to go.
Emma tossed her hair and shot me a backward glance as she started to unbutton her blouse.
No, she was not doing this. She was going to find out. "Don't you dare."
"Don't I dare what? Make myself more comfortable for bed? Please.” Pop. She let another button loose. "Matter of fact, I'm going to keep doing this until I'm absolutely stark naked. And Mr. Edgerton, there's not a damn thing you can do about it."
She was fucking with me. Fucking teasing me. "Are you sure about that, Ems?"
"I already told you, I don't want you calling me Ems anymore. It belies a closeness that I don't feel toward you."
"You're trying to punish me like I'm the one who did something wrong."
"No, Bridge," she said as she backed away from me, popping buttons as she went. "I'm acting like the child you think I am."
And then her blouse was open. The black lace bra and panties that she wore were on display, making her seem like a naughty girl wanting to play peekaboo with me. And fucking hell, I wanted to suck on those dusky cinnamon tips behind the lace. So much so that my throat went dry.
The fuck-with-Bridge show only continued when she unsnapped the garters, bent over, and rolled down one stocking, peeling it off and flinging it in my direction. When she did the same with the other one, I took a step toward her, but my legs were unreliable because they were shaking. "Fuck it, Emma. Bloody stop."