A Whisper of Disgrace

‘He asked me if I was interested in taking a screen test.’

‘You?’

‘Yes, me, Kulal—is that such a bizarre thing for him to have said?’ she demanded, pushing aside the nagging voice which reminded her that he was only echoing her own initial reaction.

‘And you told him no?’

She heard the certainty in his voice and drew in a breath as her emotions began to wage a sudden and dramatic war. She knew what he wanted and she knew she could please him by telling him exactly what he wanted to hear—but then what? You caved into a bully once and that was giving him carte blanche to bully you all over again. She had planned to do nothing about Arnaud’s offer of a screen test, but now she was beginning to have second thoughts. She stared at her husband, not liking the Kulal she was seeing tonight, knowing that he had no right to dictate what she should or shouldn’t do. Because surely he hadn’t forgotten that this marriage wasn’t real?

‘I haven’t told him anything,’ she said. ‘At least, not yet.’

There was a pause as Kulal stared at her. ‘But you’re going to tell him that you’re not interested,’ he said.

Rosa’s mouth dried as she felt the sudden tension in the room. Because that had been a statement, not a question. Or rather, it had bordered on being an order.

Rebellion flared up inside her once more. ‘I’m going to hear what he has to say,’ she answered stubbornly.

Kulal could feel a tight knot of anger but he could feel something else too. A flicker of something which burned beneath the anger and which was growing like a weed inside him. Something painful and intolerable. Something unfamiliar and yet horribly recognisable. He rammed his hands deep into the pockets of his trousers—something he couldn’t remember doing since he’d been a schoolboy and had been sent to that terrible prep school in England. But he didn’t want her to see the bunched tension of his knotted fists. Because wouldn’t that reveal the fact that he was in pain—and he didn’t want to be in pain!

He gave a tight shrug of his shoulders. ‘Suit yourself,’ he said coolly. ‘I’m going to bed.’

Rosa watched him go. He’d sounded so dismissive, as if he didn’t want her to share his bed that night. She licked her lips. So was she going to let herself be intimidated? Crawl off to sleep in one of the empty bedrooms as if she’d done something wrong, when all she’d done was to consider a perfectly reasonable offer which had been made to her.

Like hell she was!

She went to the bathroom and stripped off her dress, then brushed her hair and washed her face—and when she had removed every trace of the evening, she heard something behind her and glanced into the mirror.

Not something.

Someone.

Kulal stood behind her—completely naked and completely aroused by the look of him. On his face burned an expression she’d never seen there before. Was it anger or desire, she wondered, or a potent mixture of both? She saw the heat in his black eyes and instinct was telling her that maybe sleeping in one of the spare rooms was a better idea than slipping into the marital bed when he was in this kind of mood. Anything would be better than having to face that undiluted rage on Kulal’s face.

But that was before he put his arms around her. Before he dropped his lips to her shoulder and traced a line there—the words he uttered made indistinct by his kiss. But they were not tender words. They were words of want, not words of need. They were graphic words about what he wanted to do to her, and although the baldness of his erotic wish list made her feel that she should beg for sleep and ask him to wait until morning, Rosa did no such thing.

His hands were far too clever to let her escape. His fingers made her weak with longing and so did his lips, so that by the time he entered her from behind, she was as turned on as he was. Turned on enough to watch their dual reflections in the mirror when he urged her to do so. Turned on by the sight of her own orgasm—and just as turned on by the sight of his.

But even though the kiss he gave her afterwards was lazy and sticky, he disentangled himself sooner than she wanted him to. She wanted him to stroke her and comfort her; to tell her to forget about the hurtful things he’d said. But he didn’t. The only thing he told her was that he needed to do some work before he slept.

And he didn’t follow her to bed.

CHAPTER TEN

ROSA AWOKE TO an empty space beside her and when she blinked open her heavy eyelids it was to see Kulal pulling on a jacket. He was dressed for the office in dark trousers and a pristine white shirt and she shifted a little to get a better look at him, but she noticed that he made no acknowledgement as she stirred.