“I’m seeing someone.”
“So? I’m seeing lots of someones.” He turned back to me.
“I won’t sleep with you.”
“Is that supposed to bother me?” The corner of his mouth rose in a smile. “You think you’re so beautiful that every man wants to fuck you? Sorry, sweetheart, but I’ve seen better.”
I’d never met a man so cold and cruel. I didn’t care if he found me beautiful or not, but he was so vicious, it was hard to believe. But at least he wouldn’t force me to do anything I didn’t want to do. “I’ve seen better too.”
“I doubt that…”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at his misplaced arrogance. “Will you hurt me?”
“Depends.”
“Depends on what?” I demanded.
“If you piss me off. Just don’t piss me off, and we won’t have any problems.”
“Well, don’t piss me off, and I won’t kill you in your sleep.”
He chuckled like I was nothing but comical to him. “I always see what’s going on—even with my eyes closed. Any other requests?”
“I want to live alone.”
“No, that won’t work. You’ll have to live with me. The world will have to think you’re really my wife. That means keeping your mistresses…or misters…discreet. I don’t have to do the same thing because—”
“You’re a pig?” I snapped.
“Something like that.”
The more I got to know him, the less I liked. “I want to continue to sing at the opera. It’s my life.”
“Couldn’t care less.”
“I want to have children.”
He opened his mouth to make a comment, but then he closed it again, as if he’d misunderstood what I said. “Wait…you mean you don’t want to have children.”
“No. I do want to have children.”
“Well, I don’t.”
“Fine. Then I’ll have them with someone else.”
“But they’ll be under my roof. I can’t allow that.”
“There’s nothing you can do to control when I get pregnant or not. So, you can either be the father, or you don’t have to be. Doesn’t make a difference to me. But I will have a family one way or another. Not anytime soon…but someday.”
With that dark countenance, he stared at me with a stony expression, like he was annoyed by the request but felt helpless to fight it. The situation was out of his control, and he knew it. No point in arguing about it. “Is that a yes, then?”
“A yes to what?”
“That you’ll marry me.”
Ever since I was a little girl, I’d imagined a much better proposal than this. For one, the guy would be someone I loved. And second, it wouldn’t be under these horrific circumstances. Plus, the guy wouldn’t be a huge pig.
He continued to watch me as he sat and waited for a confirmation.
I slowly lowered myself into the chair and grabbed the bottle of wine. “I don’t know…” I brought it to my lips and took a deep drink, needing the sweetness of the fruit along with the booze to calm my beating heart.
With one arm resting on the table and an indifferent expression, he watched me. “You do know. You just don’t want to do it.”
I took another drink.
“Your father is trying to help you. Let him help you.”
I nearly spat out the next sip of wine I took. “Help me? If he wanted to help me, he could have not spent our family fortune on god knows what. He could have avoided all these bad men he’s talking about. If he really gave a damn about protecting me, he wouldn’t have put us in such a vulnerable position. It’s not just irresponsible…it’s unforgivable.”
Maverick stared at me with cold eyes, looking at me like I was a painting rather than a person. “You can be a brat and whine about the past, or you can move on. I suggest you move on…if you don’t want to die.”
“I’d rather be a brat than an asshole. This information dropped on my shoulders just a week ago, and I’m supposed to be over it?”
“You should have been over it the moment it happened. There’s no point in living in the past. It doesn’t matter that you used to be some rich little princess. Now you’re piss-poor—unless you grab on to the only life raft you’ve got.” He rested his fingers under his chin as he regarded me. “Life will always throw surprises your way. How you react to them is what defines you. Feeling sorry for yourself is one way to go…but it won’t get you anywhere.”
This man was heartless and lacked any ounce of empathy. He didn’t care about my story and what I’d endured. That indifference would carry on into our marriage, and I would be married to a man I didn’t even like. We couldn’t even be friends. “Have you always been this cold?”
He regarded me with the same expression, frozen down to his core. “You call it cold. I call it pragmatic.” He rose to his feet and towered over me once more. “I’m going to assume your answer is yes.” He turned to the door to leave.