She stilled, every muscle on her face seeming to momentarily freeze. But then she gave a little toss of her head and sent him haughty look. ‘I fail to see why that should be of any interest to you.’
‘I’m your husband.’
One.
Two.
Three.
Blast off.
Remy could time her down to a nanosecond. Her face went rigid again, her teeth clenching together, her eyes flashing at him like a turbulent gun-metal-grey ocean. ‘You’re enjoying every minute of this, aren’t you?’ she hissed at him. ‘I bet you can’t wait to get back to Italy or France, or wherever it is you live these days, to tell everyone how you tricked me into marrying you. You’ll be dining out on this and how you got Tarrantloch off my father for decades, won’t you?’
‘Calm down.’ Remy held up a hand like a stop sign. ‘I’m not the one who brought about this marriage. You’re the last person I would consider marrying if I was considering marriage, which I’m not, nor ever will be.’
‘Ditto.’
‘Fine. Then at least we’re square on that.’ He pushed his sleeve back and glanced impatiently at his watch. ‘I think it’s time this party was over. Come on. Let’s get out of here.’
Angelique followed him with feigned meekness as they said their goodnights to the other guests and officials. Her little white lie about her headache was now lamentably and rather painfully true. Her temples were pounding by the time she got to the suite with Remy. She felt nauseous and lightheaded and her heart began to pound once he closed the door and they were finally alone.
Alone.
In the bridal suite.
She affected a light and breezy tone. ‘Do you want to toss a coin for the bed?’
His dark-brown eyes looked darker than they had during the reception. She couldn’t make out the shape of his irises at all. He took a coin out of his pocket without breaking his gaze from hers and laid it on the back of his left hand, covered by his right. ‘Heads or tails?’
‘Heads.’
He flipped the coin high in the air and deftly caught it as it came back down, his gaze still locked on hers. ‘Want to change your mind?’
Angelique raised her chin. ‘Once my mind is made up I never change it.’
His mouth kicked up a little on one side, those dark-chocolate eyes gleaming. ‘Ditto.’
She leaned forward to see how the coin had fallen but he hadn’t uncovered it. He held it in his closed palm in the space between them. ‘Go on. Show me.’ Her voice sounded huskier than normal but she put that down to the fact he was in her personal body space. She could smell his citrus, wood and male smell. She could see the rise of fresh dark stubble on his jaw.
She could feel his desire.
It was pulsing in the air like sound waves. There was an answering throb in her body like an echo. Her inner core shifted. Tensed. Clenched. Hungered.
She suddenly became aware of her breasts inside the lacy cage of her bra. She became aware of her tongue as it moved out over her lips, depositing moisture to their surface. She saw his hooded gaze follow its passage and something in her stomach unfurled, as if a satin ribbon was being pulled out of its centre.
She took a little swallow. ‘Um...the coin?’
His gaze was still fixated on her mouth as if it were the most fascinating mouth in the whole wide world. ‘What about it?’ His voice sounded deep and rough around the edges.
‘I want to know who won.’
‘I did.’
Angelique frowned at his confident tone. ‘You can’t possibly know that without looking.’
His mouth went up at the corners again. ‘I have a sixth sense about this sort of stuff.
I won. You lost.’