Page 26

I clear my throat and refocus.

“Blaise, if it walks and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.”

“Are you telling me I am one?” She tips her cute chin at me.

“No, darling. I’m saying you’re a coward for hiding your beauty.”

Using the word she dislikes, I get the reaction I’m going for. Jesus, I’m a bona fide jerk.

Blaise ducks from where she’s crouched behind the ladder, and with her hands on her hips and her shoulders pulled back, giving me a view of perfect round tits, she says, “I’m not your lover, so stop calling me your darling.”

“No, Blaise, you are something else altogether. You are my wife. My legally wedded wife. Until death do us part,” I remind her, my voice low and possessive as fuck.

Her eyes widen. She opens her mouth. Changes her mind on what she was about to say. Closes her mouth. Her hand leaves her hip. Flutters to her neck. A hint of color tinges the crest of her cheeks. I suck in a quiet breath. Blaise Stassi is beautiful, and the cold creature I believed her to be isn’t cold after all. She is turned on by me. By my words.

My dick comes to life, and hell yeah, she notices. Her gaze drops to my throbbing member. He’s standing erect in the water. I step toward her. She inches back, then realizes there’s nowhere to go. She’s up against the edge of the pool.

Blaise sticks out her hands, palms out. “Maddox, please. I . . . I don’t like touching of any kind.”

I point out the obvious. “The water is touching you. Satin and silk touches your skin. Granger was over for two nights. You ordered in lingerie. Am I missing something, Blaise?”

“Yes, he was here. I can’t go into the reason, but the lingerie is for me and not to show him. I—” The color on her cheeks deepens to a fiery red. “I forgot to pack more panties and bras. And the touching thing, I . . . I can’t stand flesh on flesh, skin on skin. I can’t. Please understand.”

Flesh on flesh abhors her so much that she’s begging for me not to touch her? Is her repulsion the reason she wears the softest materials on her skin? I shake my head. I am wrong about this woman. She isn’t wearing the most expensive materials because she’s a spoiled brat. She does so because the bastard who kidnapped her did something that made her hate the feel of someone touching her.

“What the fuck did your kidnapper do, Blaise? Did he—” I close my eyes, relieving the nightmare of finding my innocent sister with blood staining her inner thighs.

“Did he violate you?”

Fuck sake’s, I can’t even say the word rape. I open my eyes. When will I have the courage to speak with my sister about her trauma rather than watching her suffer from a distance? Or having other men keep an eye on her when it should be her big brother doing the watching over? But at twenty-two, Gia is her own woman, and she’s given me the proverbial middle finger for meddling in her life more than I should have.

“None of that. He did other things, but never that.”

“When you’re ready to talk—”

“I won’t be, so please don’t bring it up again.”

A fair request.

“My apologies for missing our wedding night, Blaise. For not being there as you grieved your grandfather’s passing.”

I’m a selfish prick for leaving her when she needed someone around the most, business arrangement or not.

But it’s my selfishness that made me a millionaire by the age of twenty. Four years later and my drive for more money hasn’t died. In fact, I’m hungry to add to my growing billions. Marriage is a distraction I can’t afford to have.

Marriage entails compromising, concessions, and faithfulness. With the world at my feet, I can have any woman. Every woman I come across wants a piece of me. Why settle with one woman for life? Yeah, I’m a selfish and self-indulgent bastard like my father. I look like a younger version of him too. No wonder Gia doesn’t want anything to do with me.

My father would rather disown her than deal with Gia’s trauma. She’s a disgrace, he’d said before he slammed the door in mine and Gia’s faces. As though Gia was to blame for what happened to her. He would welcome me back with open arms, but only if I abandon Gia. I’m selfish, but I’m not cold. Fuck Dad and his plans for me assuming control of his shipping company when he retires.

“Don’t be sorry, Maddox. I’m not your responsibility. Anyway, a man like you has needs.”

Blaise’s soft voice brings me out of my anger for my father. He and I are alike, and someday, I’ll be like him. It’s the reason marriage and children aren’t in my future. Something bad will happen, and I’ll turn my back on them too, just like Dad did with Gia.

Having returned to my thoughts, I let the silence continue for too long, and Blaise takes it the wrong way.

“We should get out before we become raisins.”

Hurt on her face, and it cements what I believe of myself, that I’m not fit to be a husband to any woman. All I’m good for is making money and fucking women until they can’t think worth a damn.