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Feeling a mix of anger at my wayward thoughts and relief that he wasn’t going to make any moves on me, I circled the bedroom, looking around. Something was off…something didn’t feel quite right.
It took me a moment, and then the hair on the back of my neck stood up. A few things in the room felt out of place, as if they were there randomly… from the mirror that didn’t fit the room’s theme to the ceiling fan that seemed to have been recently installed. Why was it there?
I pretended I didn’t notice but I paid attention to details like that. My heart sinking, I realized, there was only one reason.To hide cameras.
I was being watched.
CHAPTER TEN
Dario
I tried notto stare at her mouth. It was hard.
Her lips were two perfect rosebuds. I hadn’t properly kissed her at our wedding. I’d kept it fast and appropriate for the setting, not to mention that I was half-expecting her to slap me and run screaming in the opposite direction.
She’d spent our vow exchange staring at nothing just above my head. It had been subtle, but I’d noticed that she never looked at me. And our first dance together was stiff and uncomfortable.
It didn’t matter that I was trying my best to make our wedding day special for her. I’d given her what should have been the wedding of her dreams. At least, that’s what the wedding planner had thought, but Mya had been so mentally closed off that she hadn’t even noticed me.
Luckily the three-hundred people I invited were just acquaintances so I wouldn’t have to see any of them again. But damn, it still didn’t sit well with me to think my wife still couldn’t look at me.
Logically, I knew I was asking for a lot. I had forced her to marry me and these were the natural consequences of my actions.
Why had I expected some warmth or caring from her when I blackmailed her to be with me? My obsessions often blinded me to the needs of others. When I saw something I wanted, I did whatever I needed to do to possess it.
I understood that that was part of my problem. It was something I would need to work on, but I didn’t plan to change anytime soon.
And in Mya’s case, I would never change. Even though she barely spoke to me, left the room when I came in, and studiously ignored me during our entire honeymoon—even going as far as attempting to sleep in one of the vacant guest rooms instead of our shared bed, I enjoyed every moment in her presence.
Her steely glances at me when she thought I didn’t notice, were adorable. The way she rubbed the locket around her neck when she felt nervous was endearing. There was so much to like about her and so much more I wanted to learn about her—if she ever let me in.
I didn’t know how to put her at ease. I thought spending time alone at the mansion I’d rented for the better part of the year would be a good time for us to get to know each other, but aside from when we ate together, she stayed away from me.
In fact, when the housekeeping crew came back a few days after our wedding, she’d been elated to see them. One would have thought she’d just been united with old friends.
She’d taken a special interest in the groundskeeper. She kind of followed him around like a puppy asking him questions about the different types of plants.
For the first time ever, I was jealous of another man. A man who was around seventy-five years old, didn’t quite walk right, and was covered in dirt on a daily basis. This was my competition. I wanted to throw the old man in the water, but then she would think I was a monster.
Truthfully, I knew I only had myself to blame. I’d deliberately isolated her to get her to acknowledge me and it had backfired. I was conflicted. How could I reach her if she didn’t even want to be near me?
Laughter rang through the air, and I tried to keep the frown off my face. It was Mya, laughing uproariously over something the groundskeeper was saying.
Unable to help myself, I stood up and went looking for them. I never thought my competition would be an elderly man with one foot in the grave.
Following the sound of their laughter, I found them in the kitchen with the lead cook and a few of her assistants. They were all laughing so hard that they didn’t even notice me until I cleared my throat.
The cook’s eyes grew large, the groundskeeper mumbled an excuse and left, and the assistants to the cook rushed off behind her, attempting to look busy.
Mya didn’t even bat an eye.
“Thanks for the bread recipe, Lola,” she said to who I guessed was the cook.
I was correct. The cook smiled at her, glanced at me, and then quickly walked off to the walk-in refrigerator and closed the door. Was I that intimidating?
Mya shook her head. “You sure know how to clear a room.” She stood up then and walked out of the kitchen, past me.
I ignored her comment and followed, catching up with her easily. It wasn’t my fault that I intimidated most people I met just by existing. “I was going to go visit the greenhouse and was wondering?—”