Page 28 of Accidental Groom

“Because I’m getting ready for a bath, you absolute lunatic,” I snap. My fingers close around the comforter on my bed, and I yank, pulling it enough to at least cover half of me.

“I waited?—”

“For what, thirty seconds?” The anger, shockingly, feelsgood— far better than the confusion and vulnerability that’s been eating me alive for two days. “You could have called out. You could have come over earlier and actually helped instead of leaving me to handle the movers alone.”

His gaze narrows. “I wasbusy.”

“Well, so was I, but you don’t see me barging into your house when you’re naked to demand things of you.”

He takes a single step into the room, and my breath catches, my jaw steeling against the almost predatory way he moves. “You want to know why I actually came over?”

“Iwantyou to leave.”

He ignores me. “I was going to inform you that dinner’s been ready for an hour now, while I’ve patiently waited for you to reply to me. I thought maybe we could try to have a civil conversation about how this whole thing is going to work since you’rehere.” His voice drops lower, more controlled, but I can hear the irritation simmering beneath. “But you’d rather throw things at me than listen.”

“Civil? You didn’t even knock on my bedroom door. How is that civil? You just barged in like you own it?—”

“Idoown it.”

The words hang in the air between us like a bomb, crackling, threatening, counting down, down, down. “Excuse me?”

He at least has the brains to look like he regrets saying it, but he doesn’t take it back. “This is my house, Elena. My property. I’m trying to be accommodating, but?—”

“But what? I should just be grateful for whatever scraps of privacy you decide to give me?” My hands shake against the comforter, whether from cold or anger, I can’t tell. “Is that how this works? You get to walk into my space whenever you want because you technically own it?”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?” I take a step forward, forgetting for a moment that I’m naked and only half-covered, that I should be embarrassed. “ThatI’mjust another piece of property you own?”

“Stop.” His voice is sharp enough to cut glass. “You know that’s not it.”

“No,” I snap. “You want to know why I didn’t answer my phone? Because for three hours, I’ve been trying to make this place feel like somewhere I can live instead of a museum, that I’m not just an annoying presence you’ll have to deal with, that I’m not just someone to take pity on because my parents suck and this whole merger isinsane. I’ve been trying tobreathe.”

His eyes darken, his gaze fixed wholly on my face with an intensity that sets me on edge. “Elena.”

“Don’t.” I hold up a hand, clutching the comforter with the other. “And don’t look at me like that. It’s not fair.”

His gaze flicks down over me again, lingering on the side of my hips that aren’t quite covered, my exposed thighs, my shoulders. “Like what?” he asks, his voice quieter now.

Like you want me.

Like you’re remembering what we did two nights ago.

Like…

The silence stretches between us, charged and dangerous, his chest rising and falling with each careful breath. His hands are clenched at his sides like he’s fighting something.

This is exactly what he wantednotto happen, what he said couldn’t happen. But he’s standing here, staring at me still like that doesn’t go against all of it, and it makes heat pool low in my belly despite my anger.

I lift my chin, meeting his stare. “Like you’re about to break your own stupid rules.”

His nostrils flare. For a moment, I think he might step closer, might reach for me the way he did in the penthouse suite. The air between us crackles like I’m standing too close to a live wire, but then something shutters in his expression.

He takes a step back.

“Dinner’s in the main house,” he says, his jaw tight, his voice carefully controlled again. “Whenever you’re ready.” He turns on his heel and grabs the door handle.

“Harry—”