Page 32 of Bastard

Silence. Though his jaw begins to tick.

“I married you, only you,” he finally rumbles. “Any other personal questions you’d like answered, just ask.”

Just you. Only you.

Mine.

I feel the blood drain from my face. No. Stop right now. Don’t go there, Luciana.

I hear him sigh. “How badly do you want to return to that village of yours?”

“Very badly,” I admit.

“I’ll make that happen for you.” He folds his arms across his chest. “Take a seat. We need to talk.”

Stunned, I slide off his desk and move around it to sit in a chair. My returning to Nmimpi is too tempting to resist. Is his promise for real? Or, considering his earlier anger at Diego, just a ploy to get me to obey?

He picks up a remote and switches on the lights.

I immediately wish he kept us in the dark. Despite the hour, he’s wearing a finely tailored black suit with a pale green dress shirt unbuttoned at the throat. He’s tan from time spent outdoors, shirtless.

It’s hard not to wonder what his bigger, more badass physique looks like beneath the material.

I fall back in my chair as he stands, then he makes me wait while he gathers up the papers from the floor. Slowly, meticulously, he stacks them into a neat pile. He likes things orderly. Hates surprises. And whenever you trick yourself into believing you’ve won the smallest of victories, he strikes back.

Like now.

With the papers at long last piled precisely as he wants them, he settles into his seat and allows a tense silence to fill the room. I absolutely, positively hate when he does this. And it infuriates me he knows it—his lazy smirk confirms it.

I’m tempted to lean over the desk and send the stack flying again. “What do you want so we can get this over with?”

“Still an impatient hothead like your brother, I see.”

“Still a hardened man who assumes he answers to no one.”

He doesn’t deny it. I frown as he picks up a pen and begins tapping it on the wooden surface. Another annoying habit of his.

Tap.Tap.Tap.

“Let’s hear your version of what happened in Malawi.”

“I awoke to gunfire. Donovan and I met behind a hut and then escaped into the savannah. Your man found us and brought us to you.”

“You woke up alone.”

My eyebrows pitch. Damn him.

“Yourfriendwas lucky to have come along for the ride.”

“Boyfriend.”

“If you say so.”Tap.Tap.Tap. “Were they the first armed visitors to show up in the village?”

“No.” I bite my lip and wonder why he’s asking me. “Tight-Lipped has reported back to you about the other men, so why ask?”

He nods his head. “Tight-Lipped is fitting.”

“The man you, not Diego, sent to watch over me.”