Chapter 10
Limits and Sparks
Killian’s pov-
I sat at the dining table, the morning news splayed in front of me and a steaming cup of Earl Grey in my hand. The quiet of the house was just what I love a peaceful haven before the usual mayhem of the office day ahead.
I had scarcely skimmed the headline when I heard the quiet shuffle of footsteps. I didn’t have to look up to know it was Fiona. The scent had given her away already. Sweet. Unmistakable.
She stepped closer and came to a halt by the table. “Good morning,” she said gently.
I didn’t raise my head. “hm,” was what I offered instead.
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She took a seat, and when she did, I looked up as if by instinct.
And then I saw it.
The dress.
Tight. Short. Hugging her body in ways that would make heads turn. And those bare shoulders, the gentle slope of her neck – it was distracting. Unnecessarily so. My focus sharpened, and something churned inside my broadening chest.
I had no way to intercept the words before they escaped.
“Are you going there to seduce the workers, or are you going to work?”
Her entire body froze. Just for a second. Then she swung around to face me, eyes wide, and shocked.
“What do you mean by that? What are you saying?” she snapped, her voice wavering slightly.
That was when I realized how harsh my words had been. But rather than apologizing, I allowed my guard to go higher.
“Go change your clothes,” I said coldly.
She blinked at me as if I had slapped her. “I don’t understand. What’s wrong with my dress? What I am putting on is okay. So don’t soften your words tell me what you meant by I’m going to seduce some man.”
I didn’t answer right away.
–
Not because I had nothing to say.
But because I was already regretting my irritation leaking out like that. And yet I couldn’t take it back–not with the way she was looking at me, as if she was challenging me as if I was some possessive husband.
“I won’t repeat myself anymore,” I said, dropping the teacup. “Go and change your clothes.”
Her gaze was on me, face falling dark and taut.
“I’m an adult,” she said, slowly, in a voice low and sharp. “Even if all of this is just for show, you don’t have joint custody of me. You can’t control me. I’ll do what I want, wear what I want and go where I want. This is my cloth, and I’m putting it on.”
Something in her clenched jaw and the stubborn lift of her chin hit me in the gut. Pary frustration, and part admiration.
She wasn’t weak. Not at all.
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Chapter 10
But she, too, had no idea what she was stepping into.
I leaned in a little, keeping my voice low so I would cut through the silence that was hanging between us.
“You need to realize that you have two identiies. First, you’re my wife – contract or no contract. One, you’re coming to work at my company. Not the other way around. So you need to listen to me.”
“I never wanted to work for your company!” Fiona barked out, her voice unyielding. “I wanted to go out and see if I could find a job. You offered me the spot in your company.”
I certainly did not expect her words to hit as hard as they did. I looked at her, jaw clenched.
Her eyes blazed with anger, lips quaking–not cowering, but mad as hell. Her fists balled at her sides as she stood her ground. The dress – fitted at her waist, molded to her shape like a second skin–fueled the turmoil in my brain.
It wasn’t even as if she was naked halfway. It wasn’t indecent. But it showed off her shape in a way that awakened a primal instinct in me. The curve of her hips, the smooth lines of her thighs. That damn slit all the way down her leg when she walked. And the neckline… not too low, but just enough.
She looked cold. Sharp. Seductive in a way I hated. Not because she was attempting to seduce anybody – but because it wasn’t for me.
She wasn’t mine.
But anyone else seeing her like that – admiring, gawking, whispering about her as she passed, just the thought of it, made my blood boil.
And when she hurled those words at me as if I had forced her into doing something against her will, the tension snapped.
I slammed the paper on the table loudly, stood up and began to move without thinking.
She flinched for a second, her eyes widening, but didn’t move. We glared at each other across the dining room.
I walked toward her. Swift. Silent. My jaw clenched tightly, my hands in fists, my feelings barely concealed.
She opened her mouth, perhaps to say something else – perhaps to scream- but I didn’t give her a chance. I seized her wrist not too hard, but enough to halt her and dragged her along with me.
“Killian–let go of me!” she screamed, kicking her legs as I pulled her up the steps.
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.
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Words would only make it worse. I didn’t even know what I wanted to say. My only thought was I didn’t want her to go out looking like that. Not to my office. Not around my staff. And certainly not when I could hardly keep my own head straight when looking at her.
I opened her bedroom door and pushed her in. “Change,” I said coldly. “Into something professional.”
I closed the door before she could throw another fit at me, before she could shoot one of her sharp words at me.
Hard.
Almost immediately, she started banging her fists against the wood. “Let me out!” she shouted, hitting it with the side of her fist. “You bastard! You absolute–bastard!”
I stood there for a moment listening to her from the other side, my back pressed against the door.
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3:02 pm
Chapter 10
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The corners of my lips twitched.
A smirk fluttered onto my face before I quickly swallowed it down. The desperate glimmer of amusement in my eye faded to nothing as I cleared my throat and pushed my face back to blank.
This was nothing to joke about. Nothing. I had crossed a line. I knew that. But somehow, her fury, her fire… it provoked something dangerous in me.
I went back down, sat and picked up my tea. Now it was lukewarm, but I drank it anyway.
The newspaper was crumpled where I had dropped it, but I smoothed it out and attempted to refocus.
I read the same paragraph three times and didn’t comprehend a word.
I heard her footsteps above. Her pacing. Her frustration. Then silence.
I sat back in the chair and checked my watch.
A few minutes passed.
Then I heard the quiet click of heels on the stairs. 人
For some inexplicable reason, my heart began to race.
I flipped through the paper, as if I wasn’t interested – but I was listening. Every step. Every rustle. Every breath.
And then I heard her coming down the last few stairs.
What I saw when I looked up stunned me yet again.
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