“What happened earlier in the hallway? What exactly was that?” she says, and I can see the determination coursing through her.
Fuck yeah, baby, give me everything you’ve got.
“That was simply a husband and wife having a discussion,” I reply, my face deadpan.
“No, don’t do that,” she says as she points her finger in my face. “Don’t stand there and make out that it was nothing.”
“Well, if you’re so sure that it was something more, why don’t you enlighten me?”
She huffs, throwing her hands up. “Argh, you’re so fucking annoying.”
“MOUTH,” I say to her, raising my voice.
“Why do you have such an issue with me swearing?”
“I already told you,” I say in a low voice.
“Yeah, yeah, because your wife should be respected, blah, blah, blah.”
Oh, fuck me, she really does have a way of getting under my skin. I’m going to have to find a way to keep her mouth in check… maybe putting my dick in it will help?
“It’s not a good enough reason, and I call bullshit on all these goddamn rules you seem to throw out when you feel like it,” she continues, and I stay quiet as she works herself into some sort of frenzy. “I am my own person. Despite what you say, you do not own me, and I can say and do whatever the hell I want.
“You don’t get to be an asshole and then show me a moment of affection like you did earlier at our wedding reception, you don’t get to trap me in this life without giving me an explanation––”
“Except I can, and I have,” I interrupt her, and fuck if the fire doesn’t blaze in her eyes a bit more.
“And it’s not right. None of this right,” she fumes. “I don’t want to be some little wifey that keeps her mouth shut and gets down on her knees when it suits you. That’s not me, Nate. I don’t know how to do this…” Her voice trails off and it’s like she’s stuck in her own torment. I can see the frustration and confusion on her face. She doesn’t know what to feel, and as her husband, maybe I should make that right? Or is it too soon? I have no fucking clue, but I know that I don’t yet own her soul, and that is something I need because I am a fucking control freak, and when I love, I love hard, so giving her my heart is going to require more than what she is giving me.
“I can’t be this person. I feel like I’m losing my goddamn mind and I don’t know how to stop it,” she carries on speaking, her eyes focussed on the wall behind me. “Six months I’ve been here, and not once have you shown me affection like you did today, and I don’t know what to do with that.” Her head drops and I feel something uncomfortable stir inside of me. Christ, what is that? Compassion? Guilt? Fuck no, it can’t be…
“I don’t want to feel like I’m just here for your amusement. I don’t want to be treated like some good little pet that may get the odd pat on the back for behaving themselves. I can’t do it, and I don’t want to.
“This isn’t how my wedding night was supposed to be. It was supposed to be magical, one night where my husband showed me how much he loved me, and vice versa. I wasn’t meant to be sleeping in a room on my own whilst my husband was in another.”
I said I wanted to break her, and I think I’m starting to witness it happening. It’s sooner than I expected, but something has made her crumble tonight. I’ve made her crumble tonight. For her, I’ve taken away her dreams and replaced them with a nightmare that she will be living for the rest of her days. Because she is never leaving me, and I will make damn sure of it. The only thing is, am I ready to end her nightmare and be the man that she deserves?
My body makes the decision for me as I move towards her, taking her face in my hands and tilting her head up to look at me.
“Don’t,” she says as she tries to shrug out of my hold, but all that does is make me hold onto her a little bit tighter.
“Kat––”
“No,” she says, and this time she rips herself away from me, moving a few steps back. “You can’t do this to me, Nate.”
“So you’ve said, but I’m not doing anything.”
“You are,” she says, and more tears start to fall down her face. “But you’re too stubborn to see it.”
It’s the last thing she says to me before she turns and walks out of the bedroom door, closing it quietly behind her.
Chapter Eight
Nate
“You’ve been here for a couple of weeks now; don’t you think that you should drop the hostility a little bit?” I say to Kat as she sits opposite me at the dining table, picking at her food.
“I play the part when you need me to, but here, behind closed doors, I will act the way I want,” she retorts, spearing a piece of asparagus onto her fork angrily.
