He rolled his eyes this time. “It must be so simple to live in your black and white world, without nuance or subtlety to confuse things.”

She slapped a palm atop the periodical and drummed her nails on it, glaring at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He folded his arms across his chest. “You tried and convicted me in your head for a crime I didn’t commit.”

She leaned toward him, her eyes flashing with stark anger. “Don’t you dare attempt to make me feel insane. Did you or did you not admit to it?”

He tightened his arms and clenched his jaw. “I admitted to lying to you. I never admitted to cheating.”

She glared at him. “Parsing words as usual. Lying to one’s wife. What a charming trait. Regardless, as you said, let’s change the subject. What are these rules you want to set?”

Shaking off his frustration, Sebastian forced himself to take a deep breath. His wife could drive him mad more quickly than anyone. In more ways than one. But arguing with her was pointless. “First, I believe we should set a limit on the rules.”

Eyeing him warily, she nodded. “That seems reasonable. Let’s say…three each?”

He nodded too. “Very well. Ladies first.” He gave her a tight smile.

Veronica tapped her fingers against the top of the periodical again for a few moments before speaking. Her eyes flared with obvious enlightenment as she decided what she would say. “My first rule is that I don’t have to pretend to like you when Grandpapa is not present.”

Sebastian couldn’t stop his bark of laugher. He shook his head. “Heaven forbid. Fine. Then my first rule is you don’t have to pretend to like me, but you cannot be rude to me, or ignore me.”

“Fine,” she allowed. She leaned back against the emerald velvet squabs, a smile on her face, clearly warming to the subject. “My second rule is no kissing…on the lips.”

Sebastian frowned. “That’s preposterous. I’m going to take you to bed. How can we not kiss?”

She shrugged and arched a brow again. “I don’t know, and I don’t care, but that’s my rule.” She glared at him, daring him to defy her stipulation.

His nostrils flared. Damn it. Perhaps he shouldn’t have agreed to three rules. He was already regretting it. “My second rule is that you cannot have any other rules limiting what we do in bed…within reason, of course. Let’s say…anything we’ve done before is fair game.” He arched a brow, and met her gaze, daring her to recall the many times when he’d had her begging for more and gasping his name.

Pink exploded on her cheeks, and she jerked her head to the side to stare out the window. He could tell she was smoldering inside. “Fine, then I reserve my third rule for some time before the fortnight is out.”

He eyed her carefully. What was she planning? It couldn’t possibly be worse than ‘no kissing,’ could it? On second thought, he didn’t want to know. But he’d already agreed to the idea of setting three rules each. He couldn’t go back on his word. “Then I reserve the same,” he said. At least he might counteract her last rule with one of his own.