She didn’t answer, and instead said, “Are you looking to hire a housekeeper? I could use the extra money.”

I cut my eyes at her, but she didn’t back off an inch.

She was sitting several feet away, wearing ridiculous slippers and a T-shirt that had seen better days. But the challenge in her eyes was a potent as any I’d faced.

It looked like she had gotten over the distance and shock of a couple of days ago and had moved to anger.

I didn’t give a fuck.

She could feel however she wanted to, but it didn’t change her new reality.

I decided to remind her of that.

“You might find it amusing, but my future wife doesn’t work. She won’t clean my floors, and she won’t clean anyone else’s either,” I said.

“Sounds like a lucky girl. I’ll give her my congratulations when I meet her,” Kayla said.

I felt my expression harden, her rejection stoking every possessive instinct I possessed. “Is that your attempt at a joke?” I asked.

She scoffed. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”

Like always, I felt my temper rise, but I kept it in check.

It was clear that we needed to get some things straight, and now was the time.

“I gave you some space, but that shit’s over now,” I said.

“You gave me some space? How fucking benevolent of you, Elias,” she said sarcastically.

She might have been sarcastic, was definitely angry, but she had no idea just how benevolent I had been.

As I’d held her in my bathtub, my only thought had been to keep her with me forever. I had only relented when I thought about Davit and what he might say.

He always told me I pushed too hard, too fast, and though my instinct now, like always, was to impose my will, I decided to take a different approach.

I would have to figure out how to make things work with Kayla, and after what she’d gone through with my father, I had figured a little space wouldn’t hurt.

But there were limits to my kindness.

Kayla should have known that by now, but if she didn’t, she would find out.

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“We’re engaged. What else would I be talking about?” I said.

She shook her head. “Oh that,” she said, as though it meant nothing.

“Yeah. That,” I replied.

“That was just some crap you said to get me away from your father. I already said thank you, but I don’t see what—”

“Some crap I just said?” I asked, my voice lowering.

Something in her shifted.

It was slight, almost imperceptible.

There was even a time I might have missed it.

I didn’t miss it now.

I knew Kayla and could see that the pieces were starting to fall into place for her.