The Tycoon's Marriage Exchange (11 page)

Dammit!  Why couldn’t she just accept this relationship with emotional reserve like he was doing and not become invested? 

If he would just keep his distance, she could deal with it.  She coul
d remain aloof.  She didn’t
want to fall in love with a man who considered her nothing more than a business deal. 

Hector watched her,
noting
the frantic look in her eyes and her arms wrapped around her stomach as if she were going to be sick and his desire transformed into anger.  He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. 
“
Kallista
, what are you expecting to happen with this marriage?” he asked, trying to control his
lust inspired temper
.

She shivered and turned away, not noticing his jaw clench
as
he
watched
her actions.  “I thought we could be companions. 
We could be friends, Hector.  I’m a very good listener, I’m a great hostess as you’ve seen….” She thought frantically, trying to come up with other positives she could give him that might help her convince him that she wasn’t a useless female appendage.  “
I am sincerely appreciative of your help…”

His hand sliced the air, dismissing her list of pointless assets. 
“
I don’t need a hostess, Kallista!  I can hire someone for that.  And you can damn well f
orget my help for your father
as well
.  I would have done that for him even without marrying you.  This was the only way I could get him to allow my assistance.
  What are you expecting from our marriage?
”

His words crushed her even more
, but she tried to hide the wound that had just been sliced open with his callous disregard for anything she could offer to him as a wife
.  She stood up straight and glared back at him, wanting to hurt him just as much as she was hurting.

He interrupted her before she could say anything though
, seeing the pain shining through her eyes as she glared back at him
.  “I didn’t mean that the way it came out,” he said with a deep sigh.

Kallista straightened her shoulders and faced him with renewed energy, not going to give in just because he looked like he’d just kicked his pet dog.  Because that dog was her and she was still trying to figure out how she could survive this marriage if he didn’t want the best she had to offer him. 
“How did you mean it?”

He struggled, trying to figure out what to say that wouldn’t hurt her
tender
feelings.  If he’d learned anything over the past evening, it was that
Kallista
liked the ideal and wanted some sort of fantasy. 
From a very early age,
Hector had
learned
to deal with the hard reality of life all the time and it was rarely pretty. 
Life was hard, it was painful and it was usually ugly.  With a thud, he realized that he wanted to pro
tect her from that ugliness.  He
wanted to give this one woman, this beautiful, sweet and sensitive woman what she wanted.  He wanted to give her the fantasy.  And he damn well didn’t know how. 

A part of him wanted to lash out at her and tell her to grow up and realize that the world was full of people who wanted to do bad things.  But the larger part of him knew that he would protect her from the cruel world as much as possible.  His life had been hell at times and he preferred
Kallista
to be the innocent island, the unsullied anchor he wanted to come home to every day. 

He put his hands on his hips and moved closer to her, his eyes challenging her to move away from him.  Thankfully, she stood still and he stopped when he was about a foot from her, wanting her to understand what he was going to say but not wanting her to run and hide, which is exactly what he suspected she wanted to do at this very moment. 

“
Kallista
, we will have a real marriage.  You’re going to be in my bed, every night and I can guarantee that you won’t be looking elsewhere for satisfaction.”

Kallista
cringed at the idea, both of him touching her and of anyone else touching her.  She didn’t like either scenario, nor did she want him going to another woman for what she might want him to come to her about.  That was completely discombobulated, but she didn’t care. 

She remembered the question she’d had earlier in the evening, just as he was picking her up. “Do you have a mistress?” she asked, looking at his face, trying to determine if he lied to her.

“No, I don’t have a mistress,” he responded quickly, definitively.  “Do you want me to?”

“No!” she gasped and turned half away from him. 

He sighed and shook his head.  “Kallista, you can’t be repulsed by my touch and yet angry if I have a mistress.  The world doesn’t work that way.”

She stepped back, her fingers holding her head as she tried to step away from him
, from the jealousy she was feeling at the image of another woman touching him or of him making another woman feel the way she did when he simply walked into a room.  She loved knowing that he was coming to meet her, to pick her up and that he looked for her when he entered a room
.
  She’d watched as he walked into a
room, loved it when his eyes searched for and found her, his long, muscular legs bringing her to him and not allowing anyone to stop him until he’d reached her side. 

She knew she had to explain things to him, to help him understand what she felt and why she reacted to his touch so…violently.  She stumbled on her words, and she was grateful when he patiently waited while she worked through her thoughts so she could explain these sensations to him. 
“It really isn’t that I find you repulsive.  And that’s probably the issue,” she tried to explain
, her voice barely above a whisper and her eyes unable to meet his because of her
awkwardness
.  “When you touch me, it scares me.  And I don’t really understand it at all.”

He was looking down at her, waiting but when she didn’t continue, he had to clarify.  “Do you mean you get scared that I’ll hurt you?” he asked, not sure what she was telling him. 

She shook her head and pushed a stray lock of hair back behind her ear.  “No.  Absolutely not.  I know you won’t hurt me.  You’d never touch me in anger and I trust you to keep me safe if someone else were trying to hurt me.”

“Good!  So what about my touch scares you?”

She shrugged and took a deep breath.  “I can’t really explain it since I’ve never really felt this before.  But when you…touch me…even if it’s just a casual touch…I get…weird.”  She looked at him, wondering if he understood. 

“Weird how?”

“You do things to me, Hector.  It’s not….comfortable.”

He listened and couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  “Are you telling me that your body reacts to mine and you like how it feels?”

“No.  I’m saying that it’s embarrassing.”

“Because you want me to touch you?”

“No.  I don’t like feeling like that!  I don’t like being out of control!  I don’t want to lose my train of thought and that happens when you touch me.  I don’t like it when I’m….flustered!”  There!  She’d said it.  She had finally explained and he could make of it what he wanted. 

She dared to look up at him after that and the look in his eyes was so terrifying, she stepped back and almost fell over the ottoman that was behind her.  She couldn’t take her eyes off of him as he slowly approached her. 

“
Kallista
…” he said but she shook her head and covered her ears.

The heat in his eyes, the triumphant look that he had about him just infuriated her further.  He wanted her out of control!  He wanted her to be some sort of simpering idiot!  How demoralizing, she thought angrily! 
“No, don’t say anything.  Just leave me alone!”

With that, she turned on her heel and ran as fast as she could in the heels she had chosen to wear tonight.  If she’d known what would happen, she would have selected running shoes, but she couldn’t berate herself about the selection now.  She needed space, fresh air and she needed desperately to get away from Hector and that trium
phant, heated, terrifying look.

“
Kallista
, stop!” he called out
behind her
but she didn’t heed his warning.  She only ran faster
, worried that he would catch her and probably touch her
.  When she was out in the foyer, she looked around, trying to figure out what to do, where to go. 
She felt trapped and heard his footsteps coming down the marble hallway.  She had to get out of here but she didn’t have a car!  Why hadn’t she insisted on driving herself here?  Why had she let him pick her up?  But she hadn’t known that they would be having this conversation, hadn’t realized that he would insist on probing into feelings she didn’t want to discuss!

She spotted the keys
from his black, powerful car
on the table and grabbed them, thinking all along that this was the stupidest thing she’d ever done. 
As she heard him call out to her again,
she
found that
she
didn’t care
about stupidity at this point
.  She grabbed her purse, tucked it under her arm and ran out the front door and down the steps
, praying that she wouldn’t trip in these ridiculous shoes
. 
Ironically, she thought back to when he’d picked her up several hours ago.  She’d been trying to manufacture a slip so that she could fall into his arms,
just
so that she could feel his strength wrap around her and now she was running from exactly that scenario.  How ridiculous was she now? 

She didn’t wait to examine those contradictory thought
s, but raced ahead with her poorly
thought out plan. 
With a flick of her wrist, she opened the car door and slid
into the soft leather of the driver’s seat, already feeling the power of the vehicle and she hadn’t even started the engine
.  As she sat there, she wondered what in the world she was doing?  Was she crazy?  She was literally stealing this m
an’s car!
  And not just any car, but one that cost more than several years
’
of her salary! 

She glanced up at the front door to Hector’s magnificent house and there he stood, coming down the stairs
with his powerful strides
and she didn’t think any longer.  She simply reacted.  And her gut reaction was to slam the key into the ignition then ram it into gear.  She took off with wheels screeching and she barely heard Hector’s call for her to stop. 

It wasn’t until she was back at her apartment that she slowed down, not sure what to do now.  Had she really just stolen his car?  Was she that brazen?  That
foolish
? 

Was he
livid
? 

No doubt, she thought and let her forehead fall onto the steering wheel.  What had she done?  Good grief, she was acting like a spoiled brat who hadn’t gotten her prize for being a good girl. 

And what had she admitted to Hector
during those last few minutes of that uncomfortable
exchange
?  Oh my goodness! She’d just told him that she might actually like his touch?  That she was excited when he touched her?  So excited that she wasn’t sure what to do. 

Maybe he hadn’t understood.  Maybe he’d been so irritated with her pulling back, of her cringing, that he hadn’t understood what she’d been telling him. 

Then again, even an idiot would be able to decipher that she was a pathetic virgin afraid of her own body’s responses. 

She laid her head down on the steering wheel and groaned at her absurd reactions. 

How silly!  What a juvenile reaction to a situation on so many levels.  She was a grown woman who had
professional
responsibilities and a good job.  She threw herself into dangerous situations
for work
all the time in an attempt to get a better story than her competitors so why was she so afraid of what Hector could make her feel? 

Her cell phone buzzed at that moment
, interrupting her mental castigations
.  Glancing down, she realized that Hector had just texted her and she hesitated to read the message
, petrified of what he would say to her
. 

In the end, she forced herself to look at the message, bracing herself for his harsh reprimand or criticism of her actions.  She deserved whatever he tossed her way, she told herself, taking a deep breath before looking at the
brief communication. 
“Enjoy the ride?  I’ll see you at the church tomorrow.” 

She blinked and re-read the words. 
That was it?  He wasn’t angry? 

Kallista
’s head ached with trying to figure that man out.  She’d seen him when he was storming after her.  He’d been furious and now he was asking if she’d enjoyed the car theft?