Chapter 10

The rumble of his voice coursed through me like an electric current. I held a hand over my chest as I turned around, having stopped myself from launching an attack at him. "You scared me."

One look at his face and I knew I had said the wrong thing. Emerald eyes seared through my body and I could have sworn the man wanted to kill me. He closed in on me, towering over me intimidatingly. The man had to be at least half a foot taller than me earlier when I was wearing six-inch high heels. Now that I was barefoot? He must see me as an ant as he looked down at me.

"Should I be sorry I scared you?" I could have sworn I saw a smirk on his face but it was lost before I could quite catch it, leaving behind that fiery gaze that made my insides twitch. Forget an ant. I was prey in his eyes and he was looking forward to having a taste of me. At least that was what I thought when his eyes dropped to my chest, but only for a moment before they turned into a glare.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I…" I was tongue-tied.

"Cat got your tongue?" His voice rumbled in my insides.

"I couldn't sleep. I came to…" I couldn't for the life of me figure out what I was doing here. I knew damn well what I had intended in coming here, but I couldn't speak it out. This man made me nervous.

His voice lowered even further as he inched way too close. "Having trouble sleeping, huh? Should I help you with that?"

Something told me I didn't want to know how he intended to help me. Though something else—my hardening nipples perhaps—convinced me otherwise. I wanted to know what he had in mind. Scratch that. I wanted him to show me.

'Damn it, Isabella.' I gave myself an inward pep talk. 'You are a married woman.'

The thought of Max worked better than a bucket of ice thrown over my body. I instinctively wanted to take a step back but before I did, Tristan caught me by my waist. My heart lurched in my throat as Max disappeared from my mind as fast as he had crept in.

"The shards."

I nodded, not quite registering what he had said. My face burned up when I realized just how tightly my body was pressed against his, my boobs were practically plastered onto his hard chest.

"Oh." I steadied myself and pushed a lock of hair behind my ear, finally remembering the broken wine glass behind me.

"I'm sorry I broke it." I quickly said. "And I'm sorry I came here even though you said not to."

"How disobedient."

While his voice was threatening, his gaze made me imagine for a fleeting second that he was more likely to teach me a lesson in other ways than making me buy a bottle of wine to replace it.

I cleared my throat. "I'll clean up and buy another bottle of wine tomorrow. It's the least I can do."

Without waiting for him to say something else that my stupid brain would overanalyze, I dashed the door—but not without stubbing my little toe against the bottom of a bookshelf.

…..

"Ow!" I yelped when I touched my toe. It still hurt by the time I got to my room.

I had made a fool out of myself. The man already hated me. What was I thinking, going right into the very place he had warned me to stay away from? Besides, didn't he go to sleep? His appearance in the library made me question whether he had known I would want to snoop and had deliberately gone there to catch me in the act.

I glanced down at my boobs. "Which part of 'married woman' don't you guys understand?" I sighed. Not even six hours after telling him I'm married, my body had completely betrayed me. He must think I was an unreliable, cheating wife.

He should meet my husband, I grumbled inwardly at the thought of cheating.

Great. I had gone to the library to find something that would help me sleep, and now I had more reasons to be unable to sleep. It was going to be one long night.

….

The following morning, the first thing I did was find out whether Tristan had left for work. I was glad to find out that he had already left, and it was just me and Rory in the house.

I made her breakfast according to her father's specific instructions and plated it for her, then went online to check out what had become of my worsening reputation. I was deeply focused on the comments everyone had about me when my phone rang.

It was a new number, so I hesitantly answered it.

"Hello?"

"How's it going, Belle?"

I shut my eyes. Did he just call me that? Surely he had my name wrong. That had to be it since the contrary would mean he was calling me 'belle' as in 'beautiful', and that was insane, right? I was crazy to even think about it.

"Are you there?" His voice brought me back to reality.

"Yes. Can I do anything for you, Mr. Lexington?"

"Did you clean after yourself and get that bottle of wine you promised?"

I bit my bottom lip. I hadn't, but I wasn't about to anger him after doing the only thing he'd told me not to do. "I did."

A chuckle on the other end made me think he knew I was lying. But how would he know? As long as I got it before his return, I would be safe.

"If there's nothing else, I should hang up." I ended the call before he could say anything and had to applaud myself for my courage. I was messing with a man I knew was dangerous but at the same time, I groaned. Why was my body reacting to his voice? Just how pathetic could I be?