“Jesus Christ, you almost gave me a heart attack!” I yell, grasping my chest as my heart does its best to jump out of it. “What the heck are you doing sitting here in the dark?”
Gregory rises with a predatory grace that leaves my mouth dry and prowls my way, his eyes heating as he takes in my shorts and the tank I’m wearing.
Totally inappropriate for the weather and now melded to my skin by the rain.
“Waiting for my errant bride. You said you’d be home—”
“Tuesday. And here I am.”
“It’s ten at night! Who the hell drives all this way, in the rain, at this hour! It’s dangerous to travel so late,” he roars, his lips thinning.
Uh-oh.
“I went on a boat ride, and it took longer than I expected. Chill out, Greg. I’m here, as summoned, in one whole piece.”
I don’t tell him about the idiot who’d almost run us off the road a mile out of the Vineyard. I’m dumb, but not that dumb.
“Han,” he groans, and I hear the frustration there when I fold my arms across my chest and raise a regal brow.
See, I can also be stubborn and uncommunicative. I’ve decided to keep him off balance with oversharing and then silence. Maybe it’ll give him a taste of his own medicine and he’ll realize how out of sorts his mood swings make me feel.
At the very least it’ll be fun to watch him wonder what I’ll do from one minute to the next. If I’m gonna be out of control and drifting, the least I can do is return the favor.
“Can we talk about the wedding now?” he finally asks, and I restrain my grin.
He’s asking now instead of ordering me like he did the night he’d given me a resized ring. Asshole.
“Sure, just as soon as I get a drink. Want one?” I throw over my shoulder, enjoying his expression.
I like Gregory confused. It’s…entertaining.
“Han…sure,” he finally relents.
When I walk back into the living room and hand him a glass of wine, I have to bite my lip to stifle a smile. He’s eyeing me askance, almost as if he’s seeing me for the first time, and it’s just so liberating I can hardly stand it.
“So, the wedding. Did you invite your family?” I ask casually, taking the seat beside his and seeing his eyes flare in surprise.
I want to be as close to him as possible when I put the screws to him. I have every intention of doing the exact opposite of what he expects, for as long as his control will allow, just to see that look of doubt on his face.
I really like not being the only confused human being in this relationship.
Gregory Lucas is mine for the taking. He just doesn’t know it yet.
“Han, I can’t…They’re not…My family is not—”
I sigh dramatically and take a healthy sip of my wine, leaving him to flounder a little. He’ll get his bearings eventually and just flat out refuse, but for now I want to see how far he’ll take this soft approach he seems to be employing with me.
“They’re not exactly what one would expect.”
I’m expecting stuck up assholes who’ll blame me for the breakup of his engagement and call me a…not so nice name. And I am totally prepared for it. I have Nana at my back, after all, and I have total faith in her powers of defense.
She may be crazy, but she’s scrappy. She’ll take out anyone who so much as sneezes on me the wrong way. Plus, Chris will be at the weeding, and that redhead’s temper perfectly matches her hair.
“Okay. Invite them anyway.”
“Goddammit! I want the weeding to be a good one, not a total fiasco!” he rages, springing to his feet to start the inevitable pacing, and glares. “They’ll turn it into some social event of the year with media and people we don’t even know!”
I don’t see the problem here, considering the circus he’d been arranging for his marriage to Selena. I narrow my eyes the slightest bit before shrugging nonchalantly.
“They come, or I don’t. It’s that simple. Now for the dress,” I say, ignoring his open mouth and the wine dripping onto my immaculate floor when his hand slackens. “I was thinking I could get Nana’s dress altered.”
I hold in a laugh when he just nods, because he hasn’t seen Nana’s dress, and for it to fit, it’ll need a lot of alteration and maybe some design changes.
I’d love to see how he gets that done in two days before we have to fly to his hometown. Have I said yet how much I’m enjoying throwing him off balance?
I should have done this weeks ago and saved myself needless heartache.
“Nana’s dress?”
I see him swallow, and I stiffen my lips, jumping to my feet to dash to her closet before a laugh really does bubble out.