“Yes! I’m not going to do this Rais! I don’t have my purse, I don’t have makeup, I don’t know what’s going on, I don’t have my computer so that I can work…” she stopped and took a breath. “I don’t like the way you’re treating me!”
He leaned back, his mind dismissing the fact that she’d just hung up on the French Prime Minister. “How am I treating you?” he asked softly. He wasn’t sure if he was irritated with her or amused. Possibly both.
“Ever since this morning…” she paused and thought for a moment, “No! Since last night, you’ve just been plowing through, making unilateral decisions about my life. I had things to do today and it doesn’t matter if you think my agenda was wrong! You don’t get to tell me what is right and wrong!”
“Even if I’m right?” he asked smoothly, shifting slightly so that he could better enjoy her fury.
“No!” Then she closed her eyes and shook her head. “I mean yes!” Another shake of her head and she huffed a bit in confusion. “No! You don’t get to object to my agenda, even if you’re right! I would love your business advice, but I won’t even discuss Jesek business if you think that I have to follow every one of your business edicts! This is my business! I will run it, along with my partners, in the best way I feel is right! And no, you don’t get to interfere!”
He lifted an eyebrow. “What if…”
“No!” she stopped him before he could finish the sentence. “Under no circumstances are you allowed to interfere! And for the record, I have not agreed to marry you, so call off the bodyguards! I won’t let them follow me around. I’m not even sure if I’m going to sleep with you again! Not with the way you’re treating me. I’m not an idiot, Rais! I’m an intelligent, competent woman with a good education and I can think through problems on my own.”
“Joline, you’re making too much of this.”
She tilted her head. “Am I? Then where is my purse so that I can make phone calls? I told you hours ago that I needed to talk to my New York store manager to make sure she could cover everything today but did you listen? No! You disappeared on the flight and then made phone calls for hours.”
“My business is…”
She held up her hand to stop him. “I don’t care about your business, Rais. Yes, you are very important, but if you were about to imply, in any way, that your business is more important than mine, then you’d better revise your thinking. Because Jesek is very important to my partners and me. No more important than any oil deal or business deal that you are making.”
“I beg to differ,” he replied smoothly, starting to become angry.
“You can beg all you want,” she replied and shrugged one shoulder. “To you and to the people you work with, it is more important. But to me? It isn’t. To the people who rely on me? My business is more important.”
“You won’t have this burden…”
“Stop right there!” she interrupted yet again, her teeth clenching with frustration. “Don’t you dare say that I won’t need to work after we’re married. There is absolutely no way I will marry a man who thinks that women don’t want to work, that we’re all flighty children who should be cosseted and cared for by the big, strong man! I’m sure there are women who are like that, but I’m not. I love working. My job, my career,” she emphasized, “is thrilling. Every day there are new problems, new challenges. I have plans. My partners have dreams and suggestions and the three of us work together to build our company.”
“And it is impressive,” he stated, trying to calm her down.
“Exactly! It is impressive! We’ve accomplished a lot!”
“So why not let me take over for a while and relax? Enjoy life a bit more?” he asked her, not understanding why she was angry. He was giving her every woman’s dream and she was throwing it right back at him.
The limousine pulled up outside of a building on one of the most famous streets for shopping in London. “Where are we?” she asked him, distracted and confused.
Rais looked out the window and smiled. “This is your surprise,” he said and stepped out. He held his hand out to her to help her out of the limousine but she ignored it, stepping out and looking around. “What is this, Rais?”
“This is your London storefront,” he told her and put a hand to the small of her back to guide her into the building. “The lease is up on the current company and they don’t have the sales to maintain it. It is yours,” he told her as if she should be apologizing for her rant in the car.