The Medici Mistress: Nothing and no one would stop him from having her. (20 page)

“Please allow the chef to choose,” Niko made the decision for her, his eyes scanning her face. He nodded at the maitre d, unintentionally dismissive.

“You’re still struggling with boundaries, I can see.” She said sharply.

He leaned forward in his chair, his large frame making her feel small and fragile. “You always liked the degustation option.”

“I like to make my own decisions.”

He laughed. “Come on, Bianca. Don’t make drama where there is none. You and I both know you had plenty of autonomy in our marriage. Perhaps too much.”

“How can you even say that? How can a woman in the twenty first century have too much autonomy?”

“Your autonomy led you into another man’s arms. Perhaps if I’d kept you on a tighter lead…”

Her cheeks glowed at his suggestive comment but underlying that, panic swelled in her gut. Again, the temptation to confess everything about Simon filled her, and the truth was on the tip of her tongue, but one look at his cold face changed her mind.

With a voice that was devoid of life, she said, “What did you want to know when you suggested this dinner?”

Nik pressed his lips together in frustration. At least when they were sparring, she was real, flesh and blood woman, not hiding behind this veneer of despondence that made him want to shake her.

“Fill in the last year of your life for me. Perhaps leaving out the sexual conquests. Though we’ve both moved on, I still have a husband’s possessive streak, and I’d rather not imagine you warming the beds of other men.”

Hurt anger rose through her. “You’re one to talk,” she whispered harshly. “I daresay you’ve hardly been enjoying the life of a monk since we split.”

“Ah, and there you would be wrong,
cara.
I am a traditional man. When we married, I took those vows seriously. I have not broken them, and do not intend to, until our divorce is final.”

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