In the kitchen, Elizabeth was looking over a piece of paper on the kitchen table. A man roughly the size of a small house leaned over her, nodding and laughing. She was laughing too. She looked stunning when she laughed, her reddish hair spilling into her face, cheeks pink. I remember her looking like that as she rode me and I gritted my teeth. I couldn’t tell whether it was from arousal or jealousy.
I decided it was neither.
“Elizabeth!” I bellowed over the noise.
Her attention darted to me. So did that of the hulking monstrosity beside her. He rose up to his full height and crossed his arms, staring at me. I didn’t care. I wasn’t afraid of him, much as he might be trying to intimidate me.
Elizabeth scrambled to her feet, murmured something to the man, and strode toward me. “Yes, Mr. Bentley?”
She looked up at me through her eyelashes. Innocent.
How badly I wanted to change that. Finish the work I’d started.
“Why are there a thousand goddamn contractors in the kitchen?” I asked, gesturing to where men and women seemed to occupy every surface. The old tile had been ripped up and the plywood underneath was covered in dust and debris from their work.
“Uh, it’s kind of my personal Schlieffen Plan,” she replied.
“Schlieffen Plan?”
She grimaced. “It was a tactic the Germans planned to use to win the First World War,” she explained. “Use all resources to finish one area quickly, then divide up to take on the larger work.”
I quirked an eyebrow at her. “I think you’ll have to explain that a little further.”
I was familiar with the Schlieffen Plan. Since the Germans calculated that their Western neighbor, France, would mobilize faster than their eastern neighbor, Russia, the plan was to quickly take over France and then move the majority of their forces back east to take on Russia.
I just didn’t see how it applied to my goddamn kitchen.
“I’ve got a pretty standard home reno crew in my employ,” Elizabeth explained. “But if I spread them all out evenly, it’ll take longer to complete each room. So I’m concentrating them on priority rooms first before I spread them to the rest of the manor.”
“So what you’re saying is my kitchen is France?” I deadpanned.
She nodded.
I didn’t hate the idea. It meant that the kitchen would be fully functional again in a matter of a few more days instead of a few more weeks. But it was goddamn noisy.
I scanned the room, taking in the carnage. Then I wrinkled my nose in disgust. “What the hell are they putting on the wall?”
She turned to follow my gaze. “Those are the cabinets, Mr. Bentley.”
I hated when she called me Mr. Bentley, but it was for that same reason that I didn’t correct her. Keep things professional between us, nothing more.
I stepped over to the washed out mess of cabinets. The ones that had been in the kitchen before were a rich cherry. These were almost cream; they were too light.
“They’re awful,” I declared.
Elizabeth followed me, her jaw clenched in unmasked fury. I suppressed a smile.
“They’re part of my design,” she said. “They’ll look good with the rest of the accents I’ve picked out.”
I shook my head, turning toward my study. “No,” I said. “Take them out.” With that, I strode out of there. I’d put on headphones for the rest of the day.
But another set of footsteps followed me into the hall. “Mr. Bentley!” Elizabeth called.
I rolled my eyes and kept walking. This woman didn’t give up easily. Under other circumstances, I’d find that very sexy. Hell, I still do.
But also annoying.
She followed me into my study where I could no longer ignore her. “Mr. Bentley!”
I whirled in anger. Now that we were alone, I didn’t have to be as nice as I had been in front of the contractors. She was mistaken if she believed I’d be easy to challenge.
“I think I was perfectly clear in the kitchen,” I snapped.
Her eyes were narrowed, anger matching my own, nostrils flaring, jaw tight. She looked like a warrior queen, ready to defend her people. It was a complete turn on. I wanted her and could not focus on anything else. But that also irritated me, because I couldn’t have her. I was forced to spend almost every day with her in my house and having to ignore the desire that should have long dissipated.
Instead, it just continued to build.
“The reason I chose those cabinets was because they go with the tile,” she said.
I looked at her blankly. “Then send the tile back too. Start over.”
She took a deep breath. “The cabinets are already being installed. I can’t just send them back. And the tile was special order.”
“The cabinets are going to look horrible,” I declared. “I can’t believe Todd brought you in on this project when your design skills are so clearly lacking.”
Elizabeth took another step toward me. It was cute that she thought that would intimidate me any more than it had when the hulk out there had tried it.
“There is nothing wrong with my design skills,” she spat. “And I tried to talk to you about my plans for the kitchen before I started all of this, but you slammed the door in my face.”
She had a point. But like hell I would back down now.
“You can’t demand my attention whenever you feel like it,” I said. “Nobody gets that privilege.”
She laughed coldly. “Privilege? You make it sound like your company is something to be aspired to. What makes you think anyone would want to spend more than a minute with you when they weren’t being paid?”
Her eyes widened as she realized that she’d just crossed a line. I knew Todd must have urged her to stand up to me, but now she’d started to get insulting and she obviously knew it. The worst part was that I admired her for it. In the boxing ring, she wasn’t the same mild-mannered, adorable innocent she was when I took her in that club.
She was a Valkyrie.
“Is that so, Ms. Paulson?”
Valkyrie or no, I would have to make her regret her overly casual tongue. Not that her insults bothered me. They lacked bite and I’d had far worse directed my way. But I had an image to maintain, after all. And reminding her who was boss would be better for both of us in the long term.
“You didn’t seem to have a problem with my company that night at Repeat.” I closed the distance between us, bumping my chest up against hers and staring down hard.
She swallowed hard, but didn’t step back.
“Tell me,” I cooed. “Was it this job you were celebrating before I took you up to the VIP area and fucked you senseless?”
Elizabeth’s breath caught and her face flushed pink. And there she was again—that beautiful, innocent girl that I found impossible to resist. At once I knew I’d miscalculated. I thought I could intimidate her into staying away from me by bringing up our night together.
But it only made me want her more.
“The cabinets will look good with the finished design,” she croaked out.
The edge of my lip twitched and I took a step back. She sucked in a breath.
“Todd trusts you,” I stated, after a beat. I walked lazily back to my desk in an effort to make my decision seem more casual, as if I was giving her a break instead of backing off with my tail between my legs. She had power over me that she didn’t even realize, and it was better if she remained oblivious. “So I’ll give you a chance.”