“Why won’t you talk to me?” Waylen asks.
His face is twisted with godlike anger, and he paces around the room as if he’s looking for something. He throws open the dressing room door, checks behind curtains, and even gets down on all fours to look under the bed. Leilani bites her tongue to keep from asking him what he’s doing.
“So, where is he?” Waylen asks.
“Where is the man you’ve got up here?”
The man? What man? Leilani thinks. Where on earth could he have gotten the idea that I have a man up here? Unless—no way, he couldn’t be that stupidly jealous, could he? He could. He must have heard Robert say that I was with my baby, and he assumed I was talking about a man. How stupid can he be?
Leilani presses her lips together and crosses the room to the door, careful to avoid the shards of glass Waylen has tracked all over the carpet. Waylen suddenly pushes her back into the door and slides his arms around her waist.
“Why won’t you speak?” he asks.
“Do you want me to kiss the words out of you?”
He tilts her head back and stares deep into her eyes. She stares back as coldly as she can, trying to make her face into a mask of indifference. Her heart thuds in her chest, and she hopes it won’t give her away. He lowers his head, so his lips are less than an inch from hers.
“If there’s time for you to force me like this, there’s time for you to work on the way to save Charles,” Leilani snaps, jerking her head to the side.
“I said I’d do what I can, but I didn’t promise anything,” Waylen says, in an equally cold tone.
“I never promised I’d get Charles’ heart back from Andrew.”
“Don’t you have a meeting with Andrew tomorrow?” Leilani asks.
“What’s the point of that if you’re not even going to try?”
“I never said I wouldn’t try,” Waylen says.
“Besides, tomorrow, I just plan to learn Andrew’s thoughts on the matter.”
Leilani closes her eyes and sighs. She knows only one thing will convince Andrew, and Waylen will never agree to it. She feels Waylen’s fingers on her cheek, and she tries to pull her head away.
“Trust me, Leilani,” Waylen says.
“Charles isn’t the man you think he is.”
“Look, just because I spoke to you, doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you,” Leilani says.
“You can break everything in this house and throw as many tantrums as you want, but I’m not going to forgive you for shooting Charles. Please leave me alone now. Oh, and while you’re at it, get this window fixed. I don’t want to catch a chill—it’d be bad for the baby.”
Within a few minutes, a servant leads a maintenance specialist into the room. The man carries large flat sheets of colored glass and a small but very sharp looking saw. He deeply frowns when he sees the damage.
“What a shame,” he says.
“This glass is incredibly special, and the window was a real work of art. I’ll do my best to repair it, but it’s a damn shame this ever happened in the first place.
“Oh yes, it was really beautiful,” Leilani says politely. The window was certainly beautiful, but she’s not interested in having a conversation with this repairman.
The man doesn’t seem to get her cue and says, “This kind of color quality is hard to get. Usually, you have to powder certain gems and melt them into the pigment in order to get this level of depth.”
“Hmm,” Leilani says, lifting her book to signal an end to the conversation.
The man gets to work, and the saw whines as he cuts the glass. He carefully fits each piece to the lead frame in the window and solders it with a small blowtorch. Leilani tries to focus on her book, but she can feel Waylen’s furious eyes on her. Doesn’t he have anything better to do? She wonders.
Leilani feels her eyes growing heavy. She stretches out in the bed and puts the book down. Even the noise from the saw seems to fade away as she closes her eyes and relaxes into a deep, warm sleep. When she wakes in the morning, she realizes that Waylen is spooning her from behind.
“Waylen!” she whispers, trying to wriggle out of his arms.
“Let go of me.”
“Why do you need to get up so early?” he whispers into her ear.
She squirms and pushes against him but refuses to say a word. Waylen loosens his grip and hovers hover over her, looking hungrily at her lips. She stares up at him in disgust and horror.
“I know how to make you talk now,” he says, lowering his mouth toward hers.
She turns her head to the side and whispers into the pillow, “I’m going to D.O. today.”
“What’s D.O.?” Waylen asks.
“It’s Sophie’s jewelry company,” Leilani says.
“Now get off me, or I’m going to be late!”
Sophie told her she wouldn’t have to go to the workshop, but Leilani is eager to get out of the Bamford house.
She’s looking forward to having her own space and her own life free from Waylen and all his nosy servants. Besides, she wants someone at the company to teach her more about the design process.
“Don’t go,” Waylen says.
“Have you already forgotten that you were attacked yesterday? It’s not safe for you out there. Besides, if you’re bored, you can do more work for the Zuri Hotel.”
“I thought you took care of that threat yesterday,” Leilani says angrily.
“I heard the servants gossiping that you practically blew up one of the Oliver family estates.”
“You think the Oliver family is just going to let that go?” Waylen asks.
“I chose an empty estate on purpose, but this is a war.”
“I can’t believe you, Waylen,” Leilani says.
“Why do you love violence so much? You’re so stupid and impulsive. But, I think I’m safe for now. The Olivers will be planning their next attack, and they probably won’t dare to do anything before you meet with Andrew.”
“Fine, but you’re not going anywhere without a team of bodyguards,” Waylen says.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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