“What are you doing in here?” He asked stiffly.
“I’ve decided to move into this room,” she informed quietly and his jaw clenched. She had anticipated having this conversation but not until morning. Sandro was full of surprises today… she had known that he would be upset about her moving out of their bedroom but it was completely out of character for him to actually come thumping on her bedroom door demanding an explanation in the dead of night! She had expected a cold and controlled conversation about it over the breakfast table. The light from the landing was just bright enough for her to see the stormy emotion brewing in his eyes and she swallowed a lump of disappointment when the emotion was doused in ice.
“I can see that,” he gritted out. “I think the pertinent question is why?” And she could see that it just about killed him to ask it.
“I’d feel like a hypocrite if I stayed in the master bedroom with you,” she shrugged again. “Just this morning I told you I wanted a divorce, so it wouldn’t feel right if I continued to share your bed as if we’d never had that conversation.”
“You’re being ridiculous,” he dismissed.
“No… I think I’m actually making sense for the first time in nearly two years.”
“My wife…” he placed a lot of sarcastic emphasis on the last word. “…sleeps with me. You will come back to our bedroom if I have to drag you there kicking and screaming!”
“I.I… m.may have to sleep with you, Sandro,” she conceded, knowing that if he chose to do as he threatened, she would definitely lose to his superior size and strength. “But I won’t be having sex with you anymore…”
“You would deny me, your husband, this basic marital right?” He sounded frankly astonished by that, as astonished as Theresa felt for even daring to say the words.
“Yes.” His eyes narrowed and he took a threatening step toward her.
“What’s to stop me from simply taking what belongs to me?” He asked speculatively, his eyes raking dismissively over her thin, shivering, t-shirt clad body and Theresa crossed her arms over her chest and hunched her shoulders defensively.
“I don’t belong to you,” she said softly.
“Well, I certainly forked out huge amounts of money for you… that feels like ownership to me.”
“Look, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she protested in frustration and he laughed softly.
“And you’re still singing the same tired old tune,” he mocked. “This is beside the point. I have no wish to rehash these details, it achieves nothing. Come on, we’re going to bed!” He grabbed her hand and tugged her back toward their bedroom a few doors down the hall. She was so shocked by the abrupt gesture that she stumbled along behind him, before instinct kicked in and she dug in her heels, leaving him to practically drag her the last few feet.
Theresa was out of breath and furious when he finally released her hand. They were in the master bedroom, facing each other and she glared at him… refusing to be intimidated by his scowl.
“When did you become the Neanderthal Man, Sandro? I never thought you would resort to caveman tactics…” he didn’t like being called a barbarian, not her suave, sophisticated, rigid husband, she saw it in the way his mouth thinned and his eyes flared. He grabbed her wrist and dragged her up against him.
“You haven’t seen the Neanderthal in me yet, cara. I advise you not to push me on this, not unless you want things to get really ugly between us,” he was using his whole body to intimidate her, leaning over and into her, nose to nose with her.
“I.I don’t see how things can get any uglier…” she whispered.
“You really don’t want to find out how much worse it can get, trust me on that,” his eyes were boring into hers and her breath was coming in small, shallow gasps. She was suddenly aware of how closely she was pressed against him and felt a betraying flash of heat uncoiling in the pit of her stomach and radiating outward. Even though Sandro never really let himself go in bed, he was still an incredible lover and despite, or maybe because of, the clinical precision with which he conducted the act, he always made sure she climaxed. She would have traded any number of those orgasms for a kiss of course, or even a show of affection afterwards but she couldn’t help her reaction to him. He could always make her melt. Chemistry was a terrible thing, sometimes it simply sparked between the wrong people.
His eyes were still locked with hers and she felt the sudden change in his breathing and his heart rate… he leaned even closer, his mouth nearly touching hers, their breath mingled and came in jagged gasps. If she moved her head, just a fraction of an inch, their lips would be touching… she couldn’t resist and she tensed herself to do just that, when he suddenly swore and stepped away from her. Theresa blinked and felt like someone coming out of a trance.
“Just go to bed,” he put his hand in the small of her back and gave her a gentle push toward the bed.
“I’m not going to have…” she began to protest.
“I know. I’m not exactly in the right frame of mind for it either,” he prodded her again.
“You won’t touch me?”
“Not unless you want me to.” He shrugged as if he didn’t care either way.
“I don’t want you to.” She asserted firmly.
“Then you have nothing to worry about,” he turned away from her stripped off his casual shirt, leaving him abruptly naked from the chest up. As always, he stole her breath away and she had to force herself to turn away from the seductive sight of her half-naked husband and head to bed. She crept beneath the covers and kept her back to him but she was achingly aware of every sound he made as he headed toward the en-suite, discarding even more clothes along the way. For such a precise and controlled man in every other aspect of his life, Alessandro tended to be a bit messy in his own space; it was rather endearing the way he would casually drop a shirt here, a sock there… obviously expecting the magical cleaning fairies to pick up after him. That “magical cleaning fairy” was usually Theresa; she was a bit of a neat freak and would quite compulsively pick up and fold everything he dropped. Well not anymore, she suddenly thought fumingly, he could damned well pick up his own shirts.