Free Marriage by Mistake by Alyssa Kress Page A

clear thinking about children led to Robby running away on a regular basis.
    "I do," Dean insisted. "Furthermore, Robby is my responsibility, at least for the moment. So I would appreciate it if you would—"
    "If I would use my own good judgment in the matter." Yes, he understood children, the man whose first words to Robby had been, "you're filthy." The man who she now realized was responsible for Robby not coming to join her for breakfast.
    "I mean—"
    "Yes," Kelly bit out. "I know what you mean." He thought she was completely insensitive, an idiot.
    Dean's eyes narrowed. Kelly met his gaze directly. He'd done it, made her angry, and she didn't mind if he saw it, the jerk. He assumed she couldn't figure out how to behave toward Robby. Who did he think she was ?
    They stared at each other, the air practically crackling between them. Despite his utter wrongness here, he projected power with his gaze, and surrounded himself with an aura of inner strength. Facing him, Kelly felt her own strength hum in response, felt a novel exhilaration. Typically she backed down in the face of male anger, but not with Dean, not with the most powerful man she'd ever met. Against him she stood strong; heart pounding, nostrils flaring, blood tingling...
    And turned on, she realized suddenly. Passionately so.
    Kelly stopped breathing. In the middle of this nasty dispute she was feeling...sexual? But she couldn't deny it. Heat was flooding all her interesting parts.
    She saw Dean swallow, saw his eyes darken, which told her he was feeling it, too. Something dangerous and unexpected.
    This was too weird. And yet, Kelly couldn't look away from him. No, she just kept looking into his intense blue eyes, feeling angry and...sexual.
    Finally, he took a big step back. "I'll...tell Maggie to put your things in the Lilac Suite."
    Kelly didn't have to ask to know the Lilac Suite would be at the opposite end of the house from his own bedroom. "Yes," she murmured, "you do that."
    But he turned on his way out the door. "About Robby," he said softly. "Don't cross me."
    Kelly thought it best not to attempt a reply.

    CHAPTER SIX

    "No, no I understand. Thank you." Carefully, not to indulge any of the frustration he felt, Dean set down the telephone he'd been using at his downtown office desk. It was already May, he'd just been told, too late in the semester to enroll a new student.
    Dean rubbed a hand over his mouth. He should have started this process a week-and-a-half ago, when Robby had first dropped on his doorstep, but he'd resisted being the one stuck with the task.
    Now...? Well, all morning he'd been hearing variations on the same theme: too late in the semester, Robby's grades not up to par, the obstacle of a good recommendation from his last school, and so on and so forth.
    Dean leaned back in his chair. It seemed his half-brother had burned his bridges when it came to decent boarding schools. That was a problem in more ways than one. Not only was Robby missing out on some much-needed education, but Dean couldn't get him out of harm's way.
    Instead the kid was stuck at home, stuck in the same house with that woman.
    A helpless snort escaped Dean. Hell, he was stuck in the same house with her. In his own way, he was in just as great danger as Robby. Dean pushed out of his chair. He paced across the scrupulously white carpet toward the windows where downtown Boston stirred beneath him.
    He barely noticed the city bustle, pondering instead his reaction to his wife. Whenever he was around her, something like a drug shot through his system, arousing his body and scattering his brain cells. He couldn't think straight when near her.
    He'd never experienced lust this strong. Almost...out of control. Almost enough to make him do something...stupid.
    Dean hated acting like a coward, yet he'd been doing just that. A coward, he'd stayed at the office until late that first night, until he could be sure Kelly had retired to her bedroom.
    Much good that had done.