Free Secrets in the Marriage Bed by Nalini Singh

always left him alone when he got like this, reasoning that the matters on his mind must be very important. That was before she’d realized that nothing was as important as their marriage. “What got us into trouble the first time.”
    He began to unbutton his shirt. “Christ, Vicki. All I want to do is catch a few hours’ sleep and you’re trying to start a fight?”
    She clenched her fists. “I’m trying to make sure we don’t make the same mistakes twice. Don’t treat me like I’m not worth listening to!”
    “What?” He turned, six feet two inches of male annoyance and rippling muscle under his unbuttoned shirt. “I work late one night and you give me the third degree? This is my job! You know some of the deals have us working day and night for weeks on end. I’m sorry I didn’t call but things got a little crazy.”
    What Vicki heard was that he hadn’t even thought about her once work had intervened. It was a painful truth but one she was through avoiding. Caleb’s passion was his firm and she couldn’t live with that anymore. “Listen to yourself!” Throwing aside the blanket, she knelt on the sheets, her stomach hurting from the tension coiled up inside. “I don’t think a man who’s gone for weeks on end qualifies as a husband.”
    He swore under his breath and jerked off his shirt, throwing it to the side. “What do you want me to do? Quit?”
    “No. I just want you to think!” Trying to calm herself down, she took a deep breath. The scent of his aftershave shocked her hormones to life, reminding her of the pleasures of the night before, but she couldn’t let herself be distracted from this conversation. It was too important. “If you’re like this now, how will you make time to be a father? Or will I have to be both mother and father?”
    “You’ve got the time,” he shot back. “Or would that get in the way of your lunches with friends?”
    She gasped and threw a pillow at him. “Get out!”
    “The hell I will! This is my bedroom.”
    “Fine!” She got off the bed and stalked to the door. “I’ll leave.”
    “Vicki,” he growled.
    She was too angry to care. Pulling open the door, she headed to the spare bedroom. She felt him behind her and then his arm wrapped around her waist. “Don’t be melodramatic,” he said, his tone arrogant enough to make her want to scream. “Let’s go to bed. We’ll talk about it later.”
    How many times had they said that in their marriage? Frustrated by his unwillingness to even attempt to see things from her perspective, she wrenched herself away. “I want to be alone.” Walking into the spare bedroom, she lay down on the bed, facing the wall.
    Of course he followed, laying down beside her stiff form. She heard him sigh. “I’m sorry about the lunch crack.”
    She shrugged, aware that the reason it had hurt so much was because he was right. It was why she’d started looking at those brochures for further education. She did nothing while he worked all day. “I don’t want to be that woman.” The words broke out of her. “It makes me so angry that you see me that way.”
    “I’m sorry, honey. I really am.”
    “Yes well, it’s true, isn’t it? What else am I possibly qualified for? Nothing.”
    “Come on, Vicki…”
    “Forget it, Caleb.” She wasn’t ready to talk to him about this. Why had she even brought up the subject? “Just stop pushing and let me think.”
    The body wrapped around hers filled with tension. “So you can talk yourself into something else as equally idiotic as our separation?”
    Her simmering temper ignited. “You think me wanting to work outside the home is idiotic?”
    “That’s not what I said.”
    “It sure sounded like it. Poor, stupid Vicki. Maybe if you’d supported my needs instead of trying to make me be what you wanted, I wouldn’t have had to ask for a separation.”
    “Now it’s all my fault.”
    Not feeling particularly rational, she said, “Yes.”
    “Jesus.” The arm