Free The Tycoon's Misunderstood Bride by Elizabeth Lennox Page A

Emma was enchanted.  “This is your house?” she asked as she stepped out of the car and walked around, absorbing all of the small details like the gazebo off to the side and the pretty fountain tucked away in a small, almost enclosed enclave.
     
    “The previous owner liked the vegetation,” he said as he walked up the stairs.  “Let’s go, Emma,” he called back to her as she moved to investigate the fountain.  He knew there were some sort of small statues hidden in the bushes which would probably take her hours to look at since some were hidden.  He had an agenda and was ready, eager even, to accomplish the goal.  He didn’t want her lingering on the outside of the house, when he wanted her inside, in his bed. 
     
    It had been just over a week since he’d first met this woman but it felt like longer.  Perhaps it was just the lust she inspired and since it had been interrupting his day, something he had never allowed to happen before, he was furious with her for breaking his concentration.
     
    Emma looked from the bushes where she had just spotted something odd, to the man who was watching her closely.  She wanted to ignore the man, knowing that the secret in the bushes was much safer.  But something in his eyes told her not to argue with him. 
     
    “We can’t just….” She struggled as she stood one step above him, still not eye level, but at least not so small and helpless.  “We can’t just go at it with each other,” she finally said, using a term she’d read in a book a long time ago. 
     
    “We’re not going to ‘just go at it’ as you so quaintly put it,” he replied with sarcasm.  “Come inside and we’ll have some lunch.  My housekeeper has fixed us something to eat.”
     
    Emma bowed her head and considered ignoring his command.  She didn’t want to go into that house.  She didn’t want to even be near Jason.  He was dangerous material, likely to make her combust and she had too many issues from living with her father for so many years.  She didn’t want to be what he said she was.  She wanted to be the good, kind person she felt she was inside, but every time she got near Jason, she wanted to…do things.  She wanted to touch him, to smell his scent and feel his arms around her.  Among other things that she didn’t dare even define in her head. 
     
    “Do I have to carry you, Emma?” he said with soft, implacable authority.
     
    Emma refused to be treated like a child.  Raising her chin with all the self-worth she could muster, she turned and slowly followed him into his lovely house. 
     
    He led her through to the back where his housekeeper explained that she’d set up lunch on the back patio.  As Emma traveled through the house, she tried to peer inside the various rooms, but he was moving too quickly so she didn’t get a good look, just impressions of various rooms.  One contained a very large grand piano and she wondered who played.  She couldn’t see Jason, the masterful, dominating, incredibly masculine man playing an instrument, although he definitely had the fingers for it. 
     
    “What’s wrong?” he demanded when he spun around and caught her blushing. 
     
    Emma startled and looked away.  “Nothing.  Why are you so angry all the time?”
     
    “Perhaps because I’m trapped into this relationship which goes against every fiber of my being.”
     
    “I’m just as trapped.  My father was a bastard who manipulated peoples’ emotions however he could.  So please don’t put me in that category.  I’m different and I don’t appreciate you treating me so disdainfully.”
     
    “You don’t think you’re the same?” he asked as he poured white wine into both of their glasses. 
     
    She shook her head and picked up the glass of water, ignoring the wine he’d just poured for her.  “I don’t believe I am, no.”
     
    “You don’t think you’ve manipulated my emotions with your looks that scream innocent when we both know