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  “Wow.”

  “What?” he asks, totally pissed off himself, now, because as far as he can see, she’s being unreasonable.

  “Is that all this is to you? What are you trying to do, make me mad so I’ll punish you, so you can get off?”

  That’s not it at all, but he’s not about to say so. Not when she has that look on her face, which confuses him but also makes him even angrier. She points at the basket of laundry.

  “Go fold that. Put it all away. Go make dinner.”

  He’s already getting out of bed, but hesitates. “I’m not a servant, Corinne.”

  Her eyes flash and her voice is cold but lacks that undercurrent of sexual tension that usually would have his cock twitching. “I told you to do something. I expect it to be done.”

  “Yeah, well, you know what, you can fold it yourself.” With that, he gets off the bed and leaves the room.

  The water’s boiling in the kitchen, but fuck that, he turns off the heat without adding the pasta. He wants to go for a run, work off all this anger, and he strips down to his briefs in the kitchen. At the sound of her behind him, he turns, hands on his hips. And yeah, he notices how her gaze takes in his body, how she looks at him, and no matter how pissed off he is, he takes a gleeful, smug satisfaction in the glitter of her gaze.

  “What?” Reese holds out his arms. Confrontational. Tensing muscles, putting on a show to be sure she notices the ridges of his muscled belly—all this time at home without finding a job has left him a lot of hours to work out. He knows she loves it too, the way his body’s changed.

  “Let me guess, the floor needs to be scrubbed. You want me on my hands and knees, Corinne? Yeah. Look at you. You’re dying to see me down there on the floor.”

  “Stop it.”

  He can’t. He’s horny and angry, and all he wanted was to have some time with her before she has to go to work, and fuck all of this, he’s spent too many days just trying to make her happy and now she’s being a bitch because he didn’t make the goddamned dinner? Sneering, he sinks to his knees, arms still held out, palms turned upward.

  “This is where you like me, right?”

  It’s where he wants her to like him. He’s pushing her; he wants to see the gleam in her gaze and watch her swipe her tongue over her lips. He wants her to order him to push his face into her pussy and make her come.

  Corinne shakes her head.

  “No? Seems like you liked it last night.”

  “What I like,” she tells him in a low, angry voice, “is when you do what you promised you’d do. When you keep up your end of the bargain. When it’s not just all about you and your dick.”

  The floor hurts his knees, but he doesn’t get up. Instead, he crawls toward her, making a show of it, until he’s at her feet. He bends as though to kiss her toes, but looks up at her.

  “The princess wants her little tootsies kissed, right?”

  She flinches and takes a step away. “How about you kiss my ass?”

  She’s turning, but he’s on his feet fast enough to move in front of her, blocking her way. He’s not sure why or how this became so enormously catastrophic between them. He’s not sure how to stop it. They’ve argued before. Minor things. But nothing like this.

  This feels like it could end up being permanent.

  “It’s not just about getting off,” he says.

  Corinne won’t look at him. She presses herself against the wall, her arms crossed over her breasts. Her jaw is set.

  “Corinne.”

  She shrugs. Reese sighs and tries to pull her closer, but she’s too stiff and unyielding. He lets her go.

  “It’s not,” he says again.

  “Sometimes, it feels that way. I’m tired, Reese. Tired of working late and getting up early so we can manage to pay the rent, and I know in a few months it’s going to get better, but it’s not now. Okay? And I know you have your reasons about not wanting to move into the house, but…it would’ve made life easier. That’s all.”

  His fingers curl into fists at his sides. “My parents died, Corinne. They’re dead. I’m a fucking orphan, and all you can think about is that house? Oh, sorry. And your career.”

  He’s hit her someplace soft, he can see it on her face.

  “I’m sorry. I know it’s been hard,” she says.

  “You have no idea how I feel.”

  She frowns. “That’s not fair, Reese. Maybe if you talked to me about it, I could understand.”

  “What’s there to understand? My mom had a stroke, and my dad died six months later of a coronary. Everything’s tied up in probate. The money I got from selling off the livestock is paying for the lawyer. I told you that.”

  It’s a lie. His parents had both had very clear and concise wills, allowing the estate to pass to him with a minimum of fuss. He has a bank account in his name with nearly ten grand in it, and the land and buildings are worth five or six times more than that, if and when he decides to sell.

  He hasn’t told her, that’s all.

  He doesn’t want to tell her.

  Things will change, once money is involved, and though, yes, it will make their lives easier it will also make it all different. It’s not that he likes relying on her for everything, or that she has to work so hard to keep them afloat while all he’d managed to do was keep house. It’s more than that. The money is his ticket to the bigger and better things he’s always dreamed of having but had been certain he’d never get. The money is freedom.

  It’s his escape.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  “I wish we didn’t have to get up.” Corinne burrowed deeper into the blankets.

  “Go back to sleep for another hour or so.” Beside her, Reese stretched, then curled to spoon her against him. “It’s early.”

  “I need to get back. The kids will be home from their dad’s before six, and I have lots of stuff to take care of before then.” She yawned and pressed her bare ass against him, smiling when she felt his cock stir against her. “Mmmm.”

  It felt impossible that she could want him again after last night. After the entire weekend. She should’ve been so sated and worn out that she wouldn’t have wanted sex again for at least…oh, at least another ten minutes or so she thought as his dick hardened against her ass. And Reese definitely should’ve been struggling.

  “What kind of stuff could be better than this?” His fingers moved between her legs.

  With a groan, she stopped him and got up, hopping out of bed before he could stop her. She admired him posing for her though, an arm flung behind his head. The sheets pulled down to expose his belly. She made an appreciative noise.

  “I could look at you forever, just like that.”

  He bumped his hips a little, moving the bulge of his erection beneath the sheets. “If you lived here with me, you could see it every morning.”

  She laughed at the absurdity of that, then saw he wasn’t laughing. “Reese.”

  “What? It would make sense, wouldn’t it?”

  Frowning, Corinne searched for something to put on over her nakedness. She found his discarded T-shirt and tugged it over her head. The hem hit her barely midthigh, but it was better than feeling bare.

  “To move here, to Philadelphia with you? That makes no sense at all. My job is in Lancaster.”

  Reese snorted softly. “I’m guessing I could change that for you.”

  The heat that had been kindled inside her when she woke in his arms was rapidly being replaced by creeping ice. “Are you going to fire me?”

  He frowned. “No, of course not.”

  “My house is in Lancaster. My kids,” she said tightly, “live in Lancaster.”

  “I didn’t mean—” He sighed and caught sight of her face. “Corinne, don’t look at me like that. Isn’t this better, here? Didn’t we have a great weekend?”

  “Yes, we did.” She began looking for her clothes.

  “So what’s the problem?”

  She turned, a pair of panties and a bra in her