Chapter 21

**Artemis**


Did she just say…

“What did you just say?” I ask in the calmest voice I can muster.

“I said we aren’t married yet.” She says again but she leaves off the part where she said she can change her mind.

She won’t be changing her mind. She agreed and I won’t let her run away.

“We will be married Blue and you will become Blue Rhodes. End of story!” I stand and walk toward the bedroom.

“You can’t demand things and walk off Artemis! I’m not one of your employees and I recall all of us have free will!” She yells from behind me.

The back of my neck starts to itch the more angry I get and after dealing with this anger all day I can’t stop what’s coming.

“You will be my wife Blue! I can demand anything I want from you!” I yell at her.

She doesn’t shrink back or flinch when I yell at her which is odd but I’m too angry to care about that right now.

“Will be Artemis. Not yet and if you continue this alpha male crap then marriage is the last thing that will happen between us. I’ll leave and you’ll be screwed! How about that?”

She’s standing now and her chest is heaving from being so worked up. Where did this come from? Why is she suddenly threatening to leave?

“Come with me,” I demand and turn back toward the room not waiting to see if she will follow.

I’m not about to discuss this in front of my assistant and security.

She is so silent that I don’t hear her follow behind me until we are both inside the room and she closes the door behind us. I don’t turn to face her yet. I let my anger get the best of me and I don’t want to blow up again.

“What is it?”

I squeeze my eyes shut and try to ignore the snarky attitude in her tone.

One breath in. One breath out. In and out.

Once I feel like I’m calm enough to face her I slowly turn. She’s watching me already but she doesn’t look angry as I expected. She looks…sad. She had mentioned that the reason her name was Blue was that she always looked sad.

Since I met her I have seen a few versions of her. This one though… looks the most real. She looks truly sad and hurt.

Suddenly I don’t care about what she said. How does she do that?

One second I’m furious and the next it’s gone like smoke and replaced by worry or calm. Early it only took one touch to calm me down and holding her hand for so long had worked even better. I liked the way it felt and suddenly all I want to do is touch her again.

She is breaking my will down in such a short time that I wonder if she’s cast some sort of spell on me.

“What happened?” I ask her.

She looks at me confused. “What do you mean?”

“You were excited about your new phone and the next minute your refusing to marry me.”

She scoffs. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t marry you.”

“You said you could change your mind if you wanted to. Why would you say that if you aren’t considering it?”

Her shoulders fall and she sighs. She walks over to the bed and sits on the edge.

“I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Then what did you mean?”

I don’t want her back turned to me while we talk so I move around the bed until I’m standing in front of her. She doesn’t look up so I move down to her level. Once I’m crouched in front of her she lifts her head to look at me.

“What happened Blue?”

Her eyes roam over my face but I keep my eyes fixed on hers.

“Did you sleep with her?” She asks and I rear back.

“Who?”

“Abigail.” Her eyes meet mine and stay fixed on them as she waits for me to answer her.

“No. Abigail and I have never been together in that way or any way outside of professionally.”

“Really?”

I nod. “Never. In fact, it’s been a year since I’ve been with anyone.”

That has her eyes growing wide.

“What?” She nearly chokes on the word which makes me laugh.

“Yes, I haven’t touched a woman in a year. Is that so hard to believe?” I don’t ask her because I’m offended.

I’m curious about what she’ll think.

“Wow. I didn’t think men could hold out that long. Are blue balls not a real thing?” She whispers that last apart with her hand cupping her mouth like it’s a secret.

I have to bite my bottom lip from laughing again. What the fuck? Who is this girl?

“I assure you it’s a real thing, but you don’t always…need someone to relieve an urge.” I give her a pointed look and I see the second it clicks.

Her face turns pink and she snorts out a laugh. “Oh my god! You pervert!”

She shoves me playfully and since I’m crouching I end up falling back on my ass. That makes her laugh even harder. Her whole face lights up and even though I see that hint of sadness that’s always present on her face, this laugh nearly hides it completely.

“You think that’s funny?” I ask scowling at her but she keeps on laughing. “Okay. We’ll see who’s laughing.”

I jump to my feet and stalk over to her. She doesn’t stop laughing but she shuffles back on the bed like she’s expecting me to come for her. That’s exactly what I do. I climb onto the bed and grab her by the waist to keep her from getting away. She keeps laughing until I move so that I’m hovering over her.

“Now you can’t escape. How should I punish you for that?” I ask her.

She smiles up at me. “I don’t know. You could make me watch a really terrible movie and sleep on the couch tonight.”

Neither of those things will be happening but I think I’ll let her sweat on it a little bit.

“Hm, no that’s not punishment enough,” I say pretending to think it over.

She chuckles and shifts beneath me but I’m a lot bigger than her so there isn’t an easy way for her to get away from me. Something I keep filed in the back of my mind for later.

A loud knock comes from the door and I growl in annoyance.

“Who is it?” I yell.

“Sir, room service has arrived.” I hear Bryant say from the other side of the door.

“Coming!” Blue yells back.

I narrow my eyes at her. “We aren’t done.”

“We can figure out punishment after I’ve eaten. I’m starving.”

Right. She hasn’t eaten since yesterday. I guess my plans will have to wait…once I’ve figured out what those plans are. This is the first time in a long time that I have no idea what my next move will be. I’m walking in the dark with this girl and she’s leading me around with no destination. And I’m letting her!
I’ve lost my damn mind.

She pushes against my shoulders and I let her even though I could easily keep her here. I roll over onto my back and close my eyes trying to gather myself. The bed dips slightly and my eyes fly open to see Blue crouching over me with one hand on either side of my head.

“Come on hubby, let’s go eat.” She stands again and reaches her hands out to me.

I look at them not sure what she wants me to do. Then she reaches for my hands and tugs on them hard. It hits me and I help her pull me to my feet.

“Also, I think Blue Rhodes will make a pretty cool email address name. It sounds like a cool name in general. I think I’ll keep it.” She looks up at me and winks.

“I already knew that. You were the one who made a big fuss about it.”

She gasps in offense but I don’t stick around for another rant from her. I walk back into the main room feeling a lot lighter than I did going in. Being around her can make me mad enough to want to murder but it can calm me as well.

It’s a confusing wave I’m not sure I can weather yet, but I’ll learn. These two days have been the most interesting days I have ever experienced and it’s all because of a tiny woman with Blue hair and a sad smile.

“Abigail? I’ll go with Artemis’s suggestion for an email address. I guess it makes sense to use it since we’ll be married in a few days.” Blue says as she takes a seat in the same spot she vacated when this whole pointless argument had started.

All because my little fiancé had been jealous.