Sweetened With a Kiss by Lexxi Callahan Page A

plate. Had she really thought he’d missed Elliot’s question? Would she never learn? Stefan didn’t miss much. 
    “You said you were waiting for the hippie to get back to go see it?” Stefan prompted, looking deceptively relaxed as he leaned back in his chair.
    She opened her mouth, completely caught off guard.
    She watched his face go solid granite and the whole frost giant thing worked across his eyes, down his jaw and thinned out his mouth. “What kind of space do you and the hippie need?” he bit out, and she was surprised his teeth didn’t shatter, his jaw was so tight. She doubted he even realized he was tapping his knife against the table.
    She swallowed, wishing the floor would open up and drag her down. She really was not prepared for this right now. “We’re opening a bakery.”
    He blinked, a couple of times.  “A bakery?”
    She nodded. “Elliot told us about a space around the corner that’s becoming available. There’s a coffee shop in it now...”
    “Elliot?” Stefan interrupted her. “Elliot found you a space? In the French Quarter? For a bakery?” His voice was so quiet, so cold, she almost couldn’t hear him.
    “Yes.”
    He lifted his water glass and she was surprised the water stayed liquid. He took a sip, set the glass down, and leaned forward. “No fucking way,” he hissed across the table.
    Pre-Paris Jen probably would have jumped up from the table and tried hard not to burst into tears. Pre-Paris Jen would’ve caved in and accepted his unreasonable reaction as the final word. But not this Jen. This Jen got angry. Fast. And when she answered him, her voice was as quiet as his and he really should have paid attention. “You haven’t seen our business plan.”
    He lifted one arrogant eyebrow and for once it was not adorable. “I heard hippie, bakery, and French Quarter. I don’t need to see your business plan.”
    “You can’t say no without at least looking at it,” she told him, amazed at how calm her voice sounded.
    “Just did.”
    She stared at him a minute, drowning in the ice cold knowledge that she really did not know him at all. And he certainly didn’t have a clue about her. “It’s not your call.”
    “We’ll see about that.”
    “Stefan,” she said carefully, “I want fifty thousand dollars out of my trust fund first thing Monday morning.”
    He took another sip of water and just stared back at her. He was waiting for her to dissolve into tears. He was waiting for her nerves to give out. She could see it in the smug expression on his face and the glittering light in his eyes. He was so sure he was going to win, he wasn’t even trying to make her understand why he was being such a jerk. Suddenly, it became the most important thing in the universe that he not win this argument. She had no idea where the words even came from. But she heard them coming straight out of her mouth in a strange mocking tone that she hadn’t known she was capable of. “It doesn't matter.  As soon as Jared gets home, we’re getting married and you'll have no say over anything to do with me anymore.”
    She had about ten seconds of victory before the world blurred. He moved so fast she never even saw him coming. Fingers closed around her arm. Her chair upended and hit the floor. Shocked gasps surrounded them as he hauled her back to the kitchen. Before her next breath, she was pinned against the wall in Elliot’s office, staring up at a complete stranger she was sure was going to break her neck.
    “Say that again,” he dared her.
    “We’re getting married,” she said, her voice still calm even though her whole body was threatening to shake apart.
    “Take it back,” he growled at her, a vicious desperation in him that she’d never seen. “Take. It. Back.” he repeated slowly.
    She wasn’t going to. No way. She just stared at him, not quite believing that he was buying it. Some perverse little spark egged her on. “I love him,” she insisted, determined to push