Stephen’s Bride by Callie Hutton

once she allowed Stephen into her bed things would change.
    And it had been wonderful. She was a bit sore this morning, but it was a good soreness, a reminder of what they’d done. At first when they’d awoken, she was afraid he would say something to make her think love making had changed them. Relieved when he merely wished her good morning and left the room, she felt better, but still concerned that the intimacy they’d shared might confuse her feelings, something she didn’t want to dwell on. Theirs was a partnership marriage, nothing more, but they certainly could enjoy what they’d shared the night before without doing anything silly like falling in love.
    But then he had played the ‘man in charge’ game and infuriated her.
    “Calliope?” Stephen stood in the doorway, and she swore he had a poorly hidden smirk on his face.
    “What?” She raised her chin and stared him down.
    “I’ll make breakfast.”
    She rounded on him, fists clenched at her side. “Oh, you think this is all about who will cook eggs?”
    He strolled into the room, blast the man, like he had no worries in the world. “I don’t know, exactly. I’m assuming since everything was fine up until I mentioned breakfast, that you somehow have an aversion to cooking, or you dislike eggs.”
    “This has nothing to do with breakfast. Well, not completely, anyway.” She stormed over to him, poking him into the chest with her stiffened finger. “I heard the way you and John talked, like I wasn’t even in the room. Like this is not my farm.”
    He still looked confused which angered her further. Men never understood what it was like to be a woman. To be treated like a child in some cases, and to be told what to do, when to do it, and whom to marry, even. Despite working alongside her papa every day, he still made all the decisions, ordered her about, and dismissed any ideas she had for bettering the farm. More than once he’d told her he’d wished she’d been born a male. It had seemed no matter how well she did, she had never measured up in his eyes, and for no other reason than she was a woman.
    Well, by God, she’d put up with it with Papa, but she’d made a deal with Stephen, and she intended to make sure he stuck to it. “We agreed when we got married that this is my farm, I make the decisions and I’m the boss.”
    He crossed his arms over his chest and drawled, “Yessss.”
    “John came in here this morning, calling you ‘boss’ and talking to you about the creek being dammed up again. You both made your plans to deal with it and totally ignored me.” She took in a deep breath. “Then you asked me when breakfast would be ready!”
    He dropped his arms do his side and rested his hands on his hips. “You are being downright foolish.”
    She saw red. “Why, because I’m a woman?”
    “You’re the one who seems to be so concerned about that. One thing to remember, Calliope, I’m not your father. I don’t expect to ‘take over’ your farm. Hell, I don’t even want to be a farmer. But you needed protection, and I needed to get out of my brother’s home. I kind of thought we might come to some type of compromise on that, but you’re so stuck on being ‘in charge’ of your farm, you can’t see anything beyond it.”
    She narrowed her eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    He waved his arm in the direction of the fields beyond the house. “We could add a horse farm and in a few years double the amount of money we’re bringing in.”
    She gritted her teeth. “I don’t want a horse farm. We are not going to bring anything in. This is my farm.”
    “You want, you want. Has it occurred to you that you sound just like what you’ve accused your father of being?”
    “And what is that?”
    “Pig-headed. Not open to new ideas. Wanting everything the way it’s always been.”
    Her jaw dropped. How dare he compare her to Papa who would never listen to her ideas? She was very open to new ideas. She certainly had