Behind The Proposal novel Chapter 32

"Actually, I'm her husband," Tom fixed her mother with an intimidating stare. He had expected some animosity from them - he had just up and married their daughter without having met them - but this was ridiculous. And he wasn't going to put up with it. "I have every right to be in our bedroom."

"Excuse me?" Her mother blubbered.

Sophie eyes flew to his and he saw the panic in them. She was scared of rocking the boat, but he wasn't. Nobody spoke to him like that, and now that she was his wife, they shouldn't speak to her like that either. But he pushed his anger aside, for now, for his wife's sake.

"Soph and I have been friends for years. We happened to run into each other in Hawaii and we spent a lot of time together. I asked her to marry me. She said yes. And we decided to elope while we were there," he explained as if it were no big deal. H took his wife's hand and brought it to his lips making sure they could see the expensive ring on her finger.

"Is this some kind of a joke?" Sophie's mother spluttered.

Sophie's hand trembled in his, and her voice came out a husky whisper, but she maintained eye contact with her mum and said "No. I really did marry him."

"Don't be ridiculous," her mother scoffed. "We've never met him before. Did you know about this, Kim?" her mother asked, fixing her older daughter with a hard stare.

Tom didn't really want to drag his sister-in-law into his lies. "No, we kept it quiet," Tom forced a smile. "We didn't want it to be a big deal. We found a local church in Hawaii and had the minister marry us," he shrugged.

"Hmmm," her mother pursed her lips in disapproval then turned and walked into the lounge, her father scurrying close behind.

Tom scratched his head and frowned. Families weren't supposed to be like this. What on earth had he got himself into when he'd married her?

Sophie turned and her confused blue eyes met his. "What on earth made you say that?" she whispered, her brows furrowed.

"The Sanderson Hotels," Kim piped up and Tom fought the urge to glare at her.

"Oh," her father sat back, stunned. "That's quite... large."

"Yes," he nodded unapologetically,

"What on earth do you see in Sophie?" her mother asked and he was taken aback by her abruptness. It was rude and he was appalled.

Clamping down the words he wanted to say, he drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly through clenched teeth. He wasn't normally an angry person, but they just rubbed him up the wrong way - they had since the moment they'd walked through the front door. He glanced at his wife, and noticed the way her head had dropped down slightly as if she was studying her food. He saw the tremble of her hands as she put her cutlery down. She looked up as he linked his fingers with hers. Her blue eyes were sad but stoic and he found himself feeling sorry for her. Despite how this had started, he did care for her, even if her parents didn't seem to.