Maxwell followed her in contemplative silence. She didn't even notice his various reactions to her own as she looked at each room. She found the room that had been prepared for Ian, and it was simply beautiful. Her room and Maxwell's room were next to Ian's room. She entered and then turned to him and said with a seductive smile.
"What do you say we open our room?" She said, pulling him by the hand.
"The bedroom?" He asked with an amused look on his face.
"All the rooms. We'll make love in every room of this mansion. Even the kitchen." She said, unbuttoning his shirt.
"It'll take us about three days." He said mockingly, as the mansion consisted of seventeen rooms. "Three days non-stop, my wife. Are you prepared to have my penis inside you for that long?"
Anna continued to unbutton his shirt, but Maxwell felt her hands begin to tremble slightly.
"Then let's not waste a second. I want you to keep that promise, my husband. It's going to be a wonderful experience." She said and bit her lower lip.
"Anna, I desire you with great ferocity, so if I overstep your boundaries, let me know. And don't ever doubt what I'm capable of for you."
"I don't doubt it, Max. You're a very virile man... The best of all."
"Better than my brother, you mean?"
Anna stopped her task of unbuttoning Maxwell's shirt after that sentence. She sensed at that moment that there was something that displeased him, and it was only then that she realized that while she had been talking about how good the change would be for them and for Ian, he had made no comment.
"Just say it, Maxwell. Don't hold a grudge against me inside you." She said seriously and walked away.
"Of course I was going to talk to you. But I needed to hear it and see how comfortable you felt in here."
"It's our wedding present. Of course I'd feel comfortable. You must have felt that way too."
"No, Anna. You felt comfortable because it was in a mansion like this that you lived for months with my brother."
"Are you jealous of Adam?" She asked in astonishment and sat down on the bed thoughtfully.
"You compare me to him all the time Anna!"
"That's not true. In fact, none of it is true. The mansion I lived in with your brother was very different from this one."
"Just now, you said that I was the best man of all. Did you ever have another man, apart from Adam, before me?"
"No, Max. Stop it. I said it for the sake of saying it. It's a way of telling you how much I enjoy being with you. How good you do me."
Maxwell ran his hands through his hair in a nervous gesture and turned to Anna with a furious look on his face.
"You're only nineteen... I know it would be a lot to ask of you to be more mature than your age allows, but sometimes you act like a spoiled child who believes that your will takes precedence over other people's. I've even thought about leaving you. I even thought about letting it go, but I'm not so young anymore, and I'm not capable of accepting what they determine for me without asking me first." Maxwell said and turned to the door. "I'm glad you've fallen in love with your new home and I'm not going to come between you. I'll leave you to enjoy your new home at your leisure." He said and walked away.
Anna immediately ran after him, and only caught up with him when he was already on his way down the stairs. She called out to him, and then he stopped, turned around and stared at her from the steps below. His eyes still mirrored his fury.
Anna was afraid to approach him and for him to escape her. Her eyes blurred with tears.
"Tell me what I've done? Because if it really is Adam's jealousy, it really won't work out between us. If it is, it really is the end for us. I can't erase what happened between us, even though I really want to, but if it was because of something I did... Please talk to me."
Maxwell looked at her thoughtfully, and then felt pity for her. Anna wasn't acting, she really had no idea what she was doing. And he had to understand that it was her age... In fact, she was even more mature than she should have been, but she was naive and unprepared for other important things.
"Come on." He said, holding out his hand, and then she caught up with him. Together they walked down the stairs and into the office. They sat side by side in the same armchair.
Anna kept her head down. She didn't want to lose Maxwell. She loved him too much. He was part of her. When she looked into his eyes and saw the desire there, like the twinkling of stars, it was the moment when she felt most alive. And he wasn't forced on her. Her heart chose him. That's why she feared what she would hear next.
"Anna... I know you had a childhood of needs, but is my apartment so little to you?"
"Your apartment is as wonderful as this mansion. Why do you say that? If that's where I met you, the great love of my life?"
"It doesn't seem to make any difference to you. You've already planned your whole life here, in this mansion."
Anna stared at him, finally understanding now what the problem was.
"Max, what reason would you have for not wanting to come and live here? You haven't shown yourself to be withdrawn at any time..."
"I gave you plenty of evidence that I didn't share your desire to live here, but you were too busy planning my life to notice."
"So tell me what you want."
"I can change apartments, but I'll never live in a place like this... And I'm really sorry Anna, but for Ian's sake, I won't allow him to live here either.... He can come for a walk, but accompanied by my trusted men and bodyguards."
Anna stood up and crossed her arms, staring at him defiantly
"Who do you think you are to say what my son can and can't do?"
Maxwell stood up too.
"I'm his father." His voice was just as defiant.