Page 35 of Bears Not Included

Livia

I don’t allow myself to get taken in by their mesmerizing looks, as hard as that is to do. How can they look so spectacularly handsome but also be so dangerous that my life is constantly hanging in the balance?

I squash every thought that pops into my mind about how their cocks felt inside me as well. How they moved. How they made me come. How they drank from my breasts.

If I could, I would never take a breath in their company just so I didn’t need to inhale the scent of their cologne, which only made me think of their touch.

I used to tell Faith I thought sex was laughable, but there was nothing funny about what they did to me.

They took what didn’t belong to them, and I was too weak, too overwhelmed, too drugged, and too ill-equipped to stop them. But it ends now.

“I want a divorce,” I repeat in case they didn’t hear me the first time.

“That’s never going to happen,” Mason says with a grin on his face, which clearly states he thinks I’m deluded to even think they’d give me a divorce. Deacon is grinding his teeth, and Callen looks at me thoughtfully.

I open my palm and drop the ring onto the dining room table.

“I want you to divorce me right now, and I want all records of this fake marriage removed.”

They rise to their full height, and I swallow a lump of apprehension, but I stand my ground.

“Celine, go home,” Deacon says to the girl standing beside me.

“But I was supposed to go shopping with Livia,” Celine whines, stomping her feet.

“Now, Celine,” Deacon says, and Celine gives him a pout.

“Don’t talk to her that way,” I say, as if it’s my business how they treat their niece.

“Yes, don’t talk to me that way.” Celine pipes up next to me. “Say, please.”

Silence follows Celine’s last words. I don’t back down as they stare at me.

“Fine. Please go home, Celine.”

Celine beams, then bobs her head from side to side. “Thank you. I will. Later, Livia. So glad you’re here.” She waves her fingers at me, then turns around and almost skips out of the room before she turns around and says, “I’m going to make an appointment at Scope for us. You’re going to love Gino. He’s the best.”

“Put your ring back on,” Deacon says to me now that we’re alone.

“No.” I don’t even quiver when I deliver just that one word. “I want a divorce. Celine says it’s the only way out of this marriage, which is fake to start with because I didn’t say yes—why would I?” I cry out because I’m still so incredibly confused by the whole thing.

“I didn’t sign that contract. I would never, in a million years, sign that contract. So, reverse whatever it is you did, so I can carry on with my life. Please.”

“No,” Mason says.

“Put the ring back on your finger, Livia,” Deacon orders me again.

“No.”

“That’s your final answer?” Callen queries.

“No, this is.” I pick up the ring I placed on the table and fling it into the fire that crackles softly from the hearth in the dining room. I don’t know how else to make it clear to them that I don’t want to be married to them, fake, real, or even pretend.

“I’m supposed to be marrying someone else. I. Want. A. Divorce. And I want it now.”

“Still no,” Mason offers unhelpfully.

“Okay. This whole thing is so bizarre that I can’t even understand it. Please, just undo what you did so I can go back to my life and my own responsibilities.”

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