Page 18 of His Infatuated Wife

It's my first time to call him out on it.

"Aren't you?"

"Yes."

And now, it's his first time to admit the truth as well.

"Why?" I whisper.

"Because you only think you're in love with me."

"I'm---"

"Infatuated," Jacques says curtly. "That's all you are. You may not think or believe it right now, but you're young---"

"While you're older and wiser, is that it?"

"Yes."

"Then why not marry another student?"

Fury blazes in his eyes, but I can't let myself back down.

I mustn't.

"Are you daring me to?"

"If you're really the type to cut your nose to spite your face, then go ahead. I dare you---"

"Damn you."

The violence of his emotions is unmistakable, but there's something else I hear, and it's this that breathes life back into the butterflies in my stomach.

"Damn you," he says again.

And I love that he says it one more time.

"I love you, too."

Because I know what it really means, and a soft, shaken laugh escapes me at the way he jerks at my words.

"You---"

"---have two conditions before I marry you."

His gaze narrows.

"Firstly, no divorce."

"Forget it," he says right away.

"Then we stay married for at least ten years---"

"One year."

"How about two?"

"Six months."

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