Page 60 of His Bride

“Don’t flatter yourself. I don’t want you,” I murmur, but there’s zero conviction to it.

“Liar.” He reaches for me again, but I manage to dodge him this time.

“I’m not lying,” I say, my heart pounding.

“Prove it.”

“I don’t have to prove anything. The problem with you is you think you’re hot shit.”

“I am hot shit. Millions of women love me.”

“You don’t know that many women.”

“They don’t know it yet.”

Something in me snaps. “You are deluded, Caelian del Rossa. I’m going. I’ll have the papers redrawn, take you for everything you have.”

“Didn’t we sign some kind of prenup?—”

“Nope. That’s what happens when you force someone to marry you.”

“Huh. There’s a silver lining for you, then. And you thought I was cruel when I carried you to the altar. Seems I did you a fucking favor. There’s a pun in there somewhere.”

“You know what? I’m done. I’m leaving. I’m sure Aurelio will find a way to get me out of this sham of a marriage with you.Fuck knows, he’s desperate enough.” I take my shrug off the table, and he grabs my wrist.

“Don’t.” His voice is low now, raw, dangerous.

“Why? You want me to stick around so you can torture me some more?”

“It is my favorite pastime.”

“I hate you.”

“In our love language, that means you want me. You love me.” He pulls me close. “Can’t live without me.”

“We don’t have a love language.”

“I think we do.” His other hand is on my hip, and he’s gazing down, following the movement of his fingers as he trails a slow path up my side, the swell of my breast. “Your body is practically screaming in a language only I understand, with its own hot, sensual, sexy as fuck accent. I’m thinking French.”

“And it’s telling you to go fuck yourself.”

“Did that already. Just the other night. Almost suffocated myself with a pillow that still smells like you.” He leans close, lips brushing the shell of my ear just as he lightly circles my nipple. “I had cum all over my palm afterward.”

A gasp slips past my parted lips as a heatwave sweeps over me. The way I want him is complete madness. It’s irrational, insane, toxic as fuck, but it's also entirely inescapable.

My body betrays me, leaning into his touch, craving more from the man I’m desperate to leave.

“Please, Caelian. Let me go,” I whisper, and he lets go of my arm only to snake it around my waist, pulling me hard against him.

“Why would I do that when I want you so fucking badly I could set the world on fire?”

I swallow, and he traces a line of flaming flesh with the tip of his nose down the side of my neck, and back up.

“Why would I let you go, New York,” he whispers, “when you’re the woman I love?”

Time stops.

My heart halts in my chest.

---