Page 93 of Mama Si's Paradise

“You can control how you feel,” he said, taking a step closer to me, as if to see if I’d react. I wouldn’t—I would not let myself be scared of this place or these people anymore. I already knew I was going to die soon—while trying to escape. If they killed me sooner, so be it. I would have no regrets.

“I’m not a vampire, as I’m sure you know.” If I could control how to feel, I wouldn’t have been on this Isle to begin with.

My God, how the hell had I ended up in this place?!

“You certainly make it very hard for a vampire as well, Sunshine,” he whispered, coming closer and closer.

“Stop,” I said when he was three feet away. “That’s far enough. What do you want?”

His brows shot up and he was suddenly amused again. It suited him, that look—but who was I kidding? With a face like that, every look suited him. He probably looked good even when he was sobbing, if he ever did.

“To ask you that question,” he said.

“Which question?” He hadn’t asked me a question, had he?

“That.What do you want?”

I paused. “What do you mean, what do I want?”

“Exactly that? What do you like to do?”

Slowly, sneakily, he took a teeny tiny step forward, like he was testing me to see if I’d notice. And I did—of course, I did.

“I like to go home,” I said, holding my head up. “That’s what I’d like to do.”

Pulling his lips inside his mouth, he shook his head. “Whatelsedo you like to do?”

“I like to be alone.”

He flinched. Actually flinched. “I can’t give you that, either.”

“Why not? This seems like a big place. Plenty of space for you to be where I’m not.” Even if being by myself meant there was a chance I’d run into his brothers by accident—and I would rather just hide under the bed—I still needed to find a way out.

“Because I don’t want to,” Valentine simply said, and fuck, what the hell could I say to that?

I crossed my arms in front of my chest. The smell of new leather filled my nostrils and I loved that I wasn’t cold anymore, even though my hair was still wet. “I willnotbe your bride. I will not be anybody’s bride,” I spit, and for some reason, that just made him smile bigger. It even made thedragon on his shoulder make this sort of snickering sound, likehewas amused, too.

They could rot in hell for all I cared. No matter how otherworldly and perfect they looked together like that—and who even knew I was this into such dark things?—they could rot in hell.

“Then you won’t be my bride,” he said, and that was unexpected. I blinked, leaning my head back a bit.

That was a good thing, wasn’t it?

Except… “You’ll just be mine, period.”

I almost groaned. “I’d rather swim the ocean all the way back home.”

“Until you do, let me show you around mine.” And he actually offered me his arm, like he thought I might lace mine around it when his dragon was watching me from his shoulder on the other side.

I walked down the hallway alone.

Valentine chuckled as he followed, and the sound made my stomach twist in knots. I ignored it completely and just kept going until we reached the stairway.

He rushed to fall into step with me, and as we descended the stairs, I said, “Why did she do it?”

“Who?”

“The siren. Why would she kill her own sisters? Why would she ruin an entire continent?”

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