Page 107 of King of the Cage

She stared at me. “I asked him not to.”

“Were you there, wee one? Did you come to rescue me?”

My chest tightened at the glint in her dark eyes. Worry, guilt, and anger. For me. It was a thick balm filling in the places inside me that had cracked more and more over the years. A lifetime of being the disappointment and the one who nobody really needed.

Now,sheneeded me. She believed in me. She wanted me.

Now, I was bulletproof.

“Well, it was my fault you were there,” she pointed out, trying to rein her emotions back in.

My girl didn’t open up easily.

“Technically, if I’d never stolen you and married you, I guess I’d never have been there either.” I let go of her wrist and slid my fingers through hers.

“Yeah, well, technically I guess you’d have been a better match for Elio if you hadn’t had twenty lashings. Now,thatis my fault,” she started.

I couldn’t have that. I reached up and grabbed her chin, tilting her face forward so she had no choice but to look at me.

“Don’t you dare blame yourself for the fucked-up shit of other people. Ever. Got it?”

She nodded slowly.

I sighed and rubbed my thumb along her jaw. “For the record, so we’re clear, I don’t blame you for anything. I don’t think you’re too loud, or a know-it-all, or too fucking much of anything.”

She swallowed hard. “And… you love me.” Her dark gaze burned into mine.

“You know that polygraph results are unreliable, right?”

She tilted her head to the side. “Are they?”

“Don’t research it, take my word for it…” I gave her a wry smile, and my heart felt too big when she smiled back.

“I knew you had a soft spot for me, selkie, I called it.”

“Nowwho’s the know-it-all?” she murmured and brushed my hair back from my forehead.

I caught her hand before she could move back. “I want to know one thing.”

She waited for me to speak. My back felt like fire, and it might be time to get a top-up on the morphine, but it was really her next words that could make or break me.

“Are you still my wife?”

She blinked at me. A soft glow tinted her golden cheeks.

“Tell me. I’m a big boy. I can take it.”

She smirked, seizing on my teasing to break the tension. “Really?

“No, I’m lying, but tell me anyway.”

She let out a long sigh.

“I don’t know what to say,” she admitted.

My heart plummeted.

Giada lifted her hand and wiggled her fingers. There was a flash of gold from her hand. My grandmother’s claddagh ring still sat snugly on her ring finger. I took her hand and pulled it to my mouth, pressing a kiss onto the simple band. Evidence that this woman hadn’t gotten rid of me as soon as she could.

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