Page 131 of The Rogue and His Flower

“You know what,” I whisper against his lips.

“Daisy.” He groans softly, bringing his head down to rest on my shoulder, and I reach up, caressing his damp hair. “I don’t deserve you.”

“Yes you do. You deserve to be loved, Dalton.I love you,and nothing and no one can take that away. Understand?”

He lifts his eyes to meet mine, startled almost.

“Seems I’ve let the cat out of the bag,” I say, my lips tilting up in a smile, not at all concerned that I’ve told him how I feel. I don’t even care that he doesn’t say he loves me back. I’m willing to wait, to hear him say those words of his own volition. I don’t want him to say them because he feels he has too. I want him to mean it.

“Say it again,” he commands, tugging me closer as though he can’t bear to have even a millimetre of space between us.

“Seems I’ve let the cat out of the bag…” I grin.

“Daisy!” he warns, his hand roaming up my back, his fingers tangling in my wet curls as he tugs on my hair and tilts my head back. “You know what I meant. Say it again.”

“I love you, Dalton,” I say, cupping his face with my hand. “And nothing and no one can take that away.”

“Nothing and no one,” he agrees solemnly.

CHAPTER THIRTY

DALTON

“You have a lot of explaining to do!” my father grinds out, pointing to the chair opposite him as he steeples his hands on the desk and glares at me. We’ve been home no more than an hour and he’s already demanded I meet him in office like a naughty fucking kid, or worse still, an errant employee. Thank fuck Daisy went to rest after our long journey home, because she doesn’t need to be here for this.

“There’s nothing to explain. Daisy and I went on our honeymoon, and now we’re back,” I retort, settling in the seat and folding my arms across my chest. “Oh, and we had a great time, thank you for asking.”

“Not much to explain?! You walked out on your wedding day and left me with over two hundred fucking guests to deal with!” he explodes, his skin flushing a furious shade of red. “Not to mention the press.”

“Yourwedding guests,” I remind him as I level my gaze with his. “Apart from a handful, none of them were people that Daisy and I would’ve chosen to attendourwedding. As for the fucking press–”

“A wedding I paid for, alongside your damn honeymoon,” he reminds me, cutting me off.

“Actually, I paid for our honeymoon. Not you,” I retort, fucking bristling.

He barks out a laugh. “With the money I pay you to run my hotel. Don’t get fucking smart with me,son.”

I grit my teeth, hating how he always throws that back in my face, as if nothing I earn could ever truly belong to me. It’s always his money, his business, his fucking rules.

“You brought the press to our wedding reception. There was no way I was putting Daisy through that bullshit.”

“Why the fuck do you care? All you had to do was show up at the church, marry her, and act as a doting husband at the wedding reception.”

“Icareabout Daisy,” I say, meeting his gaze head on.

“Bullshit. She’s a means to an end. You know that as well as I do. This is an arrangement, a marriage of convenience. The sooner you get her impregnated with my grandchild, the better. So, have you fucked her yet?” he asks, an evil grin sliding across his face as he leans back in his chair.

“That’s none of your fucking business,” I snap back.

“I think you’ll find it’s exactly my business. So have you?”

“No,” I lie

His smile widens. “And there I was thinking you’d be happy to have some pussy on demand. Just fuck her, and get the damn job done.”

“Enough!” I snap. “She’s mywife, and I will not allow you to talk about her like that. She’s not someone you can use and toss aside once you’ve got what you wanted from her.”

He leans forward, his face contorted with anger. “You don’t get to play the devoted husband now, Dalton. You went into this knowing full well how it was going to play out. Marry Daisy, impregnate her, divorce her once the child hits a year old, and, meanwhile, represent the Gunn family in the way I fucking expect!”

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