Page 39 of Bad Little Bride

“Jealousy will do that. I am the only man who earned his place on their own and I won’t be sharing, which is why yourfather hates me in the first place. Because everything I own will remain mine and mine alone. Just as you will.”

I roll my eyes. “So you keep saying.”

His glare is sharp. “Why are you so calm about Katana?”

My brows lift, not having expected him to ask that.

“Answer me,” he pushes when I don’t respond. “Is it because you already knew?”

“If I had known, I never would have approached you.”

Enzo’s jaw clenches at my answer and he studies me a long moment. “Is it because you think you can get away from me now? Because you can’t. I’ll?—”

“Find me, hunt me, lock me in a bigger, badder tower. Yeah, yeah, I know. That much you’ve made perfectly clear.”

He presses his lips into a firm line, anger and frustration heavy in his gaze.

I look back to the chandelier and watch him grow closer in my peripheral.

“You’ve detached.”

His words strike a chord I didn’t know existed, and I have to work to keep my expression blank.

“I would have to have beenattached todetach.”

“I don’t mean to me,” he admits easily. “I mean the idea of me. You were attached to the idea of us or you never would have run off when I was offered your sister instead. You believed I wanted her. That she would just as easily be to me what you are. You were afraid to lose the one thing you wanted and were brave enough to go and get on your own, consequences be damned. Still are if I had to guess, being you have no word to go on but my own.”

“Yeah, well, had I known those consequences would lead to becoming the scraps of a crime boss one day, forced to live in a lifeless mansion, I would have made a better choice, but hey, weall make mistakes, right?” I pin him with a flat stare, not denying a single word he had to say.

Of course I would expect him to want Rocklin, and of course I’ve detached from the idea of being his wife. For fuck’s sake, he already had one and left her for me.

History always repeats itself and I’m under no impression I am somehow “more than” she was. Is. What the fuck ever.

Enzo sits down beside me, his dark eyes snapping to my hair that lies against the pillows before lifting his gaze to mine. “The only mistake you have made is holding back the questions you really want to ask. So rectify that. Ask me what you wish to know. Ask me what I should have already told you, but haven’t.”

“Why?”

“Because you want to know.”

“No.” I shake my head, pushing up so we’re nearly eye level. “You misunderstand.”

Slight creases frame his eyes as he searches mine. “Break it down for me.”

“It’s simple. Why didn’t you tell me?”

It’s brief, but for a split second, a stunned expression crosses his face. His smirk appears a moment later. It’s deep and satisfied.

It’s kind of unnerving.

“You didn’t expect me to ask that.”

“Not right away, no, but it’s the question I would have started with.” He tips his head slightly, that smirk loosening in a way that is far too flirty. It annoyingly chips at the ball of anger burning in my chest. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to back out. I wanted this and was willing to hide whatever needed to be hidden to have it.”

This. It.

I pull my lips between my teeth as I turn over his so very carefully worded response. He wanted me more than he wantedKatana, and of course he would. Who else had the ability to give him that offer to our world he’s been after?

Not her, that’s for sure.

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