Page 103 of Bad Little Bride

“The floor is heated,” Enzo confirms what I suspected I was feeling.

I smile a little, next looking out over the giant lake that makes up all of the Fikile estate.

“Sit.” He tugs out the chair, so I climb into the plush, oversized seat, folding my legs beneath me. My robe slips and as I fix it, I catch him watching, his gaze dark as it trails across the silky number, pausing on the green swirls.

A small buzz zips across my skin. I can guess what he’s thinking, but I don’t ask and he doesn’t say, having something else on his mind he clearly intends to talk about.

Rather than scooting my chair in, he moves the entire table closer to me, taking the seat opposite of it. “For you.” He motions to the gorgeous fruit platter and steamy drink before me.

Silently, I fix my espresso the way I like, conscious of my actions more than normal with his attention focused on my every move. I pour an ungodly amount of caramel on top, licking across the tip after.

“You torture me, Little Bride.”

Freezing, I lift my eyes…and then I do it again. Slower. More deliberate, and a shiver runs through me at the wicked smirk he gives in return.

“So.” I attempt the most impassive tone I can manage. “You said you don’t lie, yet now you’re sayinglying gave me you.” Wrapping both hands around my warm glass, I draw it to my lips. “So, which is it, Enzo? Are you a liar or not?”

As fast as his smirk came, it goes, a wall of armor taking its place. “I’m not a liar,” he says so simply, but it’s the way he pauses that tells me there’s more and he wants me to ask what it is.

It takes him two minutes to realize I don’t plan to do as he hopes, so he starts talking.

“A little over a year ago, I told every man who would listen that I wanted what Rayo Revenaw had to give, knowing the word would get around, which was my intention from the start.”

“I know this story, Enzo.” I stretch my back, rolling my neck slightly, his eyes tracking my every move. “We were put under high protection for months after you announced your plan to take my father down.”

“No. You don’t know this story.” Enzo places his elbows on the table, leaning over until his large frame nearly swallows the space between us. “And you’re clearly not understanding what I’m trying to tell you, so I will say it again, slower this time. I wanted what your father had to give.”

“His empire.”

“Hisdaughter.”

I tug my head back, eyes narrowing on the man across from me, trying to make sense of his words, but all that I’ve got is, “What?”

Hazel eyes bore into mine with a fiery intensity that has the hairs on the back of my neck standing. “I didn’t want his name, or money, or the gateway to take my work across territories. Despite what you’ve been told, I already have that. All I wanted from the very first fucking time his name left my mouth…wasyou.”

My heart skips a beat. And then a second.

I forget to breathe as I stare at the man across from me.

The man I researched, studied, and tracked down. The man I risked my life to approach, betraying everything I was raised to stand for when I went behind my father’s back to make a deal with the man who wanted to kill him.

I was already a sinking ship and I threw my lifeboat overboard by simply meeting with the man in front of me.

My sister shunned me.

My so-called friends turned their backs on me.

My father had never known such disappointment.

And it only got worse after Enzo signed the marriage contract, officially accepting my offer.

I was “delivered” when demanded, only to be locked in a room and left there for three months, only seeing my husband-to-be’s face the day my father came for a wellness-check visit.

And then when my father came to take me home, Enzo let me go without so much as a “see you later,” having no idea it was my father’s intention to ensure he never would.

I lost my chance at being a Greyson girl when I was five and my sister outperformed me in every area, academically, mentally, and physically.

I lost my mother when I was eight.

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