Page 73 of The Butcher

“You’re dangerous. You kill people. You’re not the kind of man to commit to a woman for long. You aren’t the kind of man to get married or have children?—”

“You’re making a lot of assumptions.”

“Am I wrong? I saw you in that bar, and I wanted you. And you’ve been the greatest high I’ve ever known. I’ve wanted time to stand still so we can be this way forever, but I know it can’t stay like this and it’s going to end and I don’t want to get my hopes up. So when you say shit like I’m your woman, you’re just making it harder?—”

“Why does it have to end?”

“Because you’re going to get tired of me and replace me with someone else. Because you’ll meet a girl at a bar, and I’ll disappear from your mind. You’ll tell me how much I mean to you and then turn around and stick your dick in someone else.” I felt the hot tears in the back of my eyes, feeling so fucking worthless, feeling all the damage Adrien had caused. “And then I’ll be crushed again, crushed more than I am right now. It’s just easy to keep things casual, to make sure that I have no expectations, that I don’t trust you, so you can’t hurt me the way he crushed me.” The tears came and slipped down my cheeks, and I was fucking humiliated.

“Sweetheart.” His voice was gentle like a fall breeze. His hands were on me, one on my cheek so his thumb could wipe the fallentear. His lips caught the other while he buried his hand in my hair. “It’s gonna be okay.”

I kept my eyes closed and grabbed his wrist with both hands, remembering the night he’d come to the bar and held my hand and said the same words. As long as my eyes shut out the world, I wouldn’t have to face it. I could hide until it went away.

He waited for me to look at him again on my own. “Sweetheart.”

“I—I’m not ready to be in a relationship.”

“Look at me.”

“No…”

“I know how brave you are,” he said quietly. “Look at me.”

I took a breath before I opened my eyes, feeling how wet they were when they were exposed to the air.

He continued to look down at me, his eyes soft and kind. “If I walked away right now and took someone else home, would it hurt you?”

Just the thought made my heart drop into my stomach. I couldn’t answer the question with words, so I just nodded.

“Then it’s too late to turn back,” he said. “So, be with me.”

I’d ended up in the corner I tried to evade—and I was fucking terrified.

“I’ve been yours since the moment I saw you. Now be mine.”

“I’m so fucking scared?—”

“I’m just asking you to acknowledge what we already are. It doesn’t need to go further than that. We can take this as slow asyou want. We can stay this way forever if that’s what you want. But I can’t do this if you won’t give me the respect I deserve. So, give me what I want—you—or I walk.”

My eyes were focused on his chin and neck, staring at the hard muscles of his jawline and neck. My hands continued to grip his wrist as I felt his palm against my cheek. “I don’t want to lose you.”

“Then you’re mine. Say it.”

My eyes remained down.

His palm lifted my chin and forced my stare to his. “Say it.”

I got lost in those blue eyes every time I looked at them. Got lost in this man whenever he walked through the door. He was the sexiest man I’d ever met, and the second he walked into my life, he set everything on fire and I burned in his flames. “You’re mine…and I’m yours.”

He didn’t ask me where I wanted to go. Just decided we would go to his place.

After our fight, we’d returned to our seats at the table, and he was all over me, his hand either on my thigh, draped over the back of the chair, or he kissed me right in front of everyone,reallykissed me, not an innocent peck on the lips.

He gave me his jacket when he knew I was cold, so I sat there and drowned in the material, his big hand so far up my dress that his fingers were hooked into my panties. His resentment evaporatedafter the fight, and now he wanted me even more when the barriers were removed.

I knew I’d just gotten myself into a precarious position, in a relationship with a man whom I knew I should avoid. If I hadn’t just been looking for good sex with a hot guy, I would have steered clear of him in the first place. But as the weeks passed and I got attached, deeply attached, my nails so deep under the skin they hit bone, I’d sealed my fate. Now, I was in a relationship with the most dangerous man in Paris.

We entered his home and took the elevator to the top floor to his bedroom. When we walked inside, his butler had already started the fire in the fireplace and placed a tray of dessert and champagne on the table for us to enjoy.

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