Page 56 of The Wicked Prince

He was going to kiss her long enough to make himself forget about what was going to happen next.

“John…” Robin breathed out against his lips and finally her hand was pushing him back.

John stumbled back, right off the sofa and to his feet as Robin stared up at him, her face flushed and her lips swollen. Her eyes were wide and John knew he had failed. So he had to speak first.

He whispered, “Is it truly so terrible a thought that you cannot even bear to be near me? Is it really so awful to consider that I could be in love with my own wife?”

“I—” Robin’s breath was labored. She started to push herself to her feet, stumbling away from John. “I’m not doing this. Not with you. I’m not playing your games. I’m not falling for another one of your traps!”

That’s what she still thought of him? After all this time? After everything he’d done?

“You think I’ve wanted this? To be reduced to a pathetic mess, begging for scraps of attention from my own wife?”

“Stop saying that!” Robin yelled. “Stop saying it like you love me when you just want to own me!”

He went completely still. He’d never had a hope, had he?

“Own you?” John whispered.

“What else am I supposed to think? Those drawings of me? Everything I have here is because of you—directly because of you. You designed every piece of clothing I wear, every piece of furniture in my room. You give me things I don’t want or need. You do things you think I’ll approve of because you want me to lower my guard. Simpering over me, finding all these little ways to put your hands on me while pretending you care about me. The portrait of me and my parents, trying to make me into Roberta and not Robin Hood. You want me to give up and accept this—accept you! But I finally figured out the game you’ve been playing for months now, and I can’t believe I was naïve enough to miss it all this time. You’ve just been turning me into your little pet!” Robin’s face was now bright red, but it was clear rage. “You want me to need you so you can own me.”

He was losing her. He could feel her finally slipping through his hands, so he threw it all to the wind to at least dosomething.

“I love you.”

“You don’t know how to love something without owning it.”

“What would you have me do then?” He did not care how desperate his pleading was or how it mixed with his terror and cowardice until it looked far more like anger. “I cannot go back in time and erase our wedding from existence so I can do this properly! And even if I could, you would have nothing to do with me if it weren’t for this situation. I cannot win with you!”

“No. John. You’ve been winning this whole time. You just can’t win me.” Robin lifted her chin. “I will not let you make me into the image of a wife you desire.”

Why did she always have it wrong?

“You are what I desire! Did I not just prove that?” John gestured to her still swollen lips.

It was the wrong thing to say, as Robin flushed once more. “That—Thatwill never happen again. You will stay away from me.”

Even as she tried to push him away, pretending she hated him, he could see through it. The way he’d seen her exhaustion the first time they’d met. He would not let her deny what she’d just done as well.

“If I am so undesirable to you, why did you kiss me back?”

Robin ran for the door.

John reached the open doorway and spotted Robin hurrying down the hall, running away from him. “For the record, it’s not a crime to kiss your husband, but maybe I should make it one since apparently that’s the only way to catch your interest!”

Robin was gone.

John leaned back against the doorway, closing his eyes and praying to the stars above he hadn’t just lost her for good.

Chapter23

Robin ran into her room, slamming the door shut behind her. She rushed over to the door connecting her room to John’s, making sure it was locked. Once she had, she stepped back and breathed again. She ran a hand through her hair, still half up since John hadn’t finished.

He couldn’t love her. No matter how much he professed to.

He just wanted to possess her. They were completely different things.

He just thought he loved her. Which was exactly why Robin had to control this and stop it before it went any further. Before she went too far.

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