Page 104 of A Dangerous Proposal

Declan gave him a long look. “Do you know what you’re doing?”

Alex tapped the ash from the cigar end. “Don’t tell me we do feelings now.”

“Call it morbid curiosity. You all but declared war on a U.S. Senator for a woman yousayyou don’t care about.”

“I never said I didn’t care about Madison. She’s my wife,” Alex growled, not liking the direction in which the conversation was going.

“I think you’re in love with her.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Declan chuckled. “I’m just saying.”

“Don’t you have a leprechaun you should be fucking?”

Declan threw back his head and laughed. They sat in silence for several minutes before he added, “You know she’s in love with you, right?”

Alex’s fingers tightened around the cigar. “No, she’s not.”

“I don’t even want to know what all went into this sudden marriage, but I have eyes.”

“Our marriage is our business.” His heart began to pound.

Madison wasn’t in love with him.

A suffocating feeling twisted in his chest. He instantly shoved it down. It didn’t matter. Whatever Declan thought he saw, whatever ridiculous assumptions he’d made, it changed nothing.

Except, underneath his irritation was an odd tingling—an emotion that both enticed and terrified him.

No.He wouldn’t let Declan get in his head.

Their marriage was an arrangement.

A partnership.

He would protect her. Give her anything she needed.

Just not that.

Declan’s voice lowered, suddenly serious. “Are you prepared for what it will feel like when she walks away? When you can’t give her what she needs? Because that’s what will happen someday. It’s hard to live with a broken heart full of regrets for something you should have recognized before it was too late.”

Alex’s stomach twisted.

No.

He wasn’t prepared.

But he could ignore Declan because he never planned onletting Madison go.

Chapter Thirty-One

Felix crossed his arms, his smile widening as he waited for her at the Armstrong’s front door. Madison was tired and frustrated after an unproductive trip to North Carolina and was out of patience for Felix’s bullshit.

“So,” he said, looking smug. “You think you’re going to bully me by having your attack dog embarrass my father-in-law? You’re just as stupid as your sister. Look where that got her.”

Madison’s stomach sank to her feet right before her temper flashed to life. After being stonewalled and borderline threatened by several firefighters over the last twenty-four hours, she was ready to throw down. And Felix deserved it more than anyone else she knew.

“You think you’re being bullied?” she hissed. “You are a grown man who has spent his entire life abusing and taking advantage of people physically weaker. You are a parasite. Now, go get my son before I take your fucking head off.”

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