Page 115 of Devious Kingpin
“I love you, Wildling,” I said, my voice low. It might not have been the best time to profess my love but here it was. I was putting it all out there. “I’ve loved you for so fucking long. I waited for you to come around. To give us a chance. But you’re so goddamn stubborn.”
The expression on her face told me clearly she didn’t care about my justification—nor my love—but I kept talking anyhow. I still held on to the hope that she’d see the reasoning behind my actions.
“Let me fix it,” I begged. The words burned my throat like alcohol against a raw wound. “Let me prove to you that I’m worthy of your love.”
Her lip curved into a snicker, disgust crossing her expression.
“Love,” she snickered. “I don’t fucking love you. I could never love someone so fucking manipulative.”
She might as well have sliced my throat because those words were a stab to my cold black heart. It hurt like a motherfucker. But I kept my expression detached while the wheels in my brain turned.
A lengthy silence filled the space between us, strangling my lungs. I wished, just like when I was a little boy, that I could turn back time and make it alright. Fix it before it all went to hell.
The air crackled with tension and a thousand needles pricked my skin. My gaze fixed on my wife, I tasted her hate. Her bitterness. Her pain.
“I’m leaving you,” she said, her voice full of unrestrained loathing. “And you won’t be coming after me.”
I leaned forward, letting the cold blade press harder against my skin. “I’ll always follow you, Wildling.” I couldn’t let her go. I’d never let her go. “Besides, you made a promise,” I reminded her, “never to run.”
“That was before I knew what a pig you were.” Her eyes turned a shade lighter, as if her pain were bleeding into them. “You are fucking crazy if you think I’ll ever forgive you, Dante,” she hissed. “I can’t even stand to look at you.”
Okay, that fucking hurt.
A sardonic breath left me, hiding my own pain and focusing on hers. “You are so fucking stubborn. You’re attracted to me. You can feel it. Yet you’d rather cling to your hate and choose to end something that could be good for both of us.”
She scoffed. “Excuse me for not just falling down to my knees for you. You got some fucking nerve. You drugged me. Married me without my consent. And now you just want me to overlook it and pretend it never happened. Is that it?”
It sounded worse when spoken aloud, but she knew I never touched her. We were bound to end up together. She knew it. Deep down, I knew she did.
“I was fucking wrong, yes,” I said, letting out a bitter laugh. “But I’d been patient for goddamn months. Years.”
“So you decided it was time to drug me,” she noted calmly. Dangerously.
“It was the wrong thing to do,” I repeated, my jaw clenching so tight that it made my ears buzz. “I didn’t touch you that night. I just rumpled the sheets and slept next to you. Even when you tried to strip my clothes off, I made sure they remained on.” Her cheeks burned, but not from arousal. This time it was from her fury.
“You broke my trust,” she finally said, and it tore me apart. “This is over.”
“Far from over. There’s no divorce in our world,” I snapped. “You know that as well as I do. It was the reason my father couldn’t marry your aunt.”
Our gazes clashed and so did our wills. I should have known she wasn’t the forgiving type.
“Then we’ll be married, but we won’t live together.”
She whirled around, leaving the faint scent of sugarplums behind. Every fiber in me urged me to go after her, but I knew it wasn’t the right time.
“Don’t leave town or I’ll go to war with your family,” I warned softly, but the vehemence showed through. It had the desired effect. Juliette stilled by the door, her posture stiff and her hand gripping the knife, probably contemplating throwing it across the room and lodging it into my heart. “I’ll tear this world apart for you,” I vowed.
She didn’t say anything else. She didn’t even acknowledge my words.
My throat worked with a hard swallow past the lump lodged there while a horrible ache in my chest swelled. The tension barely held me upright and I folded over, hands on my knees. The pressure inside me strangled my heart and my lungs, making me suffocate from the inside out.
Slam.
The mansion shook and the house of cards started crumbling.
Then there was silence. Empty and hollow. Just like me.
CHAPTER47
