Page 104 of Bloody Vows
"I'd rather spend the rest of my life fighting with you than being bored with anyone else.” I shake my head, my palm pressing against her cheek as I keep her looking up at me. “You’re my match in every way, Simone. In stubbornness, in strength, in bravery, in desire. You challenge me like no one ever has, and you make me work for every inch of ground I gain with you. I fucking love it. I love you. And you were right. I didn’t earn you, I took you. But I swear to God,célie, I will spend every fucking day from here on out doing whatever it takes to do just that, if I have to. I love you, and I will do whatever I have to in order to prove that I deserve you, even if I never get there.”
Her eyes widen in surprise, round in her delicate face, and I realize this is the first time I've said it out loud. The first time I've admitted, even to myself, how completely she's gotten under my skin.
"I want you and our child safe," I continue, cupping her face in my hands. "You mean the world to me, with or without the legacy. The territory, the power, none of it matters if I don't have you."
As the words come out, I know I mean them beyond a shadow of a doubt. I’d give it all up to keep her. And I don’t give a fuck if my father thinks that makes me weak, or undeserving of what I have.
He can take it, as long as I get to keep Simone.
27
SIMONE
For a moment, all I can do is stare at him. The words hit me like a physical blow, stealing the breath from my lungs.
I'd rather spend the rest of my life fighting with you than being bored with anyone else.
I love you.
Tristan loves me. I look at him in the soft glow of the lighting of my room, at this man who just tore through a house full of armed guards to get to me, who looked at me chained to that bed like seeing me hurt was the worst thing that had ever happened to him. His green eyes are fierce and desperate, and there's something raw in his voice that I've never heard before.
You’re insane if you think I haven’t fallen in love with you.
I thought I knew what we were to each other. A thief and his prize. An owner and his possession. A man and his object of lust.
But the way he looked at me when he kicked down that door… that wasn't the look of a man protecting his investment. That was the look of a man who would have torn the world apart to get to me.
"I don't understand," I whisper, looking up at him. He’s so handsome it hurts, the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. I wantto kiss him, to sink into him, to believe everything he says and lose myself in it, but I’m terrified to. I’m so fucking scared of believing him and having it all turn out to be a lie.
Love has never been something I expected I would have. For Tristan, of all people, to offer it now feels like a trap.
I swallow hard. "You could have had anyone. Someone who wouldn't fight you at every turn, someone who would have given you an heir without all the… complications."
Tristan shakes his head, and I see the smallest hint of his smirk, that light in his eyes despite his seriousness. "You think I want some simpering little mouse who agrees with everything I say? Someone who bows and scrapes and never challenges me?"
“You did,” I argue, and Tristan shakes his head.
“I thought I did,” he corrects. “My father told me that I did. And I listened, because all my life, listening and obeying has been the only way I’d ever get what I wanted. But now—” His thumb strokes over my cheekbone. “I was wrong about so much,célie. What I want is you. I’ll listen to anything you have to say. But my days of listening to my father and his ideas about what I should want and what my marriage should be are over.”
“Your life would be easier without me,” I whisper. “Less aggravating. Less messy.”
Tristan chuckles. “Simone, I’ve never wanted easy. And I like you messy. I like you yelling and throwing things at me when you’re angry enough to get there. I like that you don’t ever let me screw up without letting me know. I wasn’t lying when I said I’m fucking turned on by you arguing with me.” That smirk grows, and I shove him, one hand against his chest.
He grabs my wrist, moving my hand down below his belt. “See?” He grins, and I glare at him, feeling the half-hard shape of his cock under my palm. “Keep glaring,célie. I’ll only get harder.”
“Tristan—”
His face shifts back to serious. “I like that you look at me like you don’t know if you want to murder me or fuck me,célie. It gets me off. And more importantly, it means you don’t hide from me. You don’t hideanything, bad or good. This last week, where you’ve been silent and cold?” He shakes his hand. “I’d rather a thousand arguments than that, Simone.”
Something warm unfurls in my chest at the sound of my name, murmured in that Irish lilt. "You love that I'm difficult?"
"I love that you'reyou," he says simply. "I love that you never make anything easy for me. I love that you challenge me, that you make me work for every smile, every soft look, every moment when you forget to hate me." His voice drops to a whisper. "I love that you're strong enough to survive what just happened and still be sitting here arguing with me about it."
I feel tears prick at my eyes, and I blink them back furiously. I don't want to cry. But something about the way he's looking at me, like he’s been waiting all his life to find me, makes me want to let my guard down completely at last. To give myself to him, the way I haven’t been brave enough to do before.
"I thought..." I start, then stop, not sure how to put it into words. "When I got pregnant, you went so cold. I thought that was all you wanted from me. An heir. And once you had that..." I shrug, trying to appear nonchalant even though the memory still stings. "I thought you didn't need me anymore."
Tristan's face darkens. "Christ, Simone. Is that really what you thought? That I was just using you as a broodmare? That I didn’t give a shit about you after…" He stops, but I know what he was about to say—after that night we shared, after the next day, after what happened in his office. Something changed between us then—neither one of us can deny it. But I was afraid to believe in it.
