Page 16 of Alpha Wolf's Arranged Bride
I sit down in the armchair across from the bed, desperate to touch her but knowing I have to be extremely careful if I want my cover to stay intact.
“So, Scarlett,” I say. “Is vodka lime your favorite drink?”
“You know it is.”
“What?”
My heart pounds like crazy as she slowly raises her head and looks me in the eyes. Her mouth is set in a hard line, and slowly, her look turns into a glare.
“I’m just trying to get to know you,” I say pleasantly. “I think this marriage could really work if we both put in the effort. You’re beautiful and smart, with a fine taste in drinks.”
I smile encouragingly, but her face has gone completely blank. When she brings one hand up to cover her mouth, I have the horrible feeling she might be crying, but then I hear a sarcastic chuckle.
I know that sound.
I’m about to get roasted.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” she snaps, keeping her voice low. “Do you really think I didn’t recognize you?”
“Wait. What?”
“Rex? Rex Stanton? Is that your real name, or is it James Drent?”
Oh, holy fuck.
“Scarlett, I can explain—”
“Oh, can you? Because I’d like to see you try.”
“I had no choice about what I did. You have to believe me—”
“I don’t have to believe anything! How dare you walk back into this town, pretending to be someone else? Is this even how you actually look?”
“Yes, Scar, this is how I really look. I was wearing a disguise before.”
“Lies upon lies!” she hisses. “I should start screaming bloody murder right now!”
“If you were going to do that, you would have done it on the altar,” I answer, remembering the weird exchange between her and Azarian. “But you don’t want the town to find out, do you?”
“No,” she whispers, looking around at the walls as if they might have ears. “They’d probably execute us both if they realized who you are, and by now, it looks like I’m protecting you.”
“Aren’t you?” I ask.
Scarlett glares at me, her eyes as bright and cutting as lasers. “I’m protecting myself and my son.”
“If you say so,” I reply. “But I feel like there’s a lot more going on here than what you’re telling me. And maybe, if you open up to me, I could help.”
“Why should I trust you?” she asks, keeping her voice down with extreme difficulty. “You lied to me, right to my face, for a year. And then, before you left without even a goodbye, you… you…”
Her voice fails her, and I see her face crumple as she turns away from me to hide her pain. What I see in that moment shows me that she never forgot me, and she has been suffering my loss since I ran out on her.
Fuck.
Scarlett sobs softly, wiping her cheeks to look back up at me with strength in her eyes. I hurt her, that’s for sure, but she picked herself back up with fire and steel in her blood and carried on.
And had a kid. What happened to his father?
Thinking about the other man makes me extremely uneasy, and my mind supplies a vast array of possibilities, from him being a loving father killed in a horrible accident to another political marriage that ended badly. Even though I had decided to ask her about it directly, seeing her crying in front of me crumbles my resolve.
