Page 76 of The Billionaire's Secret
Saint snarls. He raises his arm. I jump forward and grab his shoulder, "Let him go," I pant. "He’s baiting you. Can’t you see that?"
Saint shrugs off my hold, "I gave you a simple command. If you don’t obey it—"
"What are you going to do?"
His jaw tics, a nerve throbs at his temple, and his entire body goes rigid. Anger thrums off of him, mixed with…an intensity that had not been there before. If I’d thought Saint had been upset earlier…that was nothing… Nothing compared to how every muscle in his body is wound up, tightened, coiled into a mass of lethal fury that could plough down anything that gets in his way. He could kill Antonio; I have no doubt about it. There is no way I am going to let him do it. I won’t let him get into trouble because of me…And yet, you are going to sell him out. I don’t have a choice about that. I have too much at stake.But I could buy him a little more time…a few more days of freedom. For myself...for him.
"Tell me what you’ll do to me if I don’t follow your orders, Saint."
His gaze flicks to me, "I’ll make you regret this."
"Without giving me a chance to say ’yes’?"
"What did you say?"
"I said ’yes.’"
Saint frowns.
Antonio steps back, "I’m sorry."
Saint turns to him, as if I hadn’t accepted his proposal. Maybe he doesn’t understand what I am alluding to? Perhaps he already regrets asking me to marry him? Either way, this lack of surprise or any kind of response from him is…strange, to say the least.
"Didn’t realize the lady was taken," Antonio raises his hands. "I never meant to trespass on what’s yours."
The two men exchange a glance.
Saint wraps his arm around me and pulls me close. The heat of his body slams into me, his big frame dwarfing me. I melt into him, and for a second pretend that I am his. That he belongs to me, that I am a woman who agreed to marry a man who in a few short days had stripped back the layers I’ve shown to the world. Who’d known how to arouse me with a look, a touch, a spanking across my backside. My nerve endings crackle and my scalp tingles. I swallow, force myself to stay where I am.
"No hard feelings, ol'chap?" Antonio holds out his hand.
Saint sets his jaw, "Leave before I have you thrown out."
Antonio chuckles. "It won’t come to that." He glances down at me, and Saint’s hold tightens, until I can barely breathe.
"Good luck, my dear, though by the looks of it, it will be your man who’ll be needing it."
He brushes past us.
Saint stiffens. I peer up at him to find the pulse racing at the hollow of his neck. I lift my fingers to touch the skin, and he releases me. My knees threaten to give way. I put out a hand and brace myself against him.
"Who was he?" Saint asks.
"No one." I retract my arm, press my elbows into my side. "He was no one."
"He didn’t seem like nobody. You guys seemed to be engaged in intimate conversation when I arrived."
"How did you find us?" I ask.
"Meredith called me."
"Right," I shuffle my feet. "Did you hear what I said earlier?"
He frowns.
"About my saying 'yes,' I mean."
"Your agreeing to marry me?"
