Page 4 of Crown of Thorns
Unfortunately, I don’t notice that his tone has changed from playful to pissed.
“Yeah.” I shrug my shoulders, looking away. “Your spin. The story you weave to make this look good. Your PR people must work overtime.”
The pads of his fingers dig into my still bruised cheek and my chin as he turns my face back toward him, and I flinch from both the bite of his fingers andthe look in his eyes. “Excuse me?”
“I know that you don’t love me—”
“I do,” he growls.
“And I know that you lied to me, and you cheated on me.”
There, it’s all out now. He can’t deny it anymore because we both know what we know, and the truth is all that’s left.
“I didn’t tell you the whole truth at the time,” he says. And I wonder how long he’s been believing his own tall tales.
“That is still a lie. One that was used to manipulate me here, into the position I’m in now.” That’s the part I can’t get over. He lied to me to get me to fall into his plan. I left my home thinking I was going to support my boyfriend as his dad died and stepped off the plane as the fiancée of a king. I was manipulated at every turn because he knows that if given the choice of exercising my own free will, I would not be here now.
“That’s true,” he agrees.
“So, you’ll let me go home?”
“No.”
“But why?” I cry. He’s being ridiculous. This is so much bigger than him and me.
“Because,” he says, leaning in close again. “You’re mine.”
“But I don’t want to be anymore.” Why can’t he see that? I need him to set me free because I don’t want to be here anymore. I probably never did. If Iwas given the chance, I’d still be in my one bedroom apartment.
“Don’t lie to me, hen,” Rhys warns, and I feel myself dig in my heels for a fight.
“I’m not.”
“You are,” he says. “Because you love me, and you love being mine. You kiss me like you’ve never been kissed so sweet before. I know, because I haven’t either. And I know you’re lying because you love the way I fuck you, raw and deep, my cock filling you up like you were made just for me, and me for you.”
“Stop,” I beg. I don’t want to hear anymore. I don’t want him to pull me back under the spell of being his. And besides, it was all a lie. Good bed chemistry doesn’t mean he loves me and that’s something he’s specifically leaving out.
Did I love him? Yes, but that doesn’t mean that he ever loved me.
“And you love the way I hold you in my arms at night and whisper things I’ve never told anyone before,” he says.
“That’s not true,” I say, shaking my head. “I want to go home.”
“To what?” he asks softly. “A job in a bookshop and a lonely life with no real connections.”
“That’s not fair,” I gasp. That was a low blow, and he knows it. “My uncles—”
“Are gone,” he says sharply. “I know you read your dossier, although I’m not sure how it came to be in your possession.”
“I didn’t go snooping, if that’s what you mean.” Does he really think so little of me? But then, I guess he does. Rhys thought I was too naïve or dumb to question how he was manipulating my entire life, to position me as his dutiful wife in a way that I could never unravel all the knots and strings tying me to him no matter what.
“No, hen,” he says. “I mean it was given to you to draw a wedge between us. But it couldn’t because, the truth is, you don’t know your real family. Fran and Paul might have raised you ,but they are not your blood. I’m all you have and you’re going to learn to accept that.”
“No! They love me.” How could he be so cruel to throw this in my face with everything else? One thing can’t be denied; Rhys will do whatever is necessary to keep me here. I never stood a chance where he is concerned. I’m going to have to keep my wits about me because the next time there’s a chance to escape, I’m taking it.
“They do,” he says gently. “But they had a duty to their king and it’s done now. When the time is right, you’ll meet your real uncle as the duchess you rightfully are, but also as my queen.”
“No,” I cry. “I won’t do it! I won’t marry you knowing that you’re with everyone else. How could you want to hurt me like that?”
