Page 46 of A Diamond for My Forbidden Bride

His thinking and his motivations might be skewed, but his emotions had always been true.

‘What if I don’t want to go?’ I asked him. ‘What if I stayed?’

He didn’t hesitate. ‘Then we’d have some more dinners. Spend time getting to know one another again. You could swim in the sea, read books, relax in the sun. And, when you were ready, we could discuss our future and whether that would be together.’

I was still shaking. He’d given me something, hadn’t he? He’d surrendered something, and now I wanted to do the same.

‘My mother was a trophy wife,’ I said. ‘Dad wanted a son, and she couldn’t give him one. He treated her...badly. He didn’t respect her; was cruel to her and she just...put up with it. She stayed and I’ll never understand why. But one thing I do know is that I won’t. I won’t put up with being treated the way he treated her, like a thing, like a toy he’d got bored of playing with.’

I swallowed and lifted my chin. ‘He treated me like that too until I told him that, if he wanted the family company to stay in the family, he’d have to leave it to me. He respected strength, and so strong is what I always tried to be.’

‘Until I took that strength away from you,’ Val said with unexpected insight, his black gaze pinned to mine. ‘Oh, little star...’ He moved then, coming around the side of his desk. But he didn’t approach me, standing in front of it instead. ‘I gave you no choice. I took you prisoner. I used your own emotions against you...’ There was a bleak look in his eyes. ‘Did I make you doubt yourself too?’

I wasn’t sure how he knew that but...there had been an underlying uneasiness in me that I’d let him do all of this to me. That I hadn’t fought hard enough, hadn’t stood up to him enough, hadn’t challenged him when I should have. That I’d been somehow...weak.

I didn’t need to say it, though, because I could see he’d read my expression well enough.

Val muttered a curse under his breath in Spanish. ‘You aren’t to blame,’ he said roughly. ‘It was my doing, my responsibility.’

‘But I let you—’

‘You didn’t let me do anything. You slapped me across the face then you pushed me into the sea. You made me work for every concession. You fought me every step of the way.’

I took a breath, not wanting to tell him this, but there seemed little point in not voicing this last doubt. ‘I was going to let Constantine pay my debts. I was going to let him take over my company.’

Val took what looked like a helpless step forward before stopping himself, the look on his face blazing. ‘First of all, Constantine came to you. And you agreed to his terms because you care about your company and want to save it. You also want heirs, so why not get them from him too? That’s not weakness, that’s playing the hand your father dealt you which, by the way, wasn’t your fault, either.’

That last doubt was one I hadn’t even realised was there. That my father’s debts were on purpose, one last test for the daughter he’d never really respected.

‘Val...’ I murmured, suddenly feeling vulnerable.

‘Your father was a fool if he couldn’t see what he had in you.’ Val’s voice was full of certainty. ‘Strength. Bravery. Passion. You’re driven and you’re smarter than anyone else I know. But you’re not a diamond, Olivia. You’re a star, remember? And stars burn.’

I met his gaze at last. Saw the need there, the sheer intensity of it.

He was a star too, wasn’t he? A sun, full of rage and love and despair and hope. A difficult, conflicted man, but a man who not only had the ability to take, but the ability to give too. And he wanted to, that was obvious.

So why not let him?

‘What do you want, Val?’ I asked, knowing that I wasn’t going to walk away, not now, not after this.

His dark eyes glittered. ‘You. Only you.’

‘Then I’ll stay.’ My breathing had accelerated, my heart beating fast. ‘And we’ll do all those things you said. On one condition.’

‘Anything.’ His expression was stripped down, nothing but hunger in it. ‘Anything at all, you can have it.’

I took a shaky breath, aware of my own growing need. ‘I don’t see why sex should be off the table. And so, I’d...I’d like to give you pleasure.’

Surprise flickered over his face, but there was no smile of triumph or satisfaction, only a flare of sexual heat. ‘Because you want to? Or because you feel you should?’

He wanted my trust, but trust was a two-way street. And I wanted his too.

So it was me who closed the distance between us, until I was standing right in front of him, and then I reached out to brush his cheek with my fingertips, his skin warm and slightly roughened by his whiskers.

‘Because I want to,’ I murmured. ‘Because you’re special to me.’

It felt risky to say it, but I couldn’t not. After all, even after all he’d done, it was true.

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