Page 141 of Adoration: Isn't What It Seems (Love Isn't What It Seems 2)

With a blanket wrapped around me, I peeked my head out of the library into the dark hallway and saw Alexander rubbing his head.

As if he could sense me, his eyes met mine.

“Are you ok?” I asked.

“Someone left a bloody chandelier lowered,” he growled, holding his forehead.

“I think it was lower all along,” I tried not to sound patronizing. He threw a look my way but didn’t say a word, rubbing his forehead.

“C’mon in here. I can barely see you in the dark.” I wanted to make sure he was okay.

I moved to the side to let him into the library, and got the whiff of alcohol. As I shut the door behind us, he glanced backwards with a smile that would have me losing my heart, if it wasn’t lost already.

“Are you going to lock us in?” It didn’t sound like a question, more like a suggestion.

“Don’t be silly, Alexander,” I retorted. “I want to keep the heat from the fireplace in here.”

“I can keep you warm,” he teased, relaxed like we didn’t have a strained relationship.

Although my body was onboard with it, I played it cool, raising my eyebrows. “Does that line actually work for you?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted, still a relaxed smile playing around his lips. “I never used it before.”

I studied him; he was definitely relaxed… more relaxed than I’d ever seen him, which was probably the result of the alcohol.

“Come here, Livy.” His voice was pure seduction and even as my feet moved of its own will, I told myself this was not a good move. “You have gotten under my skin,” he purred, his eyes watching me hungry.

“Are you drunk?”

“No,” he replied softly. “But I should be. It might be the only way to forget about you and your adoration for fucking Callen McLeod.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Look at you, wife,” he muttered. “You are miserable being around me. I thought maybe you’d want our family as much as I do. You must be willing to do it just to save Callen and his company. Why else would you put yourself through such misery?”

“I don’t want to save him,” I told him.What the hell was he blabbing about?

“Then why are you willing to do this? To save a company that should be, but isn’t, half yours.”

If I didn’t know better, I would think he was jealous.

“You must be drunk,” I muttered.

He grabbed me around the waist and pulled me against him. “I want to be drunk. Just like my father was. I want to drown in alcohol so I could stop obsessing. I hated my father for most of my life for it and here I am doing it too. He gave up everything for your mother.”

I paled at his words.

Doomed from the beginning,my heart bled. How was I to tell him I was carrying his child now?

I wanted to say something but my voice failed me, words stuck in my throat. I lifted my hand, placing my palm on his cheek. A single tear dropped onto my cheek. I loved him so much, he was my heartbeat, my oxygen, my everything.

He leaned his forehead against mine. “I can finally understand it, though. My father’s obsession, his pain, his need for your mother. Because you became all that to me.”

My eyes snapped to his deep blue gaze, shock all over my face.

“I can’t fucking live without you,” he groaned. “I am like a starving man and only you can feed me. I could just kill Callen, just to remove him out of your head. I want to strangle him with my bare hands so you would never want him again.”

“I don’t -”

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