Page 25 of Wed to the Devil

“It doesn’t matter. Burn has a history of touching things that don’t belong to him. First Daisy. Now he tried to take you from me. I won’t just stand by like a helpless fool and let him steal my wife.”

Talia frowns a little. “Dare, you’ve already won that battle. We are married. I’m your wife. One of the reasons that I married you was because I think that Burn is a cheater that cannot be trusted. You said so yourself.”

“Burn knows that you are mine,” I growl. “Mine. He knows that you are my wife. I think he delights in the idea that he can take any woman that I have and steal her away with enough charm, money, or force.”

I see her quick inhale of breath. “I know you don’t want to lose me to Burn. I know that you two have a complicated history and he has burned you in the past. But that’s not taking me into account at all.” She takes my hand, lacing her fingers through it and bringing it to her chest. She looks at me intently. “I have agency. I have the ability to make choices for myself. I am telling you right now… I have no interest in running to Burn’s arms. The only way that you can lose me is by being dishonest with me and not respecting me. You don’t have to worry about competition from your brother. Especially not now, after he assaulted me. If I leave, it won’t be because Burn charmed me. Do you understand?”

My heart hammers against the wall of my chest. I hear what she is saying, but her words don’t fully sink in.

Still, I agree without really thinking. “I understand. That doesn’t make me want to kill Burn any less, though.”

Talia smiles and puts her hand against my cheek briefly. “Just remember the inheritance battle. I doubt that Remy will award you the company for killing your own brother. Even your family seems a little too uncouth for that.”

She pushes me away with gentle hands and moves to the edge of the bed, finally standing up.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

She moves over to the closet, passing me a sideways glance as she goes. “Changing. There is a pair of silk drawstring pants in here and an oversized cashmere cardigan that are really calling my name. Unless you have other plans, I was going to try to close my eyes for a minute. I think I’m having an adrenaline crash. You don’t mind, do you?”

I squint at her but shrug. “No.” I stand and watch her as she undresses, looking back at me a couple times with a harried expression.

“Are you just going to stand there and watch me?”

She pulls her sweater over her head and I look at her smooth, flawless skin on her back. She’s not wearing a bra at all and while she hurries to put a shirt on, something primal stirs in me.

Lusts perhaps, but something deeper than that. I don’t have a name for the emotion that looking at Talia makes me feel. Possessive, yes. But something more than that, too.

Some emotion that is new, one that flits beneath the surface and sinks too quickly for me to fully examine it.

She seems to have cooled off completely by now. Her shaky hands are gone, her voice is calm and even. I check my watch. “If you’re going to take a nap, I should get caught up with work and touch base with a few people. I don’t want to leave the loft again today. So maybe I will have a private chef come in and cook for us.”

Talia tugs on her shirt and then rubs herself in a white cashmere cardigan. She looks at me, her expression hard to read.

“That would be nice,” she says.

I prowl over to her, slowly putting my hand out and wrapping it around her waist. Drawing her in slowly, I look down at her. Her head falls back, her face bewitchingly beautiful.

For the first time that I can remember, I want to kiss her lips. There is no expectation behind the movement when I brush her lips with my own. Just that odd possessive feeling again. I enjoy the press of her body against mine, the way she inhales sharply just before I kiss her. The feeling of having completed a goal when I look into her eyes.

She is mine. I really do believe her when she says that she isn’t interested in Burn.

I want to deepen the kiss and push her backward to the bed. I want to hear her call my name.

But I don’t. Instead I reluctantly turn her loose. “I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Her brow furrows in confusion but she just nods. “Okay. I’ll see you for dinner.”

Walking out of the room is hard. Closing the door behind me is nearly impossible. But she needs rest. And I have plenty to do in the meantime.

When Talia finally stumbles out of the bedroom, wiping sleep from her eyes, she finds me in the room that I’ve claimed for my office. I glance up from the paperwork that I have been paging through, jogging the boring balance sheets and looking her up and down. She changed into a loose white cotton dress and kept the oversized white cashmere cardigan on. She crosses her arms and saunters into the room with a curious expression on her face.

“What smells so good?” She asks.

My lips twitch and I stand up, moving around my desk. “I thought that you might like having some Italian food for dinner.”

Her brows knit. “You’re cooking for me?”

I smirk at her and roll my eyes. “I don’t cook. But I do have a number of personal chefs on my payroll that are available at a moment's notice. So you get the best of both worlds: great food and the pleasure of my company.”

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