Page 6 of Playing the Sicilian's Game of Revenge

His gaze was as impenetrable as ever, but he made no move to let her go. Or to explain himself. Saverina, usually quick with a quip or something scathing, found herself...unable to find her voice. Everything felt too tenuous, like if she spoke or breathed or moved, it would all break and crash apart.

Maybe she should let it, but she didn’t want to. She wanted him to love her. Plain and simple. And she had never thought herself much like her mother, never understood her mother’s destructive need to earn approval from a husband who was never going to give it.

Now, terrifyingly, Saverina thought she understood. But before she could do anything about it, Teo took in a deep breath, released her and got out of bed. “Do not go anywhere.” Then he pulled on pants and strode out of the room, storms in his eyes.

He didn’t seem angry as he had last night, but there was none of his usual smile or charms or easy way. Something was bothering him, eating at him, and it wasn’t just the lawyer issue of last night. She was sure something darker simmered underneath that frustration. Which wasn’t about her or wanting him to love her.

While he was gone, Saverina sat up in the bed, pulling the sheet around her as she was pretty sure all her clothes were out in the living room.

She didn’t know what she was staying put for, what he was doing, but she didn’t think she wanted to be completely uncovered to deal with it.

When he returned to the room, he was exactly the same. His pants were not fastened, he’d pulled on no shirt. His hair was wild.

From her hands.

There was some satisfaction in that as he approached the bed. She worked very hard to keep her cool expression in place, to give absolutely no hint of the way her heart was pounding in her chest or nerves had flooded every inch of her.

What was this? Was he...? Surely he wasn’t going to break up with her while she sat here naked in his bed? The very thought had twin types of feelings rushing through her. Fear and pain and sadness so deep it threatened to make her cry.

And a roiling, dark, violent anger, the vicious temper handed down by her father that she worked very hard to keep on a leash.

Nevertheless, if he broke her heart right now, she’d eviscerate him, and she refused to feel an ounce of guilt over it. Sometimes fury was the answer. She just had to be careful about when that was and who it was aimed at.

But before she could say anything, tell him all that he’d be missing if he walked away from her, he knelt right next to the bed. This was strange enough, but then he held out his hand. He held a small box.

A jewelry box.

That pounding heart in her chest dropped straight down to her stomach, and she felt lightheaded, like all of her muscles had suddenly gone to jelly.

“Marry me,” he said. Stern and earnest.

Saverina could only stare. He had a ring. Two simple words. Marry me. She thought she should want to jump at the chance, scream yes and throw herself at him. And part of her did, just as part of her was in the tears threatening to fall over.

Marry meant commitment. A life together. And she loved him, so much, she could admit to herself now. She could see wonderful and happy years stretched out together, making a family, just like so many of her siblings were doing.

But she didn’t speak because something was...missing. It took her a moment to understand why it all felt a little...hollow, even with a symphony of other emotions running through her.

He offered no declarations of love. No promises of a future. Nothing soft at all. She didn’t need over-the-top gestures, but was it wrong to want more than a demand to stay put, then a statement and a ring?

She didn’t like being commanded, and she didn’t like the nearly emotionless way this was all going down. A marriage proposal should be...about all that future they would make together. All the feelings that had led him here.

Shouldn’t it?

She wanted to say yes. She wanted to marry him. To throw herself into all they were, but could she do that when he’d never once said he loved her? When no one around them even knew they were together? Was this leaping too far ahead, too quickly?

Her brain whirled in circles and still he just knelt there, ring outstretched, waiting for her answer like they had all the time in the world.

She looked into his dark eyes, but they gave nothing away. Like there was nothing inside. Like this was a business transaction. He wasn’t nervous or excited or felled by love or even lust.

But last night hadn’t been devoid of feelings. It had been full of them. Waking up to him meant something, it had to. And she loved him. He clearly cared for her or he wouldn’t be proposing marriage. This was not her mother’s experience. Saverina was too strong for all that.

So maybe she didn’t need the words. Maybe, if she loved him and wanted to marry him and he was asking, the only thing to do was say yes. To take what she wanted.

Unless you’re setting yourself up for unmitigated failure.

Saverina did not respond. She sat there, naked in his bed with the sheet wrapped around her. Tempting and beautiful and resolutely silent.

When he was altering his plans. All because he’d woken up to her gently asleep next to him like... He shook away the strange sensation he’d had with her tucked up against him, breathing quietly.

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