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This never happened. Just ignore him. Don’t imagine it.
“When I slid my hand up her soft inner thigh. Her fearful little cry. She wished so badly her hero was here to help her. But he wasn’t.”
My stomach clenches. I have to roll my neck. I can’t help it.
This is fucking torture, and he knows it.
“Stop.” I glare at him. “There’s no fucking way any of this happened.”
His eyes twinkle with amusement. “How sure are you?”
Not sure enough, because I’m about one more fucking visual from torching everything I’ve built for myself and ripping his smug ass off that chair.
“You want to fight me, Kill?” he asks, his tone tinged with dark amusement. “How come? She doesn’t matter, right?”
“You’re being a fucking asshole,” I snap. “Just because it’s over doesn’t mean I didn’t like her. You know I did. It wasn’t a fucking secret.”
“The problem is, I think you still do,” he says, leaning back and crossing his arms. “And I think because you do, you’re not being fair to Sloane.”
“And you care about Sloane?” I ask, amused at the very idea.
“No,” he says flatly. “But I very much care about having the continued favor of her father, one of the most influential fucking people in the country, Kill.” He leans forward, locking eyes with me, and I can see he’s serious. “And so should you. Definitely more than you should care about some girl you fucked for a week and a half.”
He’s right, I should.
Looking at it from his perspective, I’d probably want to kick my ass for acting this way, too. It’s not logical, but the rocket to the top has lost its appeal to me. It doesn’t matter how great that life would look from the outside, it wouldn’t mean anything to me without her.
I’d rather start at the bottom with Brynn and build it all myself than take a golden elevator to the top that demands I let go of her.
I’d rather do anything than let go of her.
But I’m fucking trapped.
Buried beneath the foundation of a life I started building before I met her.
And if I break through that concrete and try to fight my way out, I won’t make it. There are too many opposing forces, and they’re too ruthless.
Hex, in particular. We may be friends, but he’s also our elected monarch, and he takes his responsibility seriously. We all know he has the ability to be a cruel king, lethal and unforgiving if the circumstances call for it. It’s why we picked him.
Unfortunately, it’s also why he would snap Brynn’s neck right in front of me if I threatened the stability of his kingdom.
So I have to navigate this carefully. I’m not worried for me; I’m worried for her.
“Nothing has changed, Hex. I never promised to be a doting husband, all I promised to do was marry her. And her father will be satisfied with that. We both know he doesn’t care about the authenticity of our feelings for one another. He only cares about ensuring stability, that his legacy will carry on through an heir of his choosing, and that that heir’s kids will have his blood in their veins.”
Hex regards me thoughtfully. “Well, last I heard, you have to fuck a woman to put an heir in her belly, and you haven’t so much as kissed Sloane since you started your relationship with her.”
“Yeah, well, we weren’t supposed to be in a relationship yet. She fucking forced my hand, and I don’t like that. Would you?”
He doesn’t say anything, but I can see he gets my point. If a woman ever tried forcing Hex into anything, I would say God help that woman.
“I’m doing what’s required of me. I have a fucking cake tasting this weekend. I’ll eat the cake because I said I would, but I don’t have to like it.”
Our gazes lock and stay that way long enough for Hex to feel me out.
He must decide he’s satisfied, at least for the moment, because he finally nods. “All right. I’ll allow Brynn’s old ghosts to be exorcised, but I don’t think you should do it yourself. You’re too close to it. You’ll make it too personal. And you say there’s no connection between you, but there is. If this person wronged Brynn, it wouldn’t be impossible to look at Brynn and see you’ve been close to her lately.”
I shake my head. “I’m killing the bastard myself. There’s no formal record of what he did to Brynn, so there’s no reason for a motive to ever be connected to her. I’ll take someone if you want me to, maybe some help for the side havoc I’d like to wreak, but the kill is mine.”
