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“I’ve never been with your brother,” I spit.
His lip curls. “Not what it sounds like to me.”
“That relationship was between my mother and Darius. I'm just the prize they bargained.”
His eyes flash, but he says, “You agreed to be that prize.”
I bite the inside of my cheek. “I did. And then I ran away.”
“To me.” The way he says that—something about the hard edge to his voice turning soft—I don’t know why but it makes me feel things I know I shouldn’t feel.
I steel myself. “I didn't know where else to go.”
“Why me, Olympia?” His breath washes over my face. I want to close my eyes against the assault of spiced rum and shaved wood. Of him…
Because I'm stupid. Because I fell for you when I was a child, and I never found a way to pick myself up again. Because I believed you were good, and strong, and that you could save me. Because they isolated me to a point, I had no one else to turn to.
I don't say any of that. I just hold those hard, dark eyes with my own. I give him the ruthless truth. “I came to you because they hate you. They all hate you. You didn't play into their bullshit.”
His hands fist at his sides. “My father fucked the woman I was in love with.”
I do flinch this time, because those words—hells bells—they're like a sucker punch to my gut.
I'm winded for at least three heartbeats.
“He did.” It comes out as a croak. So much for cool and collected. This cucumber is officially charbroiled.
“Yeah,” he agrees bitterly.
“She wasn't innocent in that, Cole.”
“I am well aware, Olympia.”
I roll my lips. “They hate you because you didn't fall in line after the fact. You didn't smile and wish them well.”
“Ophelia married him. My mother was on her deathbed, and she had to watch the woman I thought I loved, marry the man she gave her life to. The man who didn’t stand beside her when she got sick, with the woman she thought of as a daughter.”
“You don't have to tell me. I was there!” Now my voice is rising.
I'm losing control.
But I really hate hearing him talk about Ophelia. I hate it so much; it burns like acid on my tongue. Not because I'm in any way loyal to her, but because I hate that she hurt him like this. I hate that he ever gave her the power to hurt him like this. She never deserved it. Never deserved him.
I don't know why he couldn't see her for the spiteful person she’s always been.
I would never have betrayed him like that. If he made me his, I’d stand loyal for him until the bitter end.
But he won’t make me his. Not ever. It’s a foolish thought for a foolish girl, and I’m over it. I’m done.
I’ve given enough of my headspace to Cole Freaking Taviera.
Now, my only focus is my freedom. He just happens to be my ticket.
“They've never let you come back into the family. Not after the way that you left. After you smeared them publicly. In our families, that's not forgivable.”
“Why were you engaged to my brother?” he demands, for some bizarre reason stuck on that.
I give him his answer. “Because my father is a drunk. And when he's drunk, he likes to gamble. So, he's kind of got the Laurier family, assets included, in a pickle.”
