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“Because I’ve been too soft with you, Claire.” He lets his gaze drop, and then skate over me again. “I didn’t want to scare you. From the first minute I saw you, I knew you were either a doe who scares easily or a fox dressed as one. Now I know… you’re a doe through and through.” I don’t know if I should be offended by that assessment. “You’re soft and gentle and sweet. I convinced you to kill Giante because I wanted to know, once and for all, if you were a fox or a doe. And now I know.”
“So, you lied to me?”
“Does it matter?” He challenges, toeing my feet apart and wedging himself in the space he creates. My body tenses, craving him.
“Of course it matters.” My head hurts. Everything hurts. But I do my best to pretend it doesn’t.
“You’re a killer, Claire. But you’re not a fox. You never will be.”
“I don’t want to be!”
I just want to be happy. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. My idea of what would make me happy has changed with time, morphing and transitioning into one simple thing: A family. I’d thought I had found one just a few nights ago, sitting next to him and Rhea on the boat. Obviously, I wasn’t deluding myself into thinking that he was in love with me or anything, but it had felt like the closest thing to a family I ever had. Probably the closest thing to family I will ever have. And now, what have I got?
“I’ve done you a disservice by trying to protect you instead of teaching you how cruel the world really is.” He presses his lips together, his gaze suddenly predatory. “I’ve lied to you about how wicked I really am to keep you from running and getting caught up in one of my traps.” His breath ghosts over my lips as his eyes rove mine. “Maybe I’ve been trying to hide it from myself, too. I’m not a fox or a doe.”
“Then what are you?” I challenge, afraid that if I even breathe wrong, he’ll break whatever spell has been cast between us. If he turns away from me—when he turns away from me—I just may break.
“A snake.” He says without hesitation. “I lay low, unseen, but powerful. I can wrap myself tight enough around you to crush the life out of you. And I can poison you as easily as I can kiss you. I already did.”
My spine straightens at the mention of poison, my stomach flipping. Was that an admission?
“Remy…” I feel dizzy, unsure what even to say, what to do. If that’s a confession, why is he giving it to me? Does he know that I know? Does he want me dead?
“Claire…” He says my name so softly that it’s hard to reconcile it with the man standing before me.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because it’s who I am.” He sighs, brushing a thumb over my lip and watching the skin part under his touch. “Because I want you to see the real me before you decide to sleep in bed next to me again, before you let your guard down with me. Before you learn just how cruel I can really be.”
“I think I’m starting to understand.” I swallow.
“Good.”
As if it’s a reward for the admission, he pulls me against him, tangling his hands in my hair, and devours me.
Our kiss is fire and passion and hate and confusion and anger. It is lust and hunger and craving. He systematically blows past my defenses, pulls me into him, and runs away with me before I’ve even had a chance to catch a breath. He pulls away when I’m on the verge of blacking out and swipes a tear from my cheek, but his lips still dance over mine when he speaks again. “Every moment you’re with me, you’re swimming in the deep end, Claire. You could drown at any moment.”
The little lift of his lips makes me think he wants me scared. So, I force a laugh, meeting his eyes with a similar intensity. “Lucky for me, I’m a good swimmer.”
“Are you?” He doesn’t miss a beat, again. Damn him.
“Excellent swimmer, actually.”
“Let’s find out.” He shrugs.
Before I can figure out what he means, he scoops me into his arms and strides out onto the boat deck. My stomach tightens as I realize what he’s implying, my eyes going wide as I try to get out of his grasp. “Remy!” I warn him.
“Time to put your money where your mouth is, sweetheart.”
He doesn’t give me a chance to say anything else because the next thing I know, he lifts me over the bow of the boat.
Then the warmth of his body disappears, and the icy water consumes me.
Chapter forty-seven
Remy
I know she can swim. I watched her gliding through the water like she was part fish the first night I met her, the night she got shot at. That was the first night she didn’t take any of the warnings seriously. I brought her with Rhea because I thought she’d be safer, and if she mattered so much to my sister, I was obligated to protect her. I didn’t realize bringing her here would only pull her deeper into my world. But that’s exactly what it did. I pulled her into this dark world without giving her sufficient warning, and she pulled me into her.
