And she thought he was wrong.“Maybe lust and love go hand in hand.Maybe our bodies recognize things before our hearts do.Or maybe…maybe love isn’t always so gentle and sweet andeasyfor some people.”It certainly wasn’t that way for her.“Maybe, for some people, it’s hard.It’s demanding.It’s consuming.Maybe it’s a feeling that grows and grows inside of you.That takes over and sweeps you under before you realize it.Maybe it slams into place with the force of a freight train, and the way you feel—it won’t ever be easy.It will always be hard and fast and frantic.”Her chin notched up.“Fucking to one person.Making love to another.”And he could laugh in her face.He could tell her that she was wrong.He could say?—
“Marry me.”
“What?”
“Marry—the fuck—me.”
“You…you…no.”She shook her head.Her hair slid over her shoulders.“I am not.I don’t care what you told the reporters.”The reporters.The crime scene.The killer.She needed to tell Atlas?—
The click of his Adam’s apple seemed loud as he swallowed.“Why the hell not?Youloveme.”
“I do.”Saying the words feltright.“I-I love you.”She…she smiled.For a moment, she let everything else go.She just focused on him.On how she truly felt.
He shoved back against his seat.“Fuck me.You have a beautiful smile.”
“I love you.And I don’t care that you don’t love me back.I’m not looking to change you or to try and make you feel something that you can’t.I love you.” Each time she said the words, Lily felt stronger.Better.That was what she’d always wanted.To know…to understand…
I can love.I can love someone.And it’s him.
Sometimes, her own emotions were so confusing.So overwhelming.But, not this time.This time, she knew with certainty what she felt.
Love.
“You love me, but you won’t marry me.”His blue eyes had narrowed.“That’s damn cold.”
“You…” She still felt chilled.“You just said that part about marriage to the reporters.You knew I was taunting him, and you joined me.Trying to push him over the edge?”
His brow furrowed.
“I think that might do it.”Yes, it might be exactly what they’d needed.“Between me baiting him and you adding that bit about the wedding, I hope we pulled his focus.”
“Pulled his focus…?”His expression hardened even more.“And you wonder why I’m angry.”
He shouldn’t be angry.“I want him to come after me.Not you.”She did not want to risk Atlas at all.Not ever.“He probably wouldn’t go directly after you again anyway, not after last time.And we both know that he has a focus on me already.He went into my house.He showed so much rage there with all of the destruction.Clearly, his fury is directed at me, and because I said I knew who he was to the reporters, because?—”
“You deliberately taunted the sonofabitch so that he’d target you.” A furious snarl.
She blinked.Yes, she’d done that.
“Lily…”
She wet her lips.“We said… Back at your house, I thought you understood that I wanted his attention.”
He leaned toward her once again.Fury poured from him.“And I thought you understood that you werenever, eversupposed to use yourself as any kind of bait.”
“I…don’t remember us talking about that.”
“It’s a fucking given.When you are the only reason I stay sane, then youdon’t put your life on the line.”
“I—”The only reason you stay sane?“I’m not.Not the reason you’re sane.That’s you.You control yourself.Your control is what has kept you going for years.It’s what has made you into such a successful businessman.It gave you the empire you have.You—Atlas!”
He’d grabbed her, spun her, and had her down on the seat as he loomed over her.His hands pressed into the seat on either side of her body as she half-sprawled there.His head lowered over hers.Bringing their eyes close, their lips nearly touching.“You don’t put your life on the line.”
“It’s my life,” she whispered.
“And you’remine.”
What did that mean?Her heart raced far too fast in her chest.
