“That means the end.”
“That means decide.”
His voice was still controlled, but there was something underneath it now.
Heat.
“You think I purchased a company and prepaid a year of care for a woman I intend to release in sixty days?” he asked quietly.
I stared at him.
“You never said?—”
“I believed my actions were sufficient.”
“That’s not how this works!”
“Then how does it work?” he demanded, finally losing that irritating calm. “Because I’m attempting to build a future with you, and you are speaking as though this is temporary lodging.”
My throat closed.
“A future?” I whispered.
“Yes.”
The word was immediate. Unhesitating. “I have no intention of divorcing you, Belle.”
And suddenly, the ground shifted in an entirely different direction.
36
RAPHAEL
This was not how I intended to say it. Not in an office. Not mid-argument. Not with her standing across from me like I had detonated something delicate.
And yet, here we were.
If I am honest, there was a small, dangerous part of me that admired her when she was like this. I liked the fire in her eyes. I liked that she was here fighting for herself, even when the opponent was me.
She did not shrink. She never had.
“I have no intention of divorcing you,” I repeated, more evenly this time.
She stared at me as though I had just shifted the language of the contract without warning.
“You can’t just decide that,” she said quietly.
“I am not deciding alone.”
“It sounds like you are.”
I moved closer, not crowding her, but closing the distance between us.
“This has not been temporary for me,” I told her.
Her breath catches.
“It has not been a business arrangement for quite some time.”
