"I guess you were pretty happy letting your fucking fiancé carry you in his arms."
The accusation settled heavily between them, thickening the already tense air.
"Spent half an hour at his house."
He took another step, closing the distance between them. His jaw clenched, a muscle ticking visibly as he stared at her, his dark eyes fixed on her as if trying to read every thought running through her mind.
The vein in his neck stood out sharply as he fought to keep his temper in check. Although his voice remained low, the fury simmering beneath it was impossible to miss.
"What did he do to you there?"
There was no warmth in his gaze. His dark eyes were filled with nothing but fury, possessiveness, and a terrifying darkness that made her breath catch in her throat. He looked like a man standing on the very edge of losing control, every muscle in his body held rigid beneath his clothes, his jaw clenched so tightly that the muscle ticked visibly along his cheek.
Looking at him now, Juliet suddenly felt as though she were standing in front of a predator barely restraining itself from pouncing.
His gaze remained fixed on her as he slowly took a step forward.
"I didn't know you were so cheap, Juliet," he said indifferently, his expression remaining icy and dangerous. Every word that left his mouth sliced through her like a knife. "Cheap enough to sleep with me just to please and benefit your fucking fiancé."
Juliet could only stare at him in disbelief.
The color drained from her face so quickly that she looked almost ghostly pale.
Then anger exploded inside her.
Without a second of hesitation, she threw the blanket aside and rose to her knees on the bed. Before Cassian could even react, she lunged forward and swung her hand across the space between them.
Slap!
The sharp sound echoed throughout the silent bedroom.
For several long seconds, neither of them moved.
Cassian's head had turned slightly from the force of the blow, a lock of dark hair falling over his forehead. Juliet remained standing on the bed, her entire body trembling uncontrollably as her chest rose and fell with rapid breaths. Rage, hurt, disappointment, and disbelief were written plainly across her face as she stared at him with reddened eyes.
"So you sent your men to follow me?" she demanded, her voice shaking violently. "You tracked my every step?"
Cassian slowly turned his head back to look at her.
There wasn't a trace of regret on his face.
His expression remained completely calm, completely unmoved, as though her anger meant nothing to him and her opinion of him mattered even less.
That only made Juliet even angrier.
A bitter laugh escaped her as she shook her head, tears of frustration instantly stinging her eyes. She wiped at them angrily with the back of her hand before lifting her gaze to him again.
"Do you not trust me even a little?" she asked, her voice cracking painfully. "How could you do this to me?"
She drew in a shaky breath, staring straight into his eyes.
"Did your men tell you that I slept with him? Is that it?" she demanded, taking a step toward him despite the tears threatening to fall. "Did they tell you I went to his house and slept with him? Did they actually see that?" Her eyes grew redder with every word. "Or did you just assume the worst about me the moment you heard where I went?"
The look on Cassian's face was one of pure coldness and indifference, but Juliet could see that beneath that icy exterior, he was suppressing something far more dangerous. Every ounce of anger, hurt, jealousy, and emotion he was desperately trying to restrain seemed to have gathered in his eyes, turning them dark and turbulent.
His jaw was clenched so tightly that the muscles along his face stood out sharply, and his hands, hanging at his sides, had curled into fists so hard that the veins on the backs of them were visible. He stood there without moving, his tall frame rigid, his expression hard and unreadable.
Juliet searched his face, desperately trying to understand what he was truly feeling. She wanted to find even the slightest crack in that cold mask, some sign that he regretted what he had said or that he still trusted her, but the longer she looked at him, the more lost she became. It was as though an invisible wall had suddenly risen between them, separating them completely. The helplessness of not being able to understand him, of not being able to reach him, only made the anger inside her burn even hotter.
