Page 120 of Deathless & Divided

“You’re an asshole.”

Damian shrugged. “You’re beautiful.”

Lily glowered. “Stop it!”

“You are. I had no reason to let you in, Lily. Not to me or who I was. I didn’t need to invite you into my life or bed before the marriage. I didn’t have to give a shit about you or even try. I didn’t have to like you if I didn’t want to but you made it so fucking easy. Don’t you get that? I could have treated this arrangement as just that—business. If that’s all I thought of it and you, it would have been a hell of a lot simpler just to let you fight it out with Dino and be waiting at the end of the aisle when he forced you down it to meet me. I didn’t have to do any of this!”

Lily shuddered at what his words implied. “You’re lying again. All you did was make me trust you so that no one would suspect what you and Dino did.”

“I didn’t have to. That didn’t matter to me. I didn’t have to hide anything. Dino, yes, but not me.”

“You’re—”

“Be quiet,” Damian said, his blue eyes blazing into Lily’s with a fierceness that stopped her breath. “Listen to what I have told you. Think about it and for once, hear me. God, I need you to hear me, Lily. Please.”

“It doesn’t matter. You already said it, Damian. Regardless if Dino forces me down the aisle or not, you’ll still be there waiting. I don’t have to hear or understand anything for it to make a difference.”

“But I want you to.”

Lily whined low, feeling his fingers skip around the hem of her shorts. “I don’t.”

“Why?” he asked.

“You know why.”

Damian smiled and the sight only pissed Lily off more. Having her hand free gave her the ability to hit him again, but he caught her wrist before she could. He slammed her hand to the ground beside her head. Lily stilled, shocked. Her body, on the other hand, was hotter than ever.

“Stop hitting me,” Damian said, cocking a brow. “You’re better than using your hands to show anger. Words work just as well.”

“I’m so angry with you.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

Lily cried, her tears falling freely again. “I’m angry with me, too.”

Damian traced Lily’s trembling lip with the pad of his finger before he wiped away her tears. “I hate it when you cry.”

“I hate it when you say things like that.”

“No, you don’t,” he argued. “You like it because someone cares.”

“Except it’s you,” she said shakily.

“And you’re angry because you know I care,” Damian replied, never breaking eye contact with Lily. “I care enough to protect you. I care enough to let you in.”

“Enough to lie to me, too?”

“Lily, stop making me repeat myself.”

“Lying would have been easier!” she shouted.

Lily knew he hadn’t lied, not really. In the end, she was the one who chose not to question those around her. She let Damian slip through her carefully constructed walls keeping everyone associated with the Outfit out. She cared about him.

“I love you,” she breathed, aching inside. “You could have done all of this without making me fall in love with you, Damian.”

“I never tried to make that happen,” Damian said gently.

But it was so easy to.