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All traces of amusement were replaced by an imperceptible coldness. A tick in his jaw turned it hard enough to cut glass.
“Working a shitty job and fucking different men to fill the void leaving me created, while burying your feelings beneath a faux layer of normalcy. That’s the pitiful life you’re mourning?”
“I was doing fine until you showed up.”
“Were you? From where I’m standing your life has been nothing but fucked since the day you hung yourself with the rope, I gave you.”
His words sliced at weaknesses I did my best to ignore. I hated that any of what he said was true. He knew all about the life I’d built because he was the one that sketched the blueprint before ultimately becoming the architect.
“Is that what this all boils down to, me leaving you? Don’t tell me your masculinity is so fragile it never recovered.”
“You…” His chest rose and fell as he sucked in a breath and exhaled, briefly glancing up at the ceiling. “No one has ever pissed me off as fast and frequently as you do, principessa. You’re lucky it’s part of your natural charm.”
“Can you stop calling me that?”
“No.”
I stared at him disbelievingly. Not no followed by an explanation, just no.
“And to answer your question, my masculinity is just fine.”
“Oh, I can tell,” I deadpanned.
“I’m glad you left. The person I was then can’t compare to who I am now and all the things I’ve accomplished. You deserve everything I’m going to give you.”
You know what? I hated even a small portion of that caught my attention. I couldn’t allow myself to believe a word he was saying. I’d been woven back into his sinister web of deceit more than I was prepared to be as it was.
Beneath the ever-calculating eyes of a venomous predator, I knew my every move would be tracked and measured. If I wasn’t careful, I’d wind up entangled with him forever.
“Aren’t you engaged?”
He smiled and it was nothing less than devious. I immediately regretted bringing this subject up.
“See, now you’re asking questions that are important.”
“Who is she?” I dared to inquire, pushing down the swell of discomfort beginning to flare up inside my chest.
“Would you like me to tell you about her?”
“I don’t think my answer matters.”
“It does when it can cause you pain.”
What did that mean? He began walking across the room, heading straight for where I stood. With his bed right behind me, there wasn’t anywhere for me to go unless I ran to the other side. I wouldn’t give him the pleasure of a chase or the satisfaction of me fleeing.
I remained rooted in place. Dread accumulated in my gut with each step he took.
When he was right in front of me his rose-covered hand gently cradled the side of my face. He tilted my head back so that I was looking up at him.
“I don’t want to hurt you any more than I already have.”
“It’s too--.” I swallowed thickly, unable to say what he had to already know. Sensing the direction of my thoughts, the pad of his thumb came to rest on the seam of my lips to keep me silent.
“My fiancé’s name is, Rhiannon Balarés Saldaña.”
As soon as his words registered, my head spun along with the room. I knew I made a lot of questionable decisions sometimes, like trusting people I shouldn’t, but I wasn’t an idiot. If the intimate way he spoke wasn’t confirmation enough, the way he was staring down at me was.
I still refused to accept it.
“No. It’s not me.”
“She’s stubborn, highly fucking irritating, and always at war with her emotions.”
“Judas,” I tried to interrupt him so he would shut up. He kept talking as if he hadn’t heard me, his words needling and prodding at things I didn’t want to face or feel.
“She has a rare and beautifully twisted soul that fills all the empty space inside mine.”
“It isn’t me,” I repeated more forcefully and tried to move away from him.
His grip tightened to the point it was almost painful, ensuring I remained still. “It has always been, and always will be you,” he swore with steel in his tone.
Words failed me.
I didn’t know how to respond to his sheer insanity. That’s exactly what this was—insane. Just like Judas.
Something started to buzz.
I didn’t realize it was his phone until the warmth of his hand and the harsh grip on my face vanished so that he could retrieve it. He glanced at the screen and then at me, almost appearing apologetic.
“I have to take this. Why don’t you go down and get some breakfast before you shower?”
He began to turn away and suddenly I was able to speak again. I swerved around him and blocked his path. “You can’t just leave!”
“Padre,” he greeted the caller cheerfully. “One second.” He slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me flush against him, forcibly maneuvering my body so that I was out of his way. All the while a man’s voice carried through the cellphone’s speaker in their native tongue. “Everything’s fine. You know women can be a bit clingy after one night.”
