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“We don’t have to be what they expect us to be.” I nod toward the estate. “We get to decide. And together? We’d be so good.”
Annie still listens silently. I almost laugh. Of course Annie doesn’t take it easy on me. I shouldn’t have expected anything to be easy with her.
“I’d never treat you like your dad does,” I murmur.
Her breath catches and she turns towards me, dropping the pretense. I grab hold of the lifeline of optimism, reeling myself in. It spurs me on and the real truth spills from my lips.
“I’ve only ever wanted you as my partner. My equal. I’ve always seen that…” I touch her face gently, grazing her cheek with my thumb. “So can you, Annie?”
“I don’t know, Cohen,” Annie whispers. “I shouldn’t forgive you.”
There is conflict in every line of tension in her body. She twists her fingers in her lap and a wrinkle appears between her furrowed brows.
Somewhere over the course of the evening, I found I like making Annie laugh more than I like making her angry. I want both. I want to be the man that makes her laugh and earns her fire.
I blow out a breath and shake my head.
“I’m the same person that had the mask on all night. The same one who whispered all that stuff to you. After I took off the mask, I was going to take you to the cabin if you wanted to see it. I wasn’t lying. About any of it.”
“But couldn’t you have done that without tricking me!”
“You wouldn’t have listened. You’ve always seen what you wanted to see in me.” I thump my head against my arm and stare at her. “Annie. I’ve been in love with you ever since we were kids. You’ve had my heart in your grip since that first kiss. It’s yours. Hate me, or forgive me, or ignore me forever. Do whatever you want with it.”
Annie gasps and grasps the open window with both hands. She sniffles and after a few harrowing moments where I think my heart will claw up out of my throat to land in her lap, she gets out of the car. I fall back a couple of steps to give her room and close the door behind her. She wipes her eyes and sucks in a deep breath. Propping her hands on her hips, she lifts her chin and stares me down with a serious expression.
“You mean all of that?”
I nod and she purses her lips to the side.
“What if I want to keep studying for my degree? What if I want to go for my masters or become a psychologist and leave everything about our world behind?”
“Of course. I’d never stop you from doing what you want.”
“You’d really call off the arranged marriage and let me go?” Annie asks it in a small, mystified voice that makes my stomach flip. “If you’re lying right now, I promise you’ll sorely regret it.”
“I swear it.” The budding hope surges through me and I make another leap. “Be the queen to my empire?”
“Our empire, you mean.” She raises her eyebrows.
A sardonic smile settles on my face. I bark out a breathy laugh, elation sparking and expanding my chest.
Annie will challenge me every day, the way she’s always done. I love her for it. I crave it. I can’t imagine a life without her pissing me off and turning me on in the same prissy breath.
I hold out my hand. “Yes, dear.”
She smirks, looking every inch like my fierce golden queen. I can’t tear my eyes away from her, afraid the mirage is too good to be true if I blink.
Annie puts her hand in mine and my heart soars as I thread our fingers together.
“Besides.” Annie taps her chin. “Who says it wouldn’t be me ruling the court, anyway? I don’t let anyone control me. Maybe I’ll have to take over for our dads and Albert Mastriano.”
My smile stretches into a wicked grin and my cock twitches in interest.
I picture her seated on a throne of her own making, the queen on the board controlling the Mastriano mob operation and the public business empire.
Shit, the mental image is beautiful, and it makes me want to have her right here against my car.
“Oh, sweetheart,” I murmur. “I have no doubt you’re going to rule the whole damn world.”
