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“Don’t, Kieran. Don’t fall in love with me. This will go badly for both of us. You know this.”
His hand slides down until he’s cupping my chin. Fevered, his fingers burn through the thinnest layer of my resistance. That angers me.
He says, “You know it’s too late.”
I try to turn away but can’t. He holds me tightly. Searing me with the intensity of his hooded gaze.
I beg, “Don’t. I don’t believe in love in a situation like this. It never works.” A shudder runs down my spine, all the way to my toes, as I close my eyes. “One of us will end up dead.”
His hand tightens, then falls away. “We all die, Carra. The question is how much life we let ourselves have before we go.”
I stare at my twisted hands. “I’m trying,” I whisper. “That’s what I was trying to do today.”
He drops into the chair across from me. Working his jaw, he looks at the floor before he flicks his eyes to mine.
“What will it take for you to see that I’m not just some arranged husband, Carra. I’ve wanted you to be mine for years. I don’t give a flying fuck that your father wants something out of this. I wantyou.”
I’m breathless and terrified because I know men like him don’t take no for an answer.
“Kieran, don’t fall in love with a woman like me. There are millions of women out there that would do anything to have a man like you.”
His reply is immediate. “But none of them is you.”
I groan and fall back onto the bed. Weak and unable to control the emotions suffocating me. “You can have a mistress. I won’t stop you. Make the marriage what it needs to be on paper, but don’t give your soul to this.”
“I’vealreadygiven my soul to this.Forthis.”
I close my eyes as my heart throbs painfully behind my sternum.
His fingertips touch my cheek tenderly. “I don’t want a mistress, Carra.”
“I’m not falling in love with you, Kieran McGregor.”
Lie. Lie. Lie. The words feel like razors to my throat.
The mattress dips beside my thigh. His jacket falls onto the bed, discarded. My arranged husband leans over me, planting a hand next to my head.
I leap from the bed, my veins filling with uncontrollable energy. “No. Don’t.”
Kieran doesn’t move. His expression darkens with self-loathing. “I wasn’t going to force—’'
“I don’t know that,” I say as I back away. But I do know. I just can’t let him be this close to me. Not now. Not when I am this open. This raw. Not when I know his kind words will be the end of me.
When I reach for the door, his hand slams onto the wooden panel above my head, locking me in.
I’m not afraid. But I’m royally pissed. I’m through with being pushed around.
“I won’t let you go until you know you’re safe.”
I turn my face to his. “And locking me in here is the way to do it? Climbing on top of me is the way to do it?”
He curses. “You make me lose my control. That makes me act like a fucking idiot.”
“I don’t fully understand what happened to you today. Did seeing the florist helping me with a bouquet really turn you into such an animal?”
When he doesn’t answer, I say, “I didn’t think so. Something else is going on here.”
His nostrils flare as he stares at me for a few seconds.
