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“Is this what it’s going to be like from now on?” I press. “You jumping at your own shadow because you’re terrified your sister might get wind of the fact that your feelings for me aren’t strictly familial?”
“They aren’t even remotely familial,” she hisses. “Iloatheyou.”
I back her against the wall again. “Is denial really so addictive? I know you have to lie to Celine, but what’s the point in lying to me? To yourself?”
“What do you want?” There’s a catch in her voice that tugs something attached to my heart.Irritating.“What do you want from me?”
“For starters, I want you to be honest with yourself. Maybe then you can be honest with me.”
“And then what?” she asks. “If I say I don’t have feelings for you, you’ll refuse to believe me. If I say I do, it changes nothing. You’ll still be my brother-in-law. And I refuse to betray my sister.”
“How is what you’re doing now any different?”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re lying to her now, keeping secrets from her, gaslighting her—isn’t that a different kind of betrayal? Honestly, it’s fucking manipulative. If you think you’re being a hero, I have some bad news for you.”
Taylor looks like I just slapped her across the face. Someone really needs to; it just won’t be me. I’m an asshole, not a villain.
“Don’t make me out to be the bad guy here,” she whimpers. “I didn’t come back here because I wanted to.”
“Do you enjoy going around in circles, Taylor?” I ask, pushing my chest against hers. “Or do you just enjoy making me dizzy?”
“Please, Ilarion…”
“What are you pleading for,tigrionok?”
God help me, I like this kind of teasing. Ipreferthis kind of teasing. It’s the way her breath catches, her lashes flutter, and her bottom lip puckers. I stare at that lip, resisting the urge to bite it.
I hate being denied what I want. I’m more in the habit of just taking.
Taylor blinks again, looking away for a moment. “For… for…”
Her eyes meet mine, and even though her mouth opens, nothing comes out. She clamps her mouth shut, and I raise my fingers to her lips.
Her lips tremble beneath my touch. Her chest rises and falls with heavy breaths. We’re trapped within the present and the past, trying to find solid ground where there is none.
“Since you seem incapable of telling the truth, let me do it for you,” I murmur. “I didn’t just bring you here so that I could have my son back. This was about more than just Adam. I brought you back here as punishment. You left; you ran from me; you betrayed me. And I vowed that I would find you and bring you home. I vowed that I would punish you for what you did.”
She’s so quick to assume every wrong thing, so I know for a fact she’s instantly thinking about her father. About what I do to traitors.
And she’s right, at least a little bit. I do love playing with my food.
She swallows hard. “What are you going to do to me?”
I stare into her soft green eyes. They’re filled with uncertainty now. Nervous tension that doesn’t know where to go.Good.
That’s why I turn on my heel and leave her in my wake. All I offer her is a single sentence, tossed casually over my shoulder on the way out.
“I guess we’ll just have to see.”
29
ILARION
I’m on the way to the den when Celine walks out of the day room that looks over the swimming pool. She’s wearing her favorite ivory silk slip, the one that I used to imagine Taylor in.
She takes me by surprise by throwing her arms around me. It takes me a second to return the hug.
