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He rubbed a hand over his unkempt face, knowing he deserved her cold silence. Two months of sleep trials and new medication and therapy sessions had changed him for the better and helped him put a lot of his fears about his health and his guilt into perspective. But it had also provided him with hours and hours of silence and thousands of thoughts swirling through his head to ponder all the ways he’d messed up with her.
God, in his exhaustion and despair, he’d pushed her away instead of telling her properly that he loved her, that he utterly adored this new version of her even more than he had the Priya from all those years ago. Like a schoolboy, he’d hoped she might still tell him how she felt about him.
His heart thumped painfully in his chest when he finally spotted the pair of calf boots next to the entry bench.
The fireplace in the sitting lounge was ablaze and now that he’d pulled his head out of the ever-constant spiral of regret and self-recriminations, he smelled roasted coffee. It could be Ben, he told himself. Or any of the friends who’d asked to borrow the cabin at the same time.
But he knew it wasn’t.
It was her.
His throat felt so thick he wondered if it was possible to choke because of shock. His limbs felt mechanical, his body suddenly beset with shivers. Somehow, he managed to venture farther into the living room and there she was.
Lying on the huge sectional that seemed to swallow her slender body whole. Dark shadows cradling closed eyes. Even in repose, he saw the lines of tension bracketing her mouth.
How long had she been here? Why had no one told him she’d be there? What did she want?
He looked around, as if some inanimate object somewhere could give him a clue. There was such a deafening roar inside his ears that it was a miracle he was still standing. Slowly, he went and sat down at her feet. Lifting them, he plopped them onto his lap and settled into the deep reach of the sofa.
And then, with his fingers on her ankles, he laid his head back down and promptly fell asleep.
When he came to, he found her sitting on the other side of the giant sectional, her arms tucked around her knees. Her eyes were wide in her face, devouring him. Just as he was sure his were doing to her.
“Why are you here?” he asked, his heart in his mouth.
“Good. No niceties, then.” She reached behind her to pull one of those huge handbags he’d seen her carry. Digging through it, she found a sheaf of papers that sent his soul into the coldest place he’d ever known.
Not even when his mind had been blank and empty had he felt that kind of chill.
“I came to bring you these. To give you an ultimatum,” she said curtly, throwing the papers on the oak coffee table.
Christian eyed them as if they were a snake that could bite his head off. “Pree...”
“All you need to do is sign them, Christian, and I’ll be out of your way. You can go back to your life of solitude and self-sacrifice without ever having to see me again.”
He was shaking his head even before she finished talking. “I’m not touching them. Much less signing anything.”
“Don’t worry, Christian. I’m not ripping you off. In fact, I want nothing of yours.”
“Jayden’s mine, too,” he said, getting defensive and angry now. Feeling like a cornered animal. Damn it, he’d left it too late to throw himself on her mercy and beg for forgiveness. He’d pushed her too far.
She lifted her chin in that stubborn move that had once felled him to his knees. That threatened to knock him over even now. “You can see as much or as little as you want of Jayden. I won’t come between the two of you. But as for me... I’m done waiting for you.
“Do you realize I’m still only thirty-one years old? Thirty-one, Christian. I have an entire lifetime to live without being bogged down by an inconsiderate, cowardly, bastard of a husband who thinks he can waltz in and out of my life as he pleases.” Tears filled her eyes but she didn’t let them fall.
“I’m done with this—” she waved her hand between them “—whatever it was. This marriage was never real, so please let’s just kill it dead so that I can change my status to single instead of separated on my social media profiles. You know, I’ve decided to give myself over into Mama’s hands after all. She’ll find me a prince or at least a lowly royal member from some far-flung country and I’m going to...”
Christian went to his knees in front of her and tugged her head down and took her mouth in a feral kiss. His heart threatened to burst out of his chest but he kissed her anyway. She tasted sweet and pure, like sunshine and frost and love and joy, and he just kept drinking her in. Her hands on his chest, she sank into the kiss with a guttural groan. She melted for him. She opened for him. She let him breathe her in.
For a few moments. A few measly moments only, though.
And then she was fighting him, beating his chest with her hands, tugging at his beard, until he filled his hands with her hips and toppled them both down and she was screaming in his face and pushing him onto his back and straddling him...
And then they were kissing wildly again.
Only this time, the kiss turned to tears and she was sobbing piteously against his chest and Christian thought his heart might break all over again.
He plunged his hands into her hair and pushed it back off her temple. “Don’t, Pree. Don’t cry over me. Don’t divorce me. Don’t leave me... You’re right. I was inconsiderate. I was cowardly, I was...a stupid bastard who wanted to be a better man for the woman he loved but thought he couldn’t be.”
