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"But please, can you hear me out? Please?" He raises his hands. "You’re my wife. I shouldn’t have kept what went down with Bobbie from you. It didn’t seem like it was important enough to share it, is all."
"That’s what husbands and wives do. They tell each other everything. But I guess I shouldn’t have that expectation from you, considering what our relationship really is."
Gio and Mira exchange glances. "Uh, I need to be somewhere, you wanna come with me, Mira?"
Mira scowls at Knight. "Don’t hurt her," she snaps.
"I won’t. She means something to me, and I’m going to do my best to ensure I don’t cause her pain."
"Why don’t I believe a word of what you say?" I ask in a low voice.
Mira turns to me. "I think it’s best if you two sort things out, but call me if you need anything, we’ll be around the corner in a coffee shop."
I nod. She squeezes my shoulder, and with a last scowl at Knight, she grabs her handbag and leaves, followed at a more leisurely pace by Gio. The door closes behind them. Knight stays where he is. He shuffles his weight from foot to foot. Another sign that he’s not completely assured at the moment. Another first where he is concerned.
"Can I come in, Little Dove?" he murmurs.
I flinch. "Don’t call me that. And you’re already in." I head over to the window and stare out. "Say your piece and leave."
The silence stretches a beat, another. The hair on the back of my neck rises. I turn and am not surprised to see him standing right behind me. I didn’t hear him approach, but a part of me always knows where he is when we're in the same space.
"Is being light-footed a requirement of all you ex-soldiers?"
"Ex-royal marine, and yes. It’s what’s saved my life countless times."
I swallow at that. It’s a reminder that the man in front of me almost never came home. And when he did, he was so damaged that the rules of the ordinary daily world don’t seem to apply to him. Does that mean I can forgive him for what he did? I understand why he did it, I do, but that moment when she walked in and declared she was his wife sent a shock of such proportions through me, I’m reeling from it, even now. It’s how insecure I am in this relationship—if you can call it that—that I believed a strange woman claiming to be his spouse, even though I’m the one he married.
"Our marriage is fake, isn’t it?" The words are out before I have time to think them through.
He holds my gaze, then shakes his head. "The paperwork we signed is real. We are legally married. You are my wife—"
"But—"
"But—" He rubs the back of his neck. "But you know the arrangement between us. I married you because I needed to show my father I could settle down, so he’d hand over the reins of the company to me. And if I produce an heir within the year, then he’ll never interfere with how I run the company again."
"And that’s the only reason you married me?"
He frowns a little. "It’s also because there’s chemistry between us. I only have to look at you to get turned on. I love your figure, your ass, your tits, your sunny nature, how you light up a room when you enter it, how you soothe my employees after I’ve shaken them up."
"So, you get everything and what do I get—?"
"Money? A safe haven for your mother?"
"And what about love?"
His features grow bleak. "I’m not capable of love, or any such emotion, not after what happened to me."
"That's a copout. You don’t want to explore the possibility that you could fall in love with me."
"I do care for you, Penny." He raises his hand and I know he’s going to touch me, and if he does, I’ll hate myself for reacting to him, and oh, god, I can’t allow myself to give in to these feelings I have for him. I can’t. I shrink back, and his jaw hardens. He curls his fingers into a fist, then lowers it to his side. "I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Bobbie. I truly am. Please forgive me."
"There’s nothing to forgive. You did the right thing. I can only imagine how terrible it must have been for Bobbie to find out about what happened to her husband. I completely understand why you decided to play along with her assumption. I also realize you don’t trust me. It’s why you never told me about her."
"That’s not true. I do trust you. Enough to fuck you without protection."
Wow.
"You didn’t use a condom, not because you forgot, but because you purposely wanted to find a way to impregnate me. You wanted to tie me to you, thanks to some twisted sense of ownership. Since you set eyes on me, you decided I was your personal plaything. You wanted to make sure no one else could have me—"
