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“Get used to it,” I tell her.

I ignore the stares of Alaric’s staff and head straight toward the guest bedroom I usually stay in when I visit.

“Klaus, put me down,” she says.

“In a minute,” I say.

Her arms are wrapped around my neck. Her fingers accidentally twist in my hair, sending a bolt of desire down my spine.

“I know that look,” she says. “You have only one thing in your mind. And I...want no part of it.”

“You don’t sound so sure,” I say, opening the door to the guest bedroom and closing it behind me.

The second we’re alone in the room again, everything is charged. I’ve been dreaming of this moment for weeks now, and she’s finally in my arms.Where she belongs.

I lay her down on the bed.She sits up quickly, scrambling away from me.

“I don’t want this,” she says, blinking rapidly. Her eyes are glassy now, and her cheeks are flushed.

I see the desire in her eyes, but there’s so much more. There’s so much raw hurt and rage.

“I owe you an apology,” I say. “I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did in the morning. I shouldn’t have said those things to you.”

The tears hit her cheeks. She quickly wipes them away.

“No,” she says. “You shouldn’t have.”

“I can understand if you want nothing to do with me,” I say.

“I want nothing to do with you,” she says, pulling her knees to her chest and looking away. “Please leave.”

“Hear me out first,” I say, taking a deep breath and hoping my words come out right this time. “I was an idiot for letting yougo. I was an idiot for not telling you the truth when I knew that you misunderstood everything that happened.”

“Why are you doing this?” she whispers.

“Because I need to tell my side of the story,” I say.

“I can’t unhear the words you said that night, Klaus,” she says. “You said that it was nothing more than a fling to you. You said I was just a convenience in your life.”

“There was a reason I said those things.” I sit on the edge of the bed. I look away from her because I always get a little tongue-tied when I’m looking at her. “I should have explained it to you earlier, but I was just so angry after seeing you dancing with another man.”

“You made me do it,” she screams. “When I heard you say those nasty things about me, I wanted to break down. I wanted to scream and cry and rage. Because for the second time in my life, I let myself be completely fooled by a man. You can’t possibly know what that feels like.”

I let her rant.

I know that she needs it.

Both of us have been carrying too much inside us. After the fire last night, all I know is that I don’t want to lose her a second time. And this love between us, it’s worth fighting for.

“I told you about my Dad,” she whispers. “All my life, I just told myself that I would avoid ending up with a man like him. He treated people like they were disposable. He valued money over relationships. He abandoned us when we needed him most. That’s why I was so cautious with you, because you were like him in many ways. You had too much wealth, too much power. And I know how that can corrupt a man’s soul.”

She’s not wrong about that.

Once people get a taste of power and riches, they often want more. Nothing is ever enough. Greed can destroy a man’s whole life.

“I thought we were equals in the relationship, but you just saw me as someone lesser than you,” she says. “You saw me as something replaceable.”

“That couldn’t be further from the truth, Emma,” I say.