Page 57 of Betrayed

She calls over her shoulder. “I’m not ruining these beautiful shoes you bought me.”

I catch up with her in two steps. I scoop her up, with a grunt, carrying her down the path to the front porch.

She wraps her cold, wet arms around my neck, shoes hanging from her hands, bouncing on my shoulder.

“And what about the coat I bought you?”

“Didn’t work with the outfit,” she hisses.

I growl, “Careful, babygirl. You’re already on the thinnest of ice.”

I stomp across the porch in my heavy boots, and one of my men opens the door for us.

I gently set her down on the soft carpet, one my men brought the other day to warm the place up, and the fire is already burning for us.

She looks down at the pool forming around her bare feet. Her voice is soft. “I had to do what I could.”

“You could’ve died.”

“I had Bayne’s men?—”

“Bayne’s men aren’t me.”

The words snap out, harsh and brutal. Her spine stiffens. Her eyes flash.

“I’m not your prisoner, Lucian.”

“No. You’re going to be under a tighter lock and key than a prisoner because you’re mine.”

I grab her wrist and drag her deeper inside the cottage, heat rolling off me in waves. She stumbles once, on the way to the bedroom, but I don’t slow down. I’m too furious.

Too turned on.

Because she’s alive.

Because she’s fucking brave and stubborn. She came out here with less than a plan to protect me, protect her family somehow, and then when Gregory showed up, she tried to end Caleb on her own.

To protect my brother. So I wouldn’t have to go through what she has had to with Cass.

I get it.

But I’m pissed as hell about it.

The second I slam the bedroom door shut behind us, I spin and pin her against it.

“How could you try to go off on your own like that?”

“I didn’t. I had Bayne, and all the Kings’ horses and all the Kings’ men.”

I slam my hand against the door above her head. “Do not joke right now.”

“Not a joke.” She sighs. “Just a little nursery rhyme.”

“You know what I mean,” I say through clenched teeth. “We were supposed to work together.”

“I was ready to work with you,” she says, her voice shaking. “And then your brother came, and it no longer made sense to?—”

“You think I’ll let you walk into a war zone alone?”