Page 20 of Bound By Betrayal

“Fine, stay.” I’d started to walk away when he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. The sudden switch in direction caused me to stumble and trip on his boot, my ass landing in his lap. “Kai, consider yourself extremely lucky that I need you. Otherwise, you’d be buried under my stables.” I tried to push out of his hold, but it was a vise. “You don’t need all your limbs for the wedding. Don’t test me.”

“Come on, Amalia. Dinner was going smoothly. What’s got you so bent out of shape?”

“How about your little love story back there? Are you crazy?”

“We have a love story?”

I shrieked out of frustration. “Kai! You can’t go off script, especially in front of Gio and Rocco.”

His smile vanished the instant I mentioned Rocco’s name.

“I don’t like him.”

“It doesn’t matter who you like. That’s irrelevant. Is he the reason you put on that act? Like some pissing contest to see whose dick is bigger?”

Kai huffed. “You slept with him?”

“Who I’ve fucked before you got here is none of your goddamn business.”

He tipped my chin, meeting my eyes. “That’s where you’re wrong. He clearly wants you, and if you’re my wife, I won’t tolerate another man lusting after you and flaunting it to my face. I’ve buried bodies, too.”

I briefly wondered if he could feel how wet I was through the fabric of my skirt. He just admitted to being willing to kill a man in my honor. Frustration ate away at my insides, the feeling suffocating and nearly insufferable. I took what I wanted when it came to men and never held back. I wouldn’t deny that I wanted Kai Cain. That I wanted to straddle him in this fucking chair or get on my knees.

I had visions of him taking me over my workbench, on the hood of my car, hell, even right here on the floor. But giving in to him meant I’d lose.

I found his eyes again, the ire gone from them, replaced by a different flame, one that seemed to ignite my own. He said nothing as his thumb rubbed my cheek.

Giving in would be so easy. I just knew he would make me feel things I’d never experienced and reach places that had never been touched.

“Why haven’t you given me the grand tour of your studio?”

I knew this was coming. Talking about my art was too intimate. It wasn’t something I wanted to get into with Kai.

My mother and her big mouth.

“Because no one is allowed in but me.”

He slid a strand of hair behind my ear and flashed an infuriatingly sexy smile.

“All that talent and you want to keep it hidden. The portraits hung in your home without signatures, they’re yours, aren’t they?”

“It’s late.” I attempted to get up, but he held me tighter.

“Why are you so afraid to be alone with me?”

“Afraid,” I snickered. “Don’t flatter yourself. You’re not as scary as you think you are.”

He drew soft circles underneath my shirt with his thumb, and satisfaction lit up his face when goosebumps scattered across my skin.

“I’m not trying to be scary to you, vicious.”

I couldn’t handle the velvet tone of his voice and that hungry look in his eyes. Had he been anyone else, I would have been naked, waiting for him, long before he crossed the threshold.

But my pride was a bitch.

“I just have two questions.”

“That’s two too many.”