Page 78 of Bound in Promise

“You’re not going to win this, husband,” I spit. “You can’t just throw me away when you’re done like I’m nothing. Like I’m trash.”

“I’m not throwing you away. I’m keeping you safe. I have to keep you safe, princess.”

“Why?” I press, angry at his denial of what we could have. What we do have. “So you can sleep better at night? So you can pat yourself on the back and say job well done?”

“Is that what you think I’ll do?” The tip of one of his fingers slides dangerously close to my pussy and I still in anticipation of his touch. I need to feel him. He’s the only man I’ve ever craved, body and soul. “You know me better than that.”

“You’re right,” I grumble. “You always did tell me this marriage was nothing.”

“I wouldn’t say that anymore.”

“You would. If this was something, you wouldn’t be planning to leave me.”

“I don’t want to leave you. But it’s best that I do.”

I try once again to dismount his lap, but Dante doesn’t even pretend that’s an option. He knows I’m upset, but he won’t give me the space I need to decompress and try to get over this whole fucking mess.

He won’t give me anything.

“I hate you,” I whisper. “I wish you’d just leave me alone.”

“I will,” he promises, leaning forward to kiss my forehead. The touch is oddly sweet, at odds with the harsh grip of his hands on my body and the empty ache in my exposed core. “Soon.”

“How about now?”

His lips curl into a cocky smirk, and the effect on my temper is like throwing gasoline on a fire. He seems to think this is a game, that I’m just some prissy rich girl tossing around petty commands.

Commands he has no interest in obeying.

He lowers his lips to the hollow of my throat, murmuring his next words directly into my flesh, “I’m going to spend every single waking moment with you, princess.” His promise makes me equally nauseous and thrilled.

I know that spending that much time with him, getting that much of his attention, will only lead to more heartbreak later.

I’ll love every minute just as much as I’ll regret it once he’s finally gone.

“I’d rather die,” I shoot back. “You’re getting to be as bad as Liam.”

Wrong thing to say.

Sirens go off in my brain as soon as the words leave my mouth. Warning flags are waving all around me as Dante’s head rises and his expression shifts from hunger to a chilling emptiness.

In this moment, I know what it’s like to have my life in his hands. I believe he could kill me right now, with his bare hands, and not lose any sleep over making himself a widower.

“Liam?” he repeats, his voice deeper than I’ve ever heard it. His expression is heavy, and it takes everything in me not to shrink in on myself and wish myself invisible. “You really want to make my nephew part of this conversation, princess? You think I’m acting like that motherfucker?”

No.

Well, kind of.

Only in the sense that Dante isn’t taking no for an answer. I was never in love with Liam the way I am with the man holding himself like a statue between my legs.

“You did just kidnap me,” I point out. “And you won’t let me out of this car.”

“You’re right,” he agrees solemnly. I breathe a sigh of relief, although my reprieve is short lived.

“Guess I have no choice but to fuck the memory of him right out of you.”

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