Page 57 of Ruthless Creatures

He lifts his head and gazes at me. My smile is happy and wide.

Looking very serious, he brushes my hair off my cheek. He says in a husky voice, “I’ll have to make you fall in love with me before I tell you all my darkest secrets.”

Make you fall in love with me.He keeps upping the ante in this conversation. I thought I was dead ten seconds ago, but now I’m buried six feet underground.

“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

“So you won’t leave me… even though you’ll want to.”

As I stare deeply into his eyes, my smile fades. A hot, prickling sensation, like a current of electricity, runs through me. The ground seems to be shifting underneath my feet.

I whisper, “So either don’t tell me your secrets or don’t make me fall in love with you. Because once I fall in, even death can’t make me fall out.”

He stares at me long and hard, his jaw working. When he finally speaks, his tone is curt.

“Two things.”

“Which are?”

“Number one: I’m gonna make you fall in love with me. It’s not even a question.”

I huff out a small, astonished laugh.

The nerve of this man. On behalf of feminists everywhere, I want to tell him to stick his arrogant assumptions up his ass.

But also… wow. Justwow.

Because I know it’s the god’s-honest truth. Heisgoing to make me fall in love with him.

And I don’t think there’s anything I can do to stop it from happening.

He says, “Paired with the fact that I won’t lie to you, that means I’ll be keeping a lot of information to myself. Consider this fair warning.”

I close my eyes and exhale. “God, you’re intense.”

“Number two.”

When he stays silent, I open my eyes and look at him. He’s gazing back at me with a hard, flinty look in his eyes, like the thought of something is really pissing him off.

I think it’s me, until he says, “He didn’t deserve you.”

Surprised by that, I laugh. “We weren’t really together. I mean, we only dated for like eight weeks—”

“I don’t mean Deputy Dipshit.”

He’s not talking about Chris? Then who else—

When I realize who he means, my heart skips a beat.

Seeing the expression on my face, Kage nods. “Yes. Your missing fiancé. He didn’t deserve the kind of loyalty you’ve shown him.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean a woman like you, five years of your life spent waiting?” He shakes his head, as if in disgust. “No man deserves that.”

“Believe me, if I could’ve turned it off, I would have. I guess I’m just a loyal kind of girl.”

“So it’s not over? You’re still in love with him?”