Page 109 of Savage Empire

“Have you gone mad?” I interrupt him with round eyes.

Apollo arches an eyebrow at my outburst. “Are you going to let me speak?”

No.“Yes.”

“You possess certain qualities that I would require in a wife. Namely, your protective nature. The way you would do anything for your brother, the way even just now, you worried about him above facing your own fate. The mother of my children will need to do the same.”

“Now we’re discussing children?”

“I need an heir, Rayna,” he says patiently. “You know that.”

“And you needmefor that? Can’t you just pluck any mafia princess out of the blue for this? You’re not making any sense at all.”

“I’ve had over ten years topluckany mafia princess. I’ve had them paraded in front of me an endless amount of times. I’ve never even considered making one of them my wife.”

I shouldn’t find that surprising. That sounds just like him. Too good for anyone, too stubborn to settle down.

“I feel like you’re expecting me to be flattered but honestly I can’t process any of this information, Apollo. I shot you. With a gun. And now you’re bleeding while telling me to be your wife so I can have your baby.”

He fucking smirks at me.Smirks. “Seems like you’re processing just fine, that’s exactly what’s happening.”

“But why?”

He breathes out, considering his words. “The way you would do anything for Yordan. They way you’d kill, die, and live for him. You’d do that for your child as well, wouldn’t you?”

“Wouldn’t anyone?”

“No, Rayna.” His head shakes. “My mother wouldn’t. Plenty of other mothers wouldn’t either. I don’t want to wake up one day and realize my wife wouldn’t do absolutely anything for our child. I want her to have the same endless dedication to our son or daughter’s life that I have.”

“I…That’s very noble, but,” I trail off, swallowing hard. “We don’t even get along. Don’t you want to love your wife? You get tochoose. Do you know how many heirs aren’t afforded that luxury? Why would you waste that choice?”

“Waste?” His face screws up. “Do you think so little of yourself?”

“I thinkyouthink that little of me,” I counter bitterly. “Apollo, you can’t stand me. I drive you nuts,constantly. You tolerate me so that you can spend time with Yordan, so that you can mentor him.”

“If I couldn’t stand you, I wouldn’t consider you to be a perfect candidate for the mother of my children, now would I?” His gaze bores into mine, an unfamiliar intensity sparking between us. “I wouldn’t have pinned you to a wall and kissed the life out of you weeks ago, if I didn’t feel something for you.”

I drop my eyes, heart pounding harder. “You haven’t brought it up?—”

“I told you, that one was free,” he cuts in, voice soft but burning with tension. “Have you decided to stop pretending?”

“Pretending what?” I rasp.

“Pretending that that kiss wasn’t a long time coming,micina.”

I breathe out slowly, blinking up at him. Denial dances on my tongue, itching to come out, but I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to lie to him, not now.

“Whoa, what the hell happened here?” Elio’s familiar voice calls out, interrupting the moment.

“Misunderstanding,” Apollo grunts, standing up from his chair. “I need to go get patched up, get her door fixed and don’t leave until it’s secure.”

Slapping him on the chest once, he bypasses Elio without another word. Noting the blood on the ground and the apparent wound his brother is sporting, he arches a brow at me.

“Care to offer some insight,birichina?”

The joking nickname for me he came up with this past month and a half has never felt more apt. I’ve been more than ahandfultoday, I almost became a murderer.

“I shot your brother and he told me to marry him.”