Page 67 of His Bride

She swallows, her eyes glassy, lips trembling.

“Now, which one do you think you’ll be after he finally decides he’s done with you?”

Chapter 17

CAELIAN

Giana doesn’t move, my fingers still gently holding her face, my thumb now brushing along her bottom lip. And she doesn’t speak.

She knows I’m right. I bet she’s thought about it while lying awake in bed in the dark, about how bad it could truly get with a man like Aurelio. Especially since she so publicly humiliated him by marrying me. A man’s pride is his most valuable possession, after all. Wound it, and he won’t hesitate to make sure you ache where no one can see.

She knows this. Realizes it. And she’ll rethink, reconsider, I’m sure. Because, deep down, she's smarter than this. She's stronger than this.

Her blue eyes shimmer, and I see her unshed tears, the way her lips tremble right before they part. “So, you’ll sign?”

Mother. Fucker.

It’s a punch to the stomach. Ice rushes through my veins. For a moment, I am completely thrown off. My grip on her chinfalters, a storm of emotions clouding my vision. The shock, the disbelief.

Will I sign? Will Ifuckingsign?

I step back, leveling her with a stare I hope relays just how resolute I am. “No. A big, emphatic, fat fucking no.”

“But…but you said?—”

“I know what I said,” I snap, barely controlling my anger. “Yes, I planned on signing the papers you have such an infuriating hardon for. I knew you’d bring your A-game tonight; you always do. Never disappoint. But then you walked in with your natural defiance tripled, like you’d just distilled it and drunk it in some wild fucking hope to gain some kind of superpower and shot all my intentions to shit.”

“Caelian, calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down,” I snap. God, this woman is driving me crazy. Where’s a good therapist when you need one? “You’re the first woman I…Jesus.You’re the first woman I’ve fallen in love with.”

“You’re not in love with me.”

“Stop. Doing that,” I grit. “Don’t tell me what I do and don’t feel. Don’t tell me what to do. In fact, just don’t tell me anything.”

“Fine.” She savages a piece of steak with her knife and stabs it with her fork. We’re so perfect for each other. I don’t know how, in all her cruelty, she can’t see it.

I throw back the rest of my drink, slam the glass on the table, and stalk across the room.

My thoughts are a jumbled mess. My chest is tight. My pulse is racing. Loving someone this much is complete and utter madness. And there are people out there dreaming of finding love? That’s insane. They have no idea how closely love resembles that feeling of having your ribs hacked open and your lungs blood-eagled out of your chest.

I rough a hand through my hair. “The second you walked in here tonight, I was just…fucked.I knew it. Everyone knows it.”

“I’m the only one in here,” she says, butchering more steak, and I laugh. It’s a maniacal chuckle of disbelief with a side of amusement. “My point is?—”

“Good. You have a point.”

“My point is that I knew there was no way in hell I could let you go so easily. Not by signing a stupid piece of paper. You sent back the fucking ring, Giana. What is that?”

“I’d think the divorce papers would tell you that.”

Now she’s all defiant, full of my cum, cocky and bratty. The combination shouldn’t work. Maybe it’s the cum. Or it’s her.

It’s something, because it’s undeniably hot. Most would think her talent to jump from one emotion to the next within a split second is certifiable. But not me. I think it’s wild, in a sexy-as-fuck, torture-me kind of way. It keeps thingsnotboring.

I huff. “I thought letting you go would be easy, but it isn’t. No matter how annoying you are.”

“You’ve got a gift, Caelian,” she says, moving on to potato slaughter. She terrorizes the spinach at the same time, so it’s kind of a double murder.

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