Page 47 of The Vow

“I’m not yours anymore, Damon.”

Even as I said it, I imagined those perfectly curved lips coming for mine. I imagined the way he’d swirl me across the floor and find a dark alcove where his hands and mouth could fully stake his claim.

His hand slid down my throat, surprising me as he spread his palm and flattened it just at the base of my neck.

“You’renot?” he murmured, gently tracing his finger on the side of my neck.

No, not tracing?—

“No!” I gasped, but I wasn’t fast enough to stop him from pulling my necklace forward with a flick of his wrist, freeing the heavy weight of the metal ring out from beneath the depths of my neckline.

“Not my wife?” he drawled, his eyes glittering with victory as he held the band between us. “And yet you still wear my ring.”

Rage popped and crackled right alongside the ache in my blood.

“Yes, I still wear it,” I spat with a low voice, reaching up and locking my hand over his. “Like an albatross around my neck.”

A ring of guilt and shame suspended like a noose, forever reminding me of the fool I’d been for letting him get too close.

He blinked, his lashes dipping to his cheeks, unshaken by my words. “You know the albatross is also an omen of good luck.”

“Not for me,” I seethed.

“Stop fighting this, Robber, because I will fight to the death to have you again.” He released my necklace, the ring landing like a wrecking ball straight to my hollow chest. “I will fight to fix this. To heal this. To be with you.” He cupped my cheek, preventing me from turning away as he drew me closer.

No.I had to get away from him. I had to stop this before he went too far.Before I couldn’t hide how a heart so broken still craved the man who’d obliterated it.

“You can’t,” I warned, feeling his breath on my lips.

“I will break every rule to touch you again.” Expert fingers drew along the seam of my mouth, parting my lips as they went. “To kiss you again.”

“You can’t, Damon.”

I felt the rumble of his chest. “I have to.”

Had to?

His fingers pinched my chin, and I stiffened, thinking he was going to force my mouth to his. Instead, he tipped my head back too far for that, and his face moved next to my ear.

Air plummeted into my chest as his tongue dragged over my stampeding pulse.Damn him.I struggled to breathe steadily as desire scorched my skin. He’d never win me back by bombastic assault, but by these treacherous shows of tenderness…and he knew it.

“Smile, Robber, we’re on the mistletoe cam.” The rumble of his voice filtered through the fog.

What…

I blinked, hearing the whirring above me as the drone came into focus, its camera aimed at us. And then I saw it. The piece of holly suspended from its body that was meant to be a moving mistletoe. The drone, a kiss camera.

Damon’s hold evaporated, and like there was an anchor attached to my chin, my face dropped squarely in front of his and into the target of his lips.

I stared at him, once again seeing the trick too late.

Damon said he wouldfightto have me again, and what did I expect from a world-class criminal? That he would fight fair?

The dance. The way he moved us through the crowd. It wasn’t to hold me. Or to pull me closer. Or even to talk to me. It was for this. To bring us into the path of the mistletoe that might as well have been a machine gun for all the damage it was about to do.

And what alternative did I have? Storm off the floor? Give the camera and Belmont something to use against Damon? Against me? Jeopardize everything I’d worked for?

I couldn’t.I wouldn’t risk it. And goddamn me, I didn’t want to.

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