Page 112 of Sinister Promise

I thought she was going to tell me she thought about being pre-med or binge-watched some medical drama. Hell, I almost expected a little hint of her fire with a quip about me keeping her locked away so she'd been practicing on the guards.

I didn't expect heart-wrenching honesty.

She really was an incredible woman.

Too bad she hated my guts.

Not for the first time, I wished we had met under different circumstances. One where I could take my time, woo her with affection, attention, and then teach her to love the chase as much as I did.

Or anything where I had the luxury of time.

When she was finished, she tied off the sutures.

"I need to clean up," I said as she reached for a bandage.

Her hand stopped just over the bandage, hovering there for a moment, and I stared at it, wishing she would lay it back on my skin.

Instead, she pulled her hand away and nodded.

"When you are done, I will bandage the stitches."

Then she was gone.

I quickly washed at the sink and followed her out of the door, needing to know where she was.

When I joined her in the dining room, she already had dinner set up.

The shift from the bathroom's intimacy to the dining room's formality was jarring. Here, with proper place settings and polite distance between us, the moment we'd shared seemed almost like a dream.

The mood felt strange—tense, yet… intimate.

I opened my mouth maybe a dozen times to say something as she picked at her pasta.

I just didn't know what to say. How did I start a genuine conversation that wouldn't remind her what I was, and what led her here?

How did I show her I may be a monster, but there was more to me than blood, knives, and bleeding wounds?

Tomorrow, we'd be married.

Alina would be my wife, and I didn't know how to speak to her.

I should tell her that these past few weeks had been some of the best of my life.

That coming home to her was the highlight of my day, every day. I should tell her I'd begun craving her company, and I'd do anything in my power to make her happy.

I should've said something to show her I may be a monster, but I was her monster.

That I had become obsessed with earning one of her elusive smiles.

That the idea of her carrying my child, of capturingeven a piece of what my brothers and cousins had, filled me with something unfamiliar.

Hope.

It was strange and uncomfortable at first, but I had grown accustomed to it, and now I was afraid I'd miss it if it disappeared.

The hope was for us.

Hope for our future.

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