Page 19 of Stolen Vows

"I don’t think you understand how this works," I warn her, not moving my eyes from hers for an instant. "You don’t get to tell me how this is going to go. You stay here, you keep your head down, and you don’t pull any great escape attempts, and you get out of this alive. You hear me?”

She doesn’t move a muscle. Her eyes flash with something I haven’t seen before—something that almost looks dangerous, or would, if it was coming from someone with the ability to actually threaten me.

"You have no idea who I am," she snaps back at me. "You have no clue what you’re getting yourself into. My father?—"

"Oh, I know all about your father," I murmur to her, my voice dropping. "Question is, do you?”

That seems to get to her. For a moment, she’s silent, her brow furrowing slightly, and she shakes her head.

"What does that mean...?"

"You know everything that your father is involved with?" I taunt her. Now that I’ve found something that gets to her, I can’t help but use it, pressing on it like I’m applying pressure to a bruise.

"What the hell are you talking about?” she counters, but there is a slight quake to her voice. I know I hit a nerve.

She might want to put up this front that she can handle everything I throw at her, but her father is clearly a sore spot. How much does she know about him? And how much as she tried to ignore over the years, just because the reality would have been too much for her to handle...?

"You really don’t know," I murmur, leaning towards her slightly. All the energy that coursed through my body the moment I realized she had run seems to have turned to something else now—something that’s stirred by her presence before me, her eyes burning into mine.

"Don’t know what?” she snaps back.

I can hear the doubt in her voice now. She is second-guessing herself, though she doesn’t want me to know. Her eyes are wide, not moving from mine, her lips pressed together as she tries to disguise everything that is going on inside her head.

"You tell me," I add, lowering my head slightly so that we are barely more than a few inches apart. "You think you know your father? Tell me what kind of man you think he is."

She doesn’t reply. Her eyes slide from mine, but I reach out, catching her chin in my hand and drawing her gaze back to meet mine. The anger is dissipating into something else now, something that seems to consume my whole body. Being alonewith her in this place, the scent of her skin filling my senses, her wide blue eyes gazing back at me as though she can barely believe that I am real, it’s lighting something dangerous in me, something I know I should be able to control.

"You wouldn’t believe me, even if I told you."

"So, tell me," I press her, cocking an eyebrow. "Try me, Cara."

She inhales sharply. I can tell she wants to lay this out on the line right now, and I want to hear just how much she knows, just how much she is ready to share. She has hinted towards her father’s work before, but there has to be more that she’s not telling me, more that she’s trying to contain right now, and I’m determined to shake it loose.

"Because from where I’m standing," I continue, "he tried to marry you off to that Mario bastard to serve his business. Selling off his baby girl to make a connection. How is that right?”

Her face pales. It seems that she forgot she told me her marriage to Mario was nothing more than a facade, something she had agreed to in order to help the business, not because she actually cared for him.

"You don’t understand what it’s like for women in this world?—"

"I don’t?” I reply, keeping my voice steady.

We are standing just an inch apart now, and I am distinctly aware of how near we are to one another, how easy it would be to shut her mouth with a kiss. I’ve been locked up in here with her for so long now, and the tension is getting the better of me. How am I meant to keep my shit under wraps when she’s glaring at me like that, eyes alive with a passion I’ve never seen in her before...

"No, you don’t," she mutters. "You don’t know what we have to give up. The things we have to do..."

"And what exactly was your father going to make you give up, hmm?” I press. "You can’t tell me that Mario wouldn’t have expected everything from you. Your mind, your body..."

She draws in another breath. I can tell she wants to fight me on this, but how can she? She knows as well as I do that these marriages are meant to produce offspring, and if they don’t, they attract the kind of gossip that a man like Mario would never want to happen.

"I— that part was meant to be up to me," she protests, but her cheeks have flushed, her eyes widening, like the mere thought of it is enough to scare her.

"Look at you," I murmur, my eyes grazing up and down her body. "You really think he would have been able to keep his hands off of you, Cara?”

"What do you mean?” she whispers, and I chuckle slightly. My hand grazes against hers for a moment, and she doesn’t pull back.

"I mean, you’re a gorgeous woman," I tell her, letting my gaze rest on her for a long moment. "And any man in the world would kill to get you alone."

She bites her lip. Her eyes flick down my own body, considering the statement.

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