Page 25 of Stolen Vows

"Do you come here a lot?” I press. "Just to get some space, I mean..."

He shakes his head.

"I don’t need space. Not from my family."

He speaks with a certainty that catches me by surprise, to hear someone who obviously cares so deeply about their family surprises me. I’ve never heard my father talk that way about me,and I’m not sure I would have been able to muster the same enthusiasm when it came to him, either.

"What about women?” I remark, lightening my tone. "You ever come here to get away from a one-night-stand gone wrong, or something?"

He smirks slightly. This seems to have gotten under his skin. Does he have some kind of reputation with women, or something? I know so little about this man, so little about the person he is outside of this place, that the thought of him with someone else briefly sends a startle of jealousy through my system. Which is crazy, because we have hardly done anything, and yet...

"Why are you so interested in what I get up to with other women?” he asks me, his voice steady, his tone pointed.

He can tell what is going through my head, even as I try my best to cover it up. Suddenly, his gaze feels almost exposing, like he is looking straight through me, deep into my head.

"I’m not," I shoot back, a little too quickly. "Just trying to make conversation. I told you, I don’t like being on my own, especially not after?—"

I stop myself. The unspoken words hang between us. He knows as well as I do what I am referring to, but I press my lips together. I am not going to be the one to come out and say it, not when he’s the one who stopped us.

"After what?” he asks, cocking an eyebrow.

"You know."

"Act like I don’t. Tell me."

I fire an angry look at him.

"You’re really going to play it like this?” I demand, exasperated. "I mean, we did all that, and then you… and then you pulled back when you found out I had never done it before."

"Because I’m not taking your virginity under these circumstances."

"Why not?” I ask him. "I want it. And you want it. I could tell by the?—"

"Cara," he cuts me off. "I’m not discussing this with you. I told you, I’m not going to... be with you like that."

I rise to my feet. I don’t know what I am doing, but I can feel my head spinning, the thrum of my heart pushing me forward. I don’t want to give up on this, not so easily, I don’t want to lose my chance to have him.

When all this is over, I will never have a chance to see him again, and that thought twists deep in me. Suddenly, being apart from him feels impossible, despite the fact I have lived my entire life up until this point without knowing that he exists.

"I asked you, why," I remind him. "And I deserve an answer. Don’t you think?”

He glowers up at me for a moment, but, even in the midst of all of that, I can see something, something he is trying his best to hide. He wants me. He needs me. And, no matter what he says, he can’t pretend otherwise.

"You really want the answer?” he asks me, as he rises to his feet, staring down at me as he places his glass aside.

I nod, a sudden rush of fear heating my chest, but I push it aside. I deserve to know why he is so unwilling to do what I want. I know that he might have kidnapped me, that this hardly started in any way that people would think was safe or appropriate, but that doesn’t mean I am willing to let it slip through my fingers. Sometimes, the most unconventional attractions are the best ones.

"Because you have no idea what’s going on here. Not really. And I’m not going to sleep with someone who doesn’t have the full picture."

"So tell me," I plead with him. "Tell me what’s going on. I want to know. I really do. I can’t just?—"

"You don’t," he growls. "Trust me, you don’t."

He goes to sit back down again, but before he can, I grab his hand, forcing his attention on me once more.

"Please, just listen to me," I beg him. "My father... my whole life, I haven’t been part of things. I have been on the outskirts of his world, but he has never let me any closer than that. He never would, not as long as I’m his daughter. I can’t stand feeling like I don’t have a say in any of this, in the life that I have. I need to know what you know. I need to. I want to be able to make this choice to be with you, but you’re hiding and I can’t do it anymore..."

The words spill from me in a rush I can barely control, and I can see something shifting as he stares at me, his hand still wrapped around mine. His fingers interlink with my own, and my breath hitches in my throat. Even the slightest touch from him feels electric, every hair on the back of my neck standing on end. I want him. God, I want him. I have never wanted anyone the wayI want him in this moment, and I know that I am willing to listen to whatever he has to say to explain his reluctance.

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