Page 8 of Ruined Vows
No, the night of the showdown, she was dressed to fight. Skin-tight tactical wear, combat boots that echoed like gunshots, and a stare that could cut through steel.
She doesn’t know it—yet. The minute I saw her storm into the warehouse, she was mine.
I had the inside track on her arrival, courtesy of her brother, who wanted me to apprehend her so that she wouldn’t be held by a soldier who wasn’t in on our plan.
She met my gaze, and her hazel eyes flashed to that of emerald, like the green hills of Ireland, and she was intent on ending me.
She thought I was goingto kill her, but she showed no fear.
There was no flinch in her step—just lethal purpose, sleek and silent. I wasn’t prepared for her to be so, well, deadly. She managed to get a few hits in before I subdued her.
She moved like war wrapped in no restraint.
That was the first moment.
The only moment that ever mattered.
Because something in me stilled. Not softened—stilled.Like my body remembered something my soul hadn’t yet accepted.
One look, one touch, mesmerized me. I knew then that I would have her. She wants ten dates? Fine. Because I never lose.
She wasn’t like any woman I’d ever known.
She wasn’t meant to be touched.
She was meant to beworshiped.
She’s the kind of woman a man burns down kingdoms for—not to place her on a throne but to earn the right to stand beside her.
She looked at me across the chaos.
Not past me. Not through me.
At me.
Like I was a question she didn’t like the answer to.
And I burned for it.
She is Matteo’s sister, the enemy.
She’s the Borrellis’ crown jewel.
Off-limits.
Untouchable.
But right then, standing in the hollow of a broken empire, with blood and brains on my boots, and loyalty weighing down my shoulders, I decided she was mine.
I didn’t care how long it took. I didn’t care what war started over it because a man doesn’t walk away from a queen.
Not when she looks at him like she’s already reading my sins.
And not when I know?—
I’d commit them all over again to hear her say my name.
That’s why I called in my favor.
