Page 120 of The Nightmare Bride
“Only that you can make this as difficult as humanly possible, if you like. But I’m up to the challenge. I’m up toanychallenge. Because you know that when I set my sights on something, I’m relentless. I keep on trying, until it’s mine.”
I attempted to shrug off his words. How was he so freakingsureof himself all the time? Especially when I’d just flat-out rejected him? “I’m not some kind of carnival game. You can’t just keep tossing the ring until you land it around the bottle.”
“Oh, but I can,” he said. “Watch me.”
“No.” My voice rose. “I’m not a thing to be conquered.”
He snorted. “If you had no desire to be conquered, you should never have conquered me, first.”
I swallowed a fresh flood of emotion, but nothing about my silence felt quiet. It was more like internally screaming into a pillow.
I shoved the annulment certificate at him. “Look, just sign this and marry Amryssa, okay?”
“I will, if that’s what you want. But this conversation isn’t over.”
“It is,” I snapped.
“On the contrary. It’s just getting started.”
“It’s not. This wholethingis over. This marriage.”
“No,” he said, with force. “Not unless you look me in the eye and tell me you’re not in love with me. Half in love, even. Say that with utter sincerity, and I’ll leave it be.”
I flashed my teeth. “I already told you I’m not going to admit that.”
“I’m not asking you to admit it,” he countered. “I’m asking you to deny it. Tell me no part of you feels for me what I feel for you.”
I scrambled off the bed, trying to escape the desperation percolating in my ribcage. What was I doing arguing over nothing, anyway? “This is stupid. I have to go. It’s past sunrise, and Amryssa’s probably already awake.”
“You’re hiding again.”
Anger sparked beneath my breastbone. Anger and something deeper, something I didn’t want to look at in the eyes. I marched up to him, my soles dragging across the carpets.
He smiled, so smugly it made me want to slap him again.
Or kiss him. Oh, goddess, I really did want to kiss him again. I wantedeverythingagain, even though he was already all over me—his sweat, his scent, his essence. And still, I craved more. I wanted to rub it all in, soak him up until he became a permanent fixture in my pores.
What a useless, pointless wish. “Get out of my way.”
“No.”
I crossed my arms, mirroring his pose, though my chest didn’t flex and bulge the way his did. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“Well, we both know that’s nothing new.” His eyes gleamed a challenge. “And all you have to do is say five words. ‘Kai, I don’t love you.’ That should be easy, considering how adamant you’ve been about hating me.”
I tried to do exactly that, then gave him a silent snarl when the words wouldn’t come. They lodged in my chest, nowhere near making it to my throat.
Because Ididlove him. Of course I did—halfway, or all the way, or who fucking cared, really? It didn’t matter. This wasn’taboutme.
“I’m going now,” I snapped.
A flash of victory illuminated his face, and... Gods among us, I knew that look. Great. Now I would never get rid of him.
Thankfully, when I angled past, he let me go. I stomped away, whisking my clothes from the floor and slamming the bathroom door. Curses sprang from my lips as I dressed.
By the time I reemerged, the bedroom was blessedly empty. The annulment certificate lay on the bed, complete with a second signature. I snatched it up on my way to Amryssa’s room.
When I threw open her door, she beamed.
