Page 51 of An Inconvenient Marriage
I hated the pity on my brother’s face.
“You can’t blame him for what our mother did. How fucking old are you?” Javier let out a long breath. “It was her choice to end her life. And now you have a choice, too. End this madness and start living.”
He moved quick, leaning across the table and grabbing my hand before I realized what was happening.
“If you go through with whatever you’re planning, you’re no better than him. And even worse, you’ll cause Natalie pain. She’s innocent in all of this.”
“Fuck you!”
Javier immediately put his hands up, palms facing me. “I didn’t come here to fight.”
I pushed to my feet and pulled my wallet from my pocket. “A bit late for that.”
“Zacharias, come on?” he edged. “Don’t leave like this.”
After tossing a few bills on the table, I glared at him. “It’s been a long day, and I’m tired. Let’s meet up another time.”
I didn’t wait for him to respond. Just turned and walked out of the restaurant, uncertain of my feelings. Javier wasn’t wrong about anything, but that didn’t mean shit when I still had to deal with the ache of a heart that’d been ripped apart.
Seeing this through, getting my revenge on Trent, was the only way for my life to make sense again. At least that’s what I kept telling myself when I made my way back to the car.
But once I slipped behind the steering wheel and pressed the start button, I just sat there.
I had no more meetings for the rest of the day, and I’d lied when I’d told Natalie about the following day’s meetings. I’d thought I needed space from her, but even while she was miles away from me, she never left.
Not seeing her only led to obsessive thinking about her. And that was even more counterproductive. And apparently not good for my mood if the first half of today was anything to go by.
But then again, now that I’d had a delicious sample of her, I wasn’t sure how I was going to keep my hands off her. It would take herculean strength, and honestly, I didn’t think I had it in me.
It was like putting a bottle of liquor in front of a recovering alcoholic and telling them not to drink. Or placing a chocolate bar in the hands of someone who’d been deprived of sugar for an extended period.
And yes, there were the rare few who could resist, but I wasn’t one of them. I mean, come on, one taste of the woman had turned me into a fucking fiend.
“Well, shit,” I groaned. Throwing my head back against the headrest, I ran my palms down my face and groaned some more.
What the hell was wrong with me?
I’d asked that question more than once today and I still wasn’t any closer to an answer.
I was still in the middle of feeling sorry for myself when my phone rang. I’d been expecting Sophie’s call, so I grabbed the device and answered it without looking at the screen.
“I can’t reach Natalie. I need to talk to her.”
And just like that, my already terrible mood got even worse. “Surely you don’t think you’re going to get anywhere with me with a tone like that, Trent?”
“I want to speak to Natalie,” he huffed.
Closing my eyes, I drew in a breath through my nose. “Well, you can’t. Want me to pass on a message?” I added a little extra bite to my tone, so he knew it was a damn rhetorical question.
On the other end of the line, Trent sounded like a bull gearing up to storm. “Pass on a message? de la Fuente, youwillput my daughter on the phone, I demand to—”
“Funny how you think you can demand anything. Natalie belongs to me now, you’d do well to remember that.” With a curse, I stabbed the red button and threw the phone on the seat next to me.
What the fuck have I gotten myself into?
16
Natalie
