I don’t.
“Relax,” he says. “I didn’t come to hurt you.”
“You don’t have to say it out loud for it to feel like you might,” I say, my breath catching as he closes the distance.
“Still dramatic,” he mumbles. “Still beautiful when you’re lying.”
He moves until he’s close enough to smell him—expensive cologne, faint smoke, and something dark clawing his way back from the past.
His hand brushes the edge of the box, sliding it out of my grip until it lands on the counter with a dull thud.
“How… are you here?”
My voice is barely audible as Benedikt lifts his hand, and his fingers graze the side of my throat.
It’s barely a touch, but my body reacts as if it’s a command.
“Miss me?”
I hate him for knowing me this well. I hate that my body still reacts to him.
“Say what you came to say, then leave me alone,” I whisper.
“That’s the problem, princess.” His thumb traces my jaw. “You keep pretending you get to decide.”
He leans in, close enough that his breath hits my neck, that I can feel his heat through my clothes. I should shove him, scream, anything.
All I can do is stand here, hating how much I’ve missed this moment—the stillness before the storm.
“You think you can walk away from me?” he asks quietly. “After everything?”
I can feel my throat closing when I mumble. “I already did. You can’t force me, Benedikt.”
“We had a deal. You marry me. I don’t kill your father. You give me an heir in five years’ time. I give you everything you want.”
And just like that, the air shifts. It’s the same pull as before—rage tangled with want, and fear knotted up with everything I never said out loud. My heart is hammering, and I know I’m trapped again.
Because we had a deal.
And I broke it.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” I manage, trying to sound firmer than I feel.
“Exiled doesn’t mean invisible, princess.” I feel his chest push firmer into my spine. “Tell me… who approached whom? Did Nikolai promise you pretty things, and that’s why you betrayed me?”
I don’t respond. The answer won’t make things better.
His brother approached me with options. I didn’t agree right away. It wasn’t what Benedikt and I agreed upon, but I thought that maybe I could get my life back to normal.
“You can’t even deny it.”
The edge in his voice snaps something. In one hard movement, he spins me around. The box clatters to the floor, and I’m staring up at him, my butt pressed against the counter.
His hands are on either side of me, jaw tight, blue eyes colder than I’ve ever seen them.
“You gave them everything I built,” he says, his voice shaking with fury. “Everything I bled for. And you did it with my ring still on your finger.”
“You don’t get to talk about bleeding,” I shoot back. “You had me trapped. I?—”
