He shot me another glare. My father wasn’t the bad guy—the Romanos were. Max had taken almost everything from us in pursuit of the marina. What the hell made that place so special?
“You need to adjust where your loyalty lies,” he demanded “You will be my wife, which means you’ll have the Romano last name. The sooner you realize that, the easier of a transition this will be for you.”
I looked away, unable to meet his gaze any longer.
How was I supposed to switch my loyalty just like that? How could he expect me to abandon my family, the people who had raised me, for his sake? The man who had betrayed me.
It wasn’t fair. None of it was.
How did we get here? How had this become so complicated, so entangled with duty and betrayal? I wanted to scream, to cry, to turn away from it all. But I was trapped.
“Rosalie,” he said gently, his tone shifting to something that sounded a lot softer. “I don’t want this to be hard for you. I don’t want us to be at odds all the time.”
I could hear the sincerity in his voice, the desperation. But it wasn’t that simple.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t expect everything to change overnight,” I replied.
He sighed, the frustration evident in the tight lines around his mouth. “You have to understand, this is bigger than just us. This is about our families, our future. We have to find a way to make this work.”
“I know. The only reason I’m still here is because of my family and their future. That’s also the only reason I signed the contract.”
“You did? You signed it?” he wondered.
“Surprised? I thought you wereexpectingthis.”
“Well, I was beginning to think you’d keep me in suspense a little longer. A whole extra day at least.”
“Sorry to disappoint.” I shrugged, handing him the signed contract. “I didn’t exactly have a choice.”
He took the papers, his fingers brushing mine, and for a split second, his expression softened. “You always have a choice, Rosalie,” he murmured, “I just happen to be the most logical one.”
Just as he was about to turn and head to his office, he said, “Oh, and Rosalie?”
“Yes?”
“You might want to lock your door tonight.”
CHAPTER 30
MAX
Days had gone by, and I’d made no progress with Rosalie. She continued to make things more difficult than they needed to be. I wondered how long she’d keep this up. She was mad, sure, but did she not burn for me the way I burned for her?
I thought about her constantly. I thought about her green eyes. I thought about her pitchy tone. She wouldn’t get out of my damn head, especially at night. Knowing she was just down the hall, a mere twenty paces away, made sleep a cruel joke.
For four hours I’d tossed and turned, the silence interrupted by the tickingRolexon the bedside table, mocking my insomnia.
Each night, the same battle raged within me. Every muscle screamed for her touch. The desperate urge to crawl into her bed, to burrow my head into her warm body, especially the soft rise and fall of her stomach with each breath, was threatening to drown my willpower.
What if I gave in? Would she hate me? Would she think I was overstepping her boundaries?
It would probably set back my progress with her, and I needed her to trust me if this was going to work.
Around midnight, a ghost of a sound—footsteps, hesitant and quiet—had paused right outside my door. Had she considered knocking? The image of her hand hovering over the doorknob and then slowly withdrawing was a fresh torment.
Did she doubt my intentions more than I thought? Was the trust I so desperately craved still a bridge too far for her to cross?
Finally, with a sigh that spoke volumes, I dragged myself out of bed. The stairs seemed to stretch on forever before I reached the bottom.
