He looked good. Dangerously good. The kind of good that made me forget all the very valid reasons I needed to stay away from him.
"I wasn't planning anything. Just reading."
"Reading requires actually looking at the words on the page. You've been staring at the same paragraph for five minutes." He moved into the room, uninvited, and dropped into the chair across from mine. "What's going on in that head of yours?"
"Nothing that concerns you."
"Everything about you concerns me." He said it like it was fact. Like his obsession with me was perfectly normal. "What did my father say to you earlier? Before he left?"
"Just rules. Nothing important."
"Aria." My name on his lips was a warning. "Don't lie to me. You looked like you were going to pass out when you left his study."
I should have kept my mouth shut. Should have brushed it off. Should have told him to leave me alone.
Instead, wine-tipsy and exhausted and so tired of pretending, I met his eyes.
"He told me he expects a virgin on our wedding night."
The silence that followed was deafening.
Kai's entire body went rigid. His hands clenched on the arms of the chair. When he spoke, his voice was dangerously quiet.
"He what?"
"You heard me. He expects purity in a wife. Says it showsrespect and self-control." I laughed but it came out bitter. "Which is hilarious considering I haven't been a virgin since you made absolutely certain of that two weeks ago."
"Fuck." He stood, started pacing. "Fuck. That manipulative son of a—"
"It doesn't matter—"
"It matters." He spun to face me. "It matters because in three months, he's going to know someone else touched you first. And then what? You think he's just going to accept that?"
"I know." My voice cracked. "I know he's going to be furious. I know there will be consequences. But what am I supposed to do? I can't unfuck you. I can't go back and make different choices. I'm trapped."
Kai crossed the room in three strides, dropping to his knees in front of my chair. His hands found mine, gripping tight enough that I could feel the calluses on his palms, the warmth of his skin against mine.
"Listen to me. You're not marrying him. I don't care about the alliance. You're not becoming his wife."
"That's not your decision—"
"The hell it isn't. You're mine, Aria. And I'm not letting my father touch what belongs to me."
The possessiveness in his voice should have scared me. Should have made me pull away.
Instead, it made heat flood through me, pooling low in my belly.
"This is insane. We can't—we shouldn't—"
"Why not?" His eyes burned into mine. "Because it's wrong? Because someone told us we can't have what we want? Fuck that. I've spent my entire life doing what other people expected. Following rules I didn't make. And where has it gotten me? Watching my father destroy everything good while I gather evidence and wait for permission to stop him."
His hands tightened on mine.
"But you? You walked into that club and changed everything. You made me feel something I've never felt before. And now you're hereand you think I'm just going to stand by and watch you prepare to marry a monster? No. Absolutely not."
"Kai—"
"Tell me you don't feel this." His voice dropped lower, rougher. "Tell me you don't think about that night. About my hands on you. Inside you. Tell me you don't remember how good it was between us."
