We were so close. Our chests nearly brushed. With each quick breath, hers was a hair’s breadth from contact.
Her eyes? They were wild. “You think that’s what this is? That I’m trying to seduce you?”
“You know you don’t have to try,” I bit out. “I’m here, whenever you want to come down off that high horse of yours.”
She let out a derisive snort and lifted her chin. “You wish.”
And you lie!My molars threatened to crack under the strain. I took another careful breath, practiced the words in my head to keep from saying something I would regret. “That’s exactly what you want.”
Her laugh was broken, humorless. “I haven’t been pining for you to come back and save me—”
I lifted my arms, bracing them beside her head. My fingers clenched tight to keep from reaching for her.
“I’m here now, Mandy.”Just let me in!
She flicked a nervous glance at my balled fists.
“You’re scaring me,” she whispered.
My breath hitched. My chest felt like she stabbed me. How could she think that? I would rather be torn apart by wild animals than….
Well.
If she expected a monster.
I quit fighting the pressure. I let the tension explode and slammed my fist into the wall beside her head. Hard. The crack echoed through the narrow space, defying the walls that entombed us. We were free. This wasn’t a prison. Dust fluttered to the floor from the mark in the plaster. I struck again, and again.
Amanda flinched each time.
Crowding against her, I snarled, “I told you to stay because the thought of you walking out that door—” I swallowed hard “—alone to face the danger? It’s a nonnegotiable.”
“Enzo,” she pleaded, but my fist against the plaster silenced her.
“I didn’t trap you in my house; I offered you a place to rest. A sanctuary.” Another blow sent a chunk of wall to the ground. “Did you ever stop to think that I might be trapped by this, too? Or are you really that selfish?”
Both her hands shot up, flattening on my chest.
I stilled.
My lungs screamed for air, heaving as though I’d just run a mile. “Are you really scared of me?”
If the answer was yes, if she confirmed that terrible fear, I would let her go. Right now. She would be safe with my brother.
“No,” she whispered. “I’m not. I…I didn’t mean it.”
“Then what?” I nearly shouted. “Why does my help bother you so damned much?”
Enough that she went to Cristiano and not me with the truth. I knew this discussion was coming, but I’d kept it back, holding onto my feelings, for her sake. But she’d goaded me to the breaking point.
Amanda closed her eyes. Her lips trembled as she drew in a desperate gulp of air. “I’m not scaredofyou,” she said carefully. Her eyes fluttered open. Those jewels pinned me with a fierce, determined look. “I’m scared of what happens if you try to make me yours.”
She wasn’t talking about the wedding or public marriage.
This was about us deciding to be together. The connection we didn’t acknowledge was that we recognized a part of ourselves in each other. Soulmates, she used to call us. Together, we could face anything.
My voice turned raw, my torn heart bleeding into the words. “That depends on you. I won’t cross that line for us.”
“Good.”
