“I don’t trust you, Dan. That’s the problem. You broke that trust when you used me for your mission.” I hate how myeyes sting. Hate how saying it out loud is like admitting it to myself. I want to trust him. I really do.
“Yeah, well, you betrayed me, too. I woke up from a coma to find out you’d married someone else. You lied to me, too. You said you’d wait for me.”
“You were in a coma?” I swallow the lump in my throat.
“Helicopter accident.”
It all makes sense now—why he’s anxious when flying. Why he thinks I betrayed him, but he’s lied so many times it’s hard to know if this is just another lie to make me feel sorry for him. “I didn’t betray you. I was a pawn for a business deal. I thought you didn’t care.”
Dan’s eyes widen. “A deal?” He rises from the chair, his fists tugging at his hair as he paces the small space. “Fucking hell.” He closes his eyes and takes long slow breaths through his nose, his jaw clenched as he pulls back the long drape and looks out at the Rome skyline in the distance.
I sit on the bed, twiddling a piece of popcorn between my fingers. “Did you not know?”
He tilts his head, glancing back at me, his eyes glazed over with a watery film. “No.” The deep rasp in his tone is almost a growl. “I thought you married him willingly. Whether it was to spite me or because you actually liked him, I wasn’t sure.” He paces again, his fists clenching and opening, causing the veins under his inked arms to bulge.
I pop a piece of popcorn into my mouth, then another as he comes to terms with my ordeal. Watching him unravel is better than anyMagic Mikemovie. I almost want him to suffer and feel even a fraction of the pain I went through, but if he’s telling the truth about his accident, he’s probably suffered enough.
“If I’d have known.” He tugs at his hair again. “Did he force himself on you?” His steel-coloured eyes stare into me as if penetrating my mind to extract the information without words.
I look away, shame still gnawing at me for how weak I was back then. “Dan, I was married to him. I’m sure you can guess how it went. You don’t need me to spell it out for you.”
The mattress dips as he sits on the bed next to me. His hand cups my cheek and I lean into the warmth from his palm. “If I’d have known, I’d have come for you.”
“I wrote you a letter.” My voice wobbles, emotions clogging the back of my throat.
“I never got a letter. I would’ve torn the world apart to get to you if I had.”
“I remember folding the paper with shaking hands, sealing the envelope with a kiss and a tear. I poured every bit of heartbreak into that letter. Begged that it wasn’t you. I couldn’t believe that you came into my home, stole my virginity and killed my father and his men. I didn’t want to believe it was you.”.
“I’m not sorry for killing those men or your father, and I’m not sorry for taking your virginity, but I didn’t steal it. You gave it to me.” His thumb strokes my cheek where flames lick beneath the surface. Warm lips press against my forehead just like he’d always do. “It was the best gift anyone’s ever given me.”
Heat pools in my belly. For a minute, I’m that girl again, full of love and hope. I pinch my leg, hoping it will ground me. Fairy tales aren’t real, unless they’re the Grimm type of fairy tale. I swallow the jumbled words in my throat, my lips close to his, his eyes sincere and filled with a lifetime of sadness that mirrors my own. But all this time, I’ve had Angelos to brighten my day. Dan’s had no one.
“You gave me the best gift anyone’s ever given me that night, too.” My fingers caress his unshaven jaw. “You gave me my son.”
He rests his forehead against mine, our noses kissing with the gentlest of touches as he breathes against my lips. “Our son.”
When he says it, my clit tingles, my walls clench as if my body wants to make another baby with this man. A man who once made me feel loved and safe. I crave that feeling again. A feeling that’s evaded me ever since the night he left, leaving a catastrophic scene in his wake that would shape the rest of my future and bind me to a life of misery. I can’t forget this man caused me my pain too.
A knock at the door has my heart lurching from my chest. My bones jump on the bed.
“It’ll be room service.”
24
DAN
Ilie back with a sigh, turn the TV off, and stare up at the dark ceiling, the only light from my phone as it charges on the bedside table.
Rose sleeps beside me, the movie forgotten.
I shift in the bed to face her, sliding my arm under her pillow to stretch out.
She whimpers as she adjusts herself, her body curled into a ball.
I swipe a lock of blonde hair from her face, then run a finger over her dark-brown roots that remind me of the girl she was. My flower.
She whimpers again and sighs. “You like the brunette, don’t you?”
