But this… giving her a night of true passion shared between two people is the one thing neither of us can afford to give.
"Valentina… You don't know what you're asking."
"I do." Her voice grows stronger. "I've never been more sure of anything."
My thumbs trace the delicate curve of her cheekbones. "If I took you, if we crossed that line, do you understand what would happen? Maksim could know on your wedding night. He might know you weren't pure."
She flinches slightly but doesn't look away. "So?"
"So? He'd kill you. Not quickly. Not mercifully. And before that, he'd make you tell him who took what he considers his property. He'd come for me too, which I could handle.”Bring iton, I think. “But your brothers would be dragged into it. The peace would shatter." Personally, I think the price being paid for peace is too high.
But it will be for naught if they go through with this arrangement only to have Maksim feel slighted and start the war all over.
I drop my hands from her face. I need to create space between us.
Tears spill down her cheeks now, and it takes everything I have not to brush them away.
Not to pull her back into my arms.
"So, I'm just supposed to sacrifice myself? Hand my body over to a monster to keep the peace?"
The anguish in her voice cuts me to the bone.
I've killed men without hesitation, faced down enemies without fear, but watching her pain and being unable to take it away is a torture beyond anything I've experienced.
"No," I finally say. "No, that's not what I'm saying."
I take her hand, pressing it against my heart. "I'm saying we need to be smarter than that. What you're asking for, what I want more than my next breath, it can't happen. But I won’t let Maksim hurt you.”
Her eyes search mine, and I see a faith in me that I don’t feel worthy of. "How?"
"I don't know yet. But I swear to you, I will find a way to protect you from him. No matter the cost."
“But you won’t be with me.”
“Valentina—”
Her hands slip from mine.
The disappointment in her eyes makes me hate myself.
"So your loyalty to my brother outweighs everything else. Even me.”
My chest tightens. "It’s to protect you that I’m saying no?—"
"Don't." She turns toward the window. "You've made yourself clear."
The silence between us stretches.
She's right there, close enough to touch, yet the distance between us now might as well be miles.
I grip the steering wheel, fighting the urge to pull her back into my arms and damn all consequences.
But I can see the future too clearly. Maksim discovering she's not a virgin, the torture he'd inflict to learn who touched her, the bodies that would pile up in the resulting war.
And at the center of it all, Valentina, paying the ultimate price for my weakness.
I start the engine, the sound of it filling the silence.
