The space between us feels too thin now. The air is hotter, and every breath I take is pulling him under my skin.
“What are you doing?” I whisper, because this makes little sense to me.
Bronx doesn’t kneel. He stays in control, always ahead, always untouchable.
“I’m sorry you heard what you heard,” he says, his voice steady in a way that only makes the chaos inside me spike higher. “There was no faking what happened between us, Tierney. You know that as much as I do. So go ahead, let it all out.”
I stare at him, my hands still half-curled from where they’d been caught in his grip, my pulse hammering hard enough to make the room tilt.
“Fight me if that’s what you need,” he continues, not looking away. “But don’t think I’m letting you go. Walking away from us isn’t happening.”
My throat tightens. And I hate that it does.
“You don’t get a choice anymore,” I tell him. “I had a reason to go along with our marriage in the beginning. Now there’s absolutely nothing for me to stay for.”
“I think there is.” His thumb presses into my pulse, feeling it, holding it there as if it belongs to him. “This doesn’t go to shit just because it got messy.”
“Oh, Bronx,” I let out a sharp laugh. “You don’t actually think I love you, do ya?”
For a moment, he just looks at me, his eyes dark and intense.
“Well, I love you,” he says. “And I’m not losing you over something we can work out.”
Those three words tingle through me, settling where Idon’t want to accept them. I steel my spine before my body has time to respond and roll my eyes at him.
“I always knew there was a reason you agreed to our marriage,” I shoot back. “I just didn’t think you’d be able to fool me like that. But just so we’re clear, I’ve drawn a line in blood now and you’re not getting back on the other side of it.”
Bronx sighs and lowers his lashes for a beat.
“No matter what you say, you stepped in front of a blade for me,” he says. “You can’t pretend that didn’t mean something.”
My dry throat tightens when I swallow.
“No one else is coming close to that,” he adds. “Not for me.”
“Well, that’s bad luck because I’ve no intention of staying and being made a fool of twice.”
“We’re moving on from this,” he says, firmer now. “Doing things the right way this time. We’ll renew the vows because we want to say them. Then I’m taking you away.”
“No.”
My refusal is instant.
“Yes.”
Rage flares fast and hot, burning through my veins. I push to my feet and immediately regret it; the room going dark for a beat, making me sway.
“That wasn’t about you,” I fire back. “That was instinct. Survival. Don’t twist it into something it wasn’t.”
Still on his knees, his hands catch mine, steadying me, and the contact almost takes my breath away.
“Marrying you was the bestdecision I ever made,” he says. “Your ring doesn’t leave your finger again. Not while I’m breathing.”
He reaches into his pocket.
When the wedding band appears in his hand, my stomach knots. My legs weaken and dark spots creep into my vision.
“I can’t,” I whisper.
