Page 168 of Sins of Arrogance

Not emo­tion. He doesn’t feel that as he’s pointed out so clearly tonight. But some­thing.

I shrug. “My grand­fa­ther would never have al­lowed it. Be­sides, I don’t see you go­ing with­out pen­e­tra­tive sex that long.”

“If nec­es­sary, I would have, but it wouldn’t have been. You could have gone on birth con­trol.”

“That would have re­ally sent seanathair into a tizzy fit.” I pull off my night­gown and the blan­ket slips show­ing my naked shoul­der.

Mick touches my bared skin. “You’re so soft. The clos­est I will ever come to Heaven is touch­ing you.”

There’s a snarky com­ment about po­etic so­ciopaths on the tip of my tongue, but I swal­low it back. There’s too much im­pla­ca­ble hon­esty in that state­ment to mock it.

“If I had known, I would have ended his abil­ity to cause you harm be­fore it hap­pened.”

“That sounds a lot like re­gret for a so­ciopath.”

“Ap­par­ently, I am ca­pa­ble of feel­ing it, though this is the first time in my ex­pe­ri­ence.”

Like he felt love for the first time when Fitz was born.

“You weren’t ob­sessed with me back then.”

“You are wrong. My ad­dic­tion started on our wed­ding night. Why do you think I left you alone in our bed?”

“Be­cause my grand­fa­ther called you.”

“I lied. He did call, but not un­til later.”

“Then why leave?” I ask with re­mem­bered pain at the aban­don­ment.

“I never lost con­trol dur­ing sex, but that night I came close. I had given my word that I would not come in­side you but if I had stayed with you, I would have bro­ken it.”

“You don’t break prom­ises.” Un­less the one he makes the vow to breaks faith with him.

Then, ap­par­ently, all bets are off.

“And I don’t lose con­trol.”

“Ex­cept with me.” And for me.

He killed my grand­fa­ther for hurt­ing me, even if Mick jus­ti­fies it to him­self that it was be­cause seanathair had stolen from him. And he’s will­ing to kill my fa­ther in or­der to keep me.

A nor­mal woman would find that rep­re­hen­si­ble.

But it warms some­thing in­side me that has been cold for too long.

We are all prod­ucts of the lives we’ve lived. Mine hasn’t been nor­mal and I refuse to feel bad that the way I think and feel don’t nec­es­sar­ily fall on the nor­mal scale ei­ther.

And one thing I can’t deny, if only to my­self: I never said red when he was kid­nap­ping me.

Chap­ter 42: Op­er­a­tion: Date Night

KARA

“I’m tak­ing you out.” The words pre­cede Mick into the bed­room where I am putting away the rest of our clothes in the dresser.

I’m not sure why Mick in­sisted on bring­ing my duf­fel. He packed a month’s worth of clothes for me in the match­ing lug­gage.

Straight­en­ing, I push the drawer shut with my foot. “Like…to din­ner?”