Page 182 of Lovely Venom

A beat of silence passes before I ask her the only thing that matters at this point.

“Was this what he asked you to do? Is that why you’re in my bed?”

“No,” she chokes out. “Cristian, I swear it.”

“I’m not sure your word means all that much,” I answer bitterly.

She curls into herself, and even in the darkness, I can see the tension in her body. I can feel it, the way I always do, when she isn’t at peace. But I can’t let that be a factor right now.

“I need the truth,” I tell her. “And I’d rather hear it from you, but I’ll find out either way.”

When she doesn’t respond, I let out a frustrated breath and shake my head. I’m not sure why I would have expected anything else. Whatever her secrets are, she’s never trusted me enough to hear them.

Why would she start now?

I rise from my seat and head for the door, but she turns on the bedside lamp and calls out to me.

“Please don’t leave me, Cristian.” Her voice shatters.

There’s so much vulnerability in the words I never thought I’d hear from her, it fucking guts me. And when I turn to look at her, registering her red, swollen eyes and the silent tears streaming down her face, it fractures something inside me.

Any self-preservation I may have had left goes up in smoke as I let out a curse and follow the only instinct that’s ever felt right.

I walk around the bed and gather her up in my arms as she starts to sob.

Carrying her to the chair, I sit down and settle her onto my lap.

She wraps her arms around my neck, clinging to me as her entire body trembles. I rub her back, and she draws in a shaky breath as we fall into a familiar dynamic.

“That’s it, dea,” I reassure her with the voice she first learned to trust. “You’re safe here.”

Deep down, I feel like that’s what this has to be about.

When I was clouded by my anger, it was easy to forget the evidence I’ve seen with my own eyes. She’s lived her life in fear, always looking over her shoulder, expecting the worst.

It makes no sense that Ares would use her as his willing pawn. She’s not a criminal mastermind. She’s a woman who’s taken extreme measures to protect herself, and every inch of progress I made with her was hard won.

It doesn’t fit any reasonable agenda that Ares might have. But I still have to ask.

“What is this for you?”

Slowly, she untangles her arms from around my neck and leans back to meet my gaze—her eyes so full of agony, it feels like another gut punch.

“Cristian, I’m in love with you.” A fresh wave of tears streaks down her face. “If you can believe nothing else, please believe that.”

I close my eyes and let out a rough breath. “Then why couldn’t you tell me the truth?”

“Because I’m Greek.” The words scrape from her raw throat. “You told me yourself that you don’t associate with us. You said you don’t keep company with snakes.”

When I look at her, it’s impossible to miss the anguish she’s carried since I uttered those words.

As I recall that night, I can’t forget how angry I was when I saw her talking to Ares.

It was a remark made in the heat of the moment when I thought he was encroaching on what already belonged to me. But it wasn’t anything I hadn’t said a thousand times before. Even in times of peace, our families have never passed up an opportunity to despise each other.

Our feud goes back to our grandfathers, who were once allies before they turned bitter rivals. That tension culminated in a bloody war that lasted five years before both patriarchs conceded to a treaty. And while the killing may have stopped, it didn’t change the way we felt about each other.

Everything has always been a competition between us, but there isn’t a line Ares hasn’t crossed. He broke Mariella’s heart for sport and withheld information that could have saved Angelo and Abella years of separation.