Page 84 of A Vicious Love

“She has protection.”

“She has proximity. There is a difference.”

I hated him for using a truth so clean I could not cut it down.

Harrison’s expression had gone serious. Marcel said nothing.

“The Bellemeres are restless.” Damius stopped in front of my desk.

“They are also stupid.”

“They have begun exploring alternatives.”

My blood slowed. Celeste. Her hovering too close. Damius watched my face.

Fucker.

“They presented Celeste Bellemere well,” he said.

“They presented her to die if she keeps looking at me like that.”

Damius’s mouth almost curved. “There is the melodrama.”

“There is the warning.”

“There is also another option.” His voice stayed calm. “Sienna can be transferred to a Crow cousin willing to complete the debt.”

“Which cousin?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes.”

Damius studied me. “Weston has expressed interest.”

My hand flexed.

Fucking Weston. I had thought Damius was baiting me when he mentioned Weston the other night. He had called Sienna lovely once at a winter dinner and watched her walk away like he had already imagined owning the direction of her fear.

“No.”

Damius tilted his head.

“One word,” he said softly. “Again.”

I came around the desk before the thought finished. Harrison stood immediately. Marcel moved too, not to stop me yet, but close enough that he could if I became stupid.

Damius did not step back

“She doesn’t go to Weston,” I said.

“Then you marry her.”

The answer should have been simple.

Yes.

Instead, I stood there with rage in my throat and Sienna’s face in my head. Damius watched every thought cross my face and smiled with his eyes.