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"It's fine."

I’m already shaking my head before he’s done speaking. “No, it’s not, let me…” My voice falters as my anxiety grows. I grab my towel off the lounger, but I’ve barely begun dabbing at his chest when his fingers curl around my wrist.

“You don’t have to do that.”

My arm is already dropping back to my side even before he releases me. The hardness of his tone is like a wake-up call, but it’s still not enough to make me meet his gaze.

This…

This is really Ruel standing in front of me.

The man who married me to save my life.

And the man whose lips another woman has already tasted, and…oh God!

A shockwave of pain strikes me out of nowhere at the thought⁠—

No, Kar, don’t hide from the truth.

This isn’t just some random thought torturing my mind.

Sadie Amparo kissing him by the fountain⁠—

That’s a memory I can’t and shouldn’t deny, and it hurts.

It hurts so, so bad that even now, I find myself doing it again.

Please God.

The one thing that I didn’t do even with all the bad things that have happened in the past.

Please help me get past this.

“You’re shaking.”

The harshly spoken words yank me out of my thoughts, and the first thing I see is Ruel reaching for the fluffy bathrobe I left on the lounger⁠—

Oh.

He’s placed it around my shoulders like he used to do, when I was…I was someone he felt responsible for.

And I just don’t get it.

I saw Sadie kissing him, and now he’s here, taking care of me like he used to⁠—

Wait.

I finally realize something’s not right here, and the next thing I know, I’m already blurting the question out⁠—

“What are you doing here?”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

Oh.

He never used to have problems sleeping when we were together, but…I can’t really read anything into that, can I?

Because I saw him with Sadie, anything unusual now could be linked to her, not me⁠—