Page 272 of Vicious Temptation

The last three words come out so quietly I almost don’t hear them.

“I thought...” She shakes her head, her face crumpling. “I thought you loved me.”

For a moment, I can’t speak.

She has no idea I spent half the night trying to find the courage to tell her exactly that. Now she’s standing in front of me, believing the only part of this that was completely real was another lie.

“I do.” My voice falters. “And I’m sorry, Remi. I’m so fucking sorry. I should have told you the truth before any of this happened. Before I touched you and before you trusted me. I should have given you the choice I took away from you.”

Her face falls even more, and I close the distance between us.

“No, Remi. Listen to me. Please.” I wrap my arms around her. “I wanted to tell you. I came here prepared to tell you everything.”

She doesn’t move.

“I love you.”

Her entire body goes still against mine. The words are finally out, but the relief I imagined never comes. She gives me nothing, and I tighten my hold because I can feel her slipping away from me while she’s still standing in my arms.

“I do. I swear to God, Remi, I love you.”

A sharp pressure drives into my abdomen, and my breath hitches.

At first, I don’t understand why her body has shifted against mine or why heat is spreading beneath my ribs until she pulls away, and my eyes drop between us.

The black handle of her knife protrudes from my stomach.

I stare at it, then slowly lift my eyes to hers. The pain I saw there hasn’t faded, but fury has taken over her expression. She looks at me as if the man she loved is gone and I’m the bastard who took him from her.

“Liar,” she whispers.

Of all the things she could call me, that one cuts the deepest.

I stumble backward and press a hand over the wound as hot blood spills through my fingers.

“Remi...” I look from the knife to her, still trying to process what just happened. “You stabbed me.”

“You’re a bastard, Braga.” She raises the Glock again. “And you’re lucky I didn’t put a bullet through your skull the second you stepped off that elevator.”

“Remi, I came here to tell you the truth.”

“Well, guess what?” Her laugh twists into another sob. “Your commander beat you to it.”

Elena.

Goddamn you.

“This isn’t how I wanted you to find out.”

“No?” She looks at me in disbelief. “Maybe you should’ve told me the first time we fucked. Remember that?” Her voice wavers. “Or when I let you spend time with Zara. Maybe that would’ve been a good time. Or when I trusted you enough to hand you pieces of my life that belonged to no one else.”

She closes the gap between us, and I don’t move.

Her fist slams into my chest.

“Or that night you showed up at my door.” She strikes me again. “I held you while you cried. I fucking bathed you, you goddamn asshole.”

She pounds against me, over and over, each blow weaker than the last as she loses herself to grief. I don’t stop her or try to shield myself. I take every one because I deserve it. I keep saying her name through it all, but she either can’t hear me or doesn’t want to.