“I can change that if you let me,” he murmurs. “I’ve done this your way. I gave you space. But you’re hitting new benchmarks at CrossPoint, your father is in therapy, and Quinn has Eliseo thoroughly managed—and still, all I see when I look at you is sadness.”
He isn’t guessing. Isn’t probing.
He’s stating a fact I haven’t allowed myself to face.
“Then maybe you should stop looking,” I state firmly.
“Believe me, I’ve tried.” He raises his tumbler and takes a gulp of liquor.
Something fractures inside me, the pressure intensifying along a fault line I can’t hold together.
“I want a chance, Isla.” He speaks to the tinted window, negotiating our potential like a business deal. It’d be off-putting if he wasn’t so captivating.
“What you want is a stronger hold over the person who’s determining your brother’s future,” I counter. “You want me managed just like Elis?—”
“Fuck Eliseo.” He turns on me, expression riotous. “Wanting you hasneverhad anything to do with him.”
I want that to be the truth. It’s all I’ve wanted since the morning after my rescue. But…
I shake my head. “I don’t believe you.”
“When have I not put your happiness first?” He returns to the table and slams his tumbler down on the polished wood. “The biggest sacrifice I’ve ever made was pushing you away in the hopes it would save you from your father’s mistakes. I’ve fired staff for daring to say your name in the wrong tone. I’ve ruined careers and sent men into hiding for placing you in harm’s way.I fucking denied myself the ability to love you. Foryears. But I refuse to do it any longer. You’re mine, Isla. We both know it. I won’t pretend otherwise anymore.”
Shivers.
So many goddamn shivers.
I anchor my palms against the table, locking my body into stillness. “That sounds like a threat.”
His lips kick in the slightest devil of a smirk. “No,la mia rovina. It’s a prenuptial vow.”
The room tilts, shrinks, those words stealing something from me I know I’ll never reclaim.
It’s laughable how desperate I am to surrender. How malleable I am to his prophecy.
I throw back the Dalmore, cherish the burn, and push from my seat. “As far as vows go, that one was poetic. But given what I’ve been through, there’s no way I can trust you.”
“You can.” His tone hardens, stripped of warmth. “Youwill.”
He repeats what I said to him the last time I was here, the chorus of my statement only making me feel more seen. More heard.
I start for the door, in a race to escape before I give in.
I came to see him on a whim—a compulsion. But being here has only reminded me how powerless I am in his presence.
“Isla.” He stalks along the opposite side of the table, his long stride catching me at the far end. He grabs the crook of my arm and forces me to stop. “I wasn’t built to cave.”
I gasp, flinch, the contact sparking wildfire.
I want him. With all that’s in me, I hunger for a man whose sole purpose could be to control my threat to his family.
He pauses, scowls, his hand sliding from my skin. “Are you scared of me?”
God, yes.Scared of what his touch ignites. Fearful of how much I want to succumb. Petrified that I’m nothing but a worshiper at his altar.
“Isla?” His eyes implore me. “Do I scare you?”
“No.”