The three dots appeared minutes later. I’ll be there soon.
That’s what I thought.
She walked in the door with her bag over her shoulder. Her makeup was gone, like she’d been at home doing nothing except drinking wine in front of the TV. Her hand moved through her hair as she set the bag on the kitchen island.
I didn’t rise from my seat on the couch. I leaned forward with my elbows on my knees, my gaze down on the table. I didn’t look at her as I spoke. “Don’t play games with me.” After a few heartbeats, I lifted my gaze and stared at her. In the last four days, I’d improved, the bruises fading further, the physical therapy helping. I was shirtless in my sweatpants, watching the game as I drank water even though I craved something better.
She stood in front of the counter, slowly crossing her arms over her chest like she was uncomfortable. She was in jeans and a sweater, looking constrained by all the clothes she wore. “I’m not playing games—”
“Then why haven’t I seen you in four days?” I rose to my feet and slowly came toward her, able to hold my frame perfectly straight now that my body had healed enough. My shoulders were squared, my back was rigid, and my ribs didn’t ache so much. “Why haven’t I heard from you?” I didn’t want to be a man who demanded all of her attention, but my intuition was never wrong. There was something wrong, something off.
She didn’t step back as I came closer. “I worked all weekend, and then my brother got engaged—”
“That’s not the answer I’m looking for.” I stopped in front of her, staring down at this beautiful woman with full lips, eyes like gems, and the sexiest little freckle. “Don’t waste my time. Don’t insult me either.” After she’d saved my life, I’d made a lot of assumptions, but every assumption was reasonable. “You’re either with me, or you aren’t with me. Leave and don’t come back…or stay. Choose—and stick to it.” I didn’t want her to choose the option I despised, but I also didn’t want to be with a woman who didn’t want to be with me. I deserved better than that.
She dropped her gaze to the floor.
“When you have a conversation with me, you look at me.” My hand moved under her chin and forced her gaze up, being aggressive rather than gentle. I was treating her like one of my men rather than the woman I loved, but sometimes it was hard to keep the two separate. I released her.
This time, she didn’t look away. “Everything happened so quickly. We never really had a chance to talk—”
“Then talk.” I didn’t like where this conversation was going—at all.
She was quiet for a long time, like she didn’t want to be honest with me, didn’t want to say these things to me. “I saved you because I love you. I saw you, and I just…acted. I was so angry with you for what you did, but my love triumphed my hatred, and I got you out of there…and I don’t regret it.”
I held my breath as I stared at her, actually afraid. Afraid that she would hurt me worse than she did last time.
“And I love you…so much.” She closed her eyes and her voice escaped as a whisper, like saying the words out loud consumed every drop of emotion her body could create. When she looked at me, a film of moisture was on the surface of her eyes. “There’s no one else I want to be with. You’re the man I want…forever.”
I still didn’t breathe because I knew that wasn’t the end of the conversation.
“But…I talked to Damien.”
I hated that motherfucker even more. I didn’t care about the destruction he’d inflicted on my body. Taking his sister away, the woman I loved, was a million times more painful than some broken ribs.
“I asked him to drop his crusade. He agreed.”
I finally released the air I was holding because my lungs couldn’t handle the stress anymore.
“But he told me he would never accept you, he would never approve of you, and neither would my father. You’ll never be a part of our lives, a part of our family. So, for every holiday, every major event, it’ll just be me…and not you. So, this has no future… We can never have a future.”
“Things change, Catalina.”
“Yes, but not this.” Her tears grew so large in size that they streaked down her cheeks.
“Hades and Damien didn’t speak for a long time. But they figured it out—”
“Totally different—”
“It’s not different. Damien made a lot of mistakes that caused terrible things to happen to Hades’s wife. He’s not so fucking innocent. He makes mistakes too. Time changes perspectives. Look how your perspective on me has changed. It takes time—a lot of time.”
Her arms tightened over her chest. “He’s not going to change his perspective—”
“Don’t give up on me.” I couldn’t lose her. I did it once, and it was unbearable. I’d handed myself over to Damien because I was so delirious. “Give me a chance. I can change his mind—eventually.”
She shook her head slightly.
“Baby, please.” The idea of obtaining Damien’s forgiveness sounded like a ton of effort and a pain in the ass, but I would work hard to make it happen—because she was worth it. “You told me you aren’t looking for a husband for a few years anyway. You’ve got time. Give that time to me.”
“I’ve thought about that too…but the longer I stay, the harder it’ll be to leave. And I can already see how things are different with my family. I can feel the awkwardness that wasn’t there before, even with Anna. You’ve been ostracized by my family, and now they treat me differently because of it. I don’t want to lose my family.”
“You’ll never lose them, baby.”
“But it’s not the same anymore. I can’t imagine you asking my father’s permission to marry me and him saying yes—”
Now I took a deep breath, feeling the pain in my lungs because I’d sucked in the air so fast. “You think about marrying me?”
She was quiet for a while. “No. I just mean hypothetically—”
“Don’t lie to me. Can you really walk away from the man you want to marry?”
She looked away.
“What did I say about looking at me?” I snapped.
She turned back to me, her nostrils flaring in annoyance.
“Don’t walk away from me. Not yet.” I wanted to chain her to my bed so she couldn’t leave. I wanted to take her away, start over somewhere new, just so we could be together. But she would never truly be happy—because she needed both of us.
She was quiet for a long time, breathing hard. “I want a husband who calls Damien a friend. That’s so important to me because my father won’t be around after another decade, and he’ll be all I have left—”
“Balto is all I have left too. I understand how you feel.”
She rubbed her arms like she was cold. “I want our kids to play together. I want us to be close. But if Damien refuses to acknowledge your existence, I’ll have to go over there alone with our kids and you can’t come and it’s just… I don’t want that. I want the four of us to be a family. I just can’t see that happening with you.”