After all, she was the slayer of hearts.
“What do you want from me?” Her voice was half-panicked, half a plea, pitched too high from the sultry husk it normally held. “You take me in a bet, force me into your car, and then leave me in a hotel room? What are you going to do, lock me away in here?”
She stared at me in confusion. Like I was the one who’d hurt her.
A breath of condescension left me. “What did you think, Aster? That I was going to sweep you back to my palace and we were going to live happily ever after? You missed that train.”
She blinked in pain. “I don’t understand what you want or what you’re doing.”
My fingertips traced her trembling jaw. I was definitely, definitely playing with fire. The way I wanted to sink in. Forget it all and tell her I didn’t give a fuck about what’d happened in the past.
That would make me the biggest fool of all.
So I found purpose—one thing I could actually control.
“What do you think? I’m going to destroy your husband.” The words slipped out in a vat of subdued darkness.
I’d always intended it. Had thirsted for the moment when I could repay him for what he’d done.
Vengeance the ugliest side of greed.
Agate eyes glowed in the muted light, orbs of molten gold that churned with a concern she shouldn’t feel. Her tongue stroked out to wet her lips before she let go of the ragged words. “You can’t keep me here. He’s going to kill you. If not him, then my father will.”
A sound of indifference puffed from my nose. It seemed my life had always been on the line when it came to her.
I started to pull away. She fisted her hands in the lapels of my jacket.
“Logan,” she begged. “You need to take me back to my hotel. Where Jarek is. You can’t make me stay here.”
A rough chuckle scraped free. “Can’t I?”
She heaved a frantic breath. A billow of old need punched me in the guts.
Fuck.
This was a bad idea. All of it. And I wanted to go deeper.
“You know they’ll come for me. This is a war you don’t want to start.” Her eyes bored into mine like she could bring me to my senses.
Thing was, I already knew that full well. Just having her here put me in her father’s crosshairs.
Aster and I came from dirty families. But hers? Hers was powerful. The veins of the Costa name were carved throughout the country, stretching out to touch the world.
Brutal.
Ruthless.
It was funny how I’d once believed she was nothing like them.
Throat constricting, I pressed both hands to the wall on either side of her head and leaned down to murmur the question at her ear. “Who is it you belong to, Aster?”
I dared her to say it. To admit this bullshit out loud. That she was one of them. Not one with me.
Her chin quivered, and I thought it was regret that poured out with the words. “Not you.”
She gasped when I gripped her by the side and angled back a fraction, words a hiss that I spat at her face. “And your husband is a fool for playing with that truth.”
Pained laughter flitted out. “You’re a fool for trying to prove that he is. Do you have any idea what you’ve incited with that stunt? It was reckless, Logan, reckless, and—”