“But I owed my brother my loyalty.”
“Then the failure is yours,” she spat, feeling defensive and angry, all the beautiful feelings that she had felt only moments before melting away. “It was my first time, and you’re ruining it. It was really quite nice before you started talking.”
“But it is a reality we must deal with,” he said. “You are to marry my brother.”
“You can’t possibly think that I will go through with it after this.”
He stared at her, his eyes dark, bleak.
“You do. You honestly think that whatever this greater good is that your brother plans... You honestly think that it’s more important than what I want. Than what passed between us here. You know that I don’t want to marry him. Putting aside the fact that we just made love... You know that I want to go home.”
Fury filled her. Impotent and fiery. She just wanted to rage. Wanted to turn things over. Because she felt utterly and completely altered, and he remained stone.
“How can nothing have changed for you?”
“Because the world around me did not change. My obligations did not change.”
“This was a mistake,” she said. “It was a huge mistake.”
She began to collect her clothes, and she dressed as quickly as possible. Then she ran out of the library without looking back. Pain lashed at her chest. Her heart felt raw and bloodied.
How could he have devastated her like this? It had been her plan. Her seduction plan to try to gain a bid for freedom, and it had ended...
She felt heartbroken.
Because this thing between them had felt singular and new, and so had she. Because it had felt like maybe it was something worth fighting for.
But not for him.
When she closed the bedroom door behind her, for the first time she truly did feel like a prisoner.
But not a prisoner of this palace, a prisoner of the demons that lurked inside of Javier.
And she didn’t know if there would be any escaping them.
* * *
When Matteo returned two days later, Javier had only one goal in mind.
He knew that what he was doing was an utter violation of his position. But he had already done that.
But things had become clearer and clearer to him over the past couple of days. And while he knew that his actions had been unforgivable, there was only one course of action to take.
“You need to set her free,” he said when he walked into his brother’s office.
“Would you excuse us, Livia?”
Like the mouse he often called her, Livia scurried from the room.
“You must be very happy with her performance on the business trip to address her by her first name.”
“I am. Now, who exactly do I have to set free?”
“Violet King. You cannot hold her. You cannot possibly be enforcing her father’s medieval bargaining.”
“I instigated the medieval bargain. So obviously I’m interested in preserving it.”
“She will be willing to offer her business services. But she does not wish to marry you.”