“Has he done anything else to you?” His jaw clenches. “Like force himself on you?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I didn’t mean for what happened to happen. It just did.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t it?”
“No, it doesn’t.” A shadow of worry washes over his face and his eyes turn dark. “Listen to me, Anastasia. Desmier is a dangerous man. Try to remember that and don’t get fascinated by him.”
God.Don’t I already know this? But it’s too late, and I’m embarrassed that Viktor has to give me this warning, because he already had firsthand evidence that I’m fascinated with Desmier.
“Are you listening to me?” His voice takes on that hard edge of authority he uses with his guards.
“I’m listening.”
“I’m telling you this for your own good because I love you.”
All the time we’ve been together, he’s never said that to me. Those three words of deep sentiment every girl longs to hear—I love you.
And I’m so stunned, I’m speechless. Speechless hearing him confess his love, and by my reaction.
I’ve waited all my life to hear those words from him. Now that he’s said them, when it should matter most, I don’t know what to say. Or feel. My heart should be leaping, but it’s still conflicted.
“Nothing has changed the way I feel about you.” His gaze intensifies. “I know you feel the same way about me. We had dreams we wanted to fulfill, children we wanted, a life we wanted. Do you remember that?”
My heart squeezes just listening to him talk with such fervency and I feel so much worse. “Of course I remember.”
“Then they’re worth fighting for. So I won’t stop trying to get you back. If there’s a way, I promise you I will find it.”
“I would just love to see you try,” Desmier answers from the door. His voice carries across the room hard and loud.
Neither of us saw him standing at the door, but now that my gaze darts between him and Viktor, I can see Viktor doesn’t look fazed, and I feel like he would have said what he did in Desmier’s face.
It’s the perfect vision of the alpha when standing his ground.
But what happens when you meet your match?
I hope I don’t find out. Because Desmier looks like he’s ready to kill Viktor.
ChapterTwenty-Four
Desmier
Ican’t remember the last time someone pushed me to this level of rage.
I’m furious Viktor is here. And I heard what he said to Anastasia.
He told her he loved her and sold her a vision of the future any girl would give her soul for. Dreams, children. A life.
A nomad like me who came from an unstable home, watched his mother die, and prefers the company of the sea couldn’t offer a girl like her anything of the sort.
I don’t have dreams, and I can’t see a future. When I try to, all I see there is darkness and doom.
I know, in whatever is left of my heart, that’s because his father—our father—took my mother away from me. She was my home.