“Don’t worry about it, Adriana.” His voice is sharp, and I see the stunned look on her face. It turns towards me, taking me in, and I see a hint of suspicion in her eyes.
This was a mistake.“I’m–I’ll–” I swallow hard, spinning on my heel and heading for the one place where I can usually find refuge.I shouldn’t have done this, I think wildly as I hurry towards the library, my heart in my throat. I’d wanted Max to understand what he was doing to me, to feel it, for her to see what he would be missing, but I’d only cut myself deeper.
I throw the door open, my hand pressed to my throat as I try to catch my breath, and I hear footsteps behind me a moment later. I turn, thinking that Max followed me, only to see Art standing there in a bespoke suit, a hint of a bruise still on his jaw and a wry smile on his face.
“Now, do you see what I meant about my brother, and what he would do?”
The room feels as if it’s tilting around me. “I don’t know what you mean,” I say quietly, my hand still pressed against my chest. “He’s not–he’s only–”
“After all his crowing about poverty and celibacy, he’s claiming the family name and marrying the Casciani girl.” Art shakes his head, stepping towards me. “He says he’s doing it to protect you, Sasha–but is he? Or is he taking the path he was told to, again, because it stops him from having to choose for himself and risk choosing wrongly?”
Art closes the gap between us smoothly, before I even realize it’s happening, a shelf behind me that I nearly collide into. “I’ve taken risks, Sasha. Some of them have paid off, and some haven’t, but they weremine. My risks. My choices. I’m taking one again, on the chance that you see now why you should look at me and see something other than what my brother has told you to see.”
He reaches out, his knuckles skimming down the side of my cheek. “Let me show you what it feels like to really be free, Sasha.”
“Get yourfuckinghands off of her.”
I barely have time to register Max’s growl before a hand on Art’s shoulder jerks him backward. Max’s fingers close into the expensive fabric of Art’s suit jacket, tearing at the seam as he throws him towards the door, releasing only to advance on him again.
“Get–thefuck–out!”
Max throws the door open, delivering a punch to his brother’s gut and another to his still bruised jaw as he throws Art bodily out of the library, slamming the door behind him. He whirls towards me, flipping the lock with one hand, and I gasp, my hand pressed flat against my chest as Max strides towards me.
“I didn’t–”
“I know.” Max’s voice is low and rough, skimming over me like stroking velvet the wrong way. “Did he hurt you?”
“What? No–he was just talking.” I swallow hard. “I’m fine.”
I look up at Max and then at his taut jaw and angry face, and I bite my lip. “Why do you care?” I ask softly. “You’re just going to marryher, anyway.”
Max’s mouth tightens. “I told you that she doesn’t matter to me.”
“Let me see the ring.” The words spill out before I can stop them, hurt and angry.
“Why?” He looks at me in confusion, but I plunge forward anyway.
“Let me see it.” It feels almost like the urge to dig at a wound, to hurt so badly that I won’twantanymore. “Let me see!”
“Fine!” Max digs in his pocket, yanking out a black velvet box. He flips it open, and there in the light of the room, I see a huge oval diamond glittering back at me, on a delicately diamond-crusted band.
I stare at it for several long moments, blinking back tears, though I know when I look up at him that my eyes are shiny with them.
“I wouldn’t care about that, you know,” I whisper softly. “I wouldn’t care about a huge ring, or money, or a family name. I never cared about any of it–only you.”
Slowly, with a shaking hand, I reach out to touch the side of his face. I feel the shiver that goes through him at the touch, and I can see the pain in his eyes.
“Sasha–”
“It meant something that I was your first–your only. You know that, right?” I bite my lower lip, hard. “You know it hurts, to think of–”
“Sasha,pleasedon’t–”
“I loved you when you were nothing but a poor priest who had broken your vows,” I whisper, my gaze still holding his, tears beginning to drip down my cheeks. “And I love you now–and I always will. I love you foryou. Not even this can change that, Max.”
His hazel eyes are glassy, too, as he looks down at me, and I hear the low groan, deep in his throat as he reaches up to take my face in his hands.
“I love you too, Sasha,” he whispers. “Ineedyou to believe that this is for you. To keep you safe. That this is what Ihaveto do, not what I want–”