“I’m not leaving.”
Ivana swung around, barely able to catch her breath. “Do not make me compel you to go. I will force you if I must.”
He marched over to her, his strides long and purposeful. “Then we will have a battle on our hands. You cannot expect me to forget all of this.” He waved his hand over the bed as he struggled to find adequate words to convey what they had shared. It went beyond the physical realm. It went beyond anything he could comprehend. “You cannot think I could walk away.”
“You must,” she implored. “Nikolai has borne the affliction for too long. He is stronger and more powerful than either of us.”
So Nikolai was the one responsible for turning her.
“Do you still care for him?” Leo narrowed his gaze. He struggled to form the next question though he knew he had to ask. “Do you love him, too?”
Ivana’s hand flew to her chest, and she took a step back. “Good heavens, no! I have never loved him. I have not seen him since the day you left three years ago. Before that, he has stayed here only a handful of times.”
What sort of husband lived separately from his wife?
“Then where has he been all this time?”
“I don’t know.”
Conscious of the look of panic etched on her face he asked, “I do not know the penalty for adultery in Bavaria, but is that what you fear?”
Iv
ana snorted. “Nikolai does not care about silly things like that. I mean nothing to him.”
Leo’s head felt heavy, weighed down with the burden of so many unanswered questions, so many overwhelming emotions. There were too many things to consider: her fears for Herr Bruhn and the children, his friendship with Elliot and Alexander, the depth of his affection for Ivana.
And now her husband had returned.
Ivana placed her palms on his chest. “If you care for me at all, then you must go.”
Leo was guilty of many things, but he was not a coward. “Tell me why? Why must I leave? Why can we not discuss the matter with him?”
“Because I cannot live in a world without you in it. Because I do not want you to die.”
“You want me to leave for selfish reasons, then?” Leo knew he had to be blunt if he had any hope of persuading her otherwise.
Her eyes grew wide. “Selfish? It is not selfish to want to save another’s life. It is not selfish to protect those you love.”
“It is selfish to go against a person’s wishes just to ease your pain and guilt.”
She swallowed visibly, opened her mouth and snapped it shut.
“I came here for revenge,” he continued. “If I’m to understand you correctly, Nikolai threatened to kill me once before, which is part of the reason you wiped my memory and forced me to leave. I was weak then, not so now.”
She rushed to the window and peered out. “You are not as strong as Nikolai.”
“Together we may have a chance against him.” Leo marched over to her, pulled her from the window and held her face between his hands. “I would rather die trying to save what we have here than live a life unloved and unfulfilled.”
She closed her eyes as her head fell forward to rest on his chest. “You make it sound so simple.”
“It is simple.” He stroked her hair to soothe her. “We share a soul-deep connection. The overwhelming ache I have for you in my chest will not be tempered. No other woman will ever be good enough for me. It is you, or it is no one.”
She looked up at him; fear flashed in her eyes. “He will kill us both.”
“Perhaps, but it is a chance we must take. We are stronger if we work together.”
Ivana gasped. “He does not know about Elliot and Alexander. He does not know I poisoned their blood. He would have killed them if he’d known.”