Oh my. I’d be lying if I said that didn’t make the heat pool in my stomach.
“We already this conversation,” Tobias said.
“And I think I made myself clear last time too,” Eli replies.
I frown, and I grab Eli’s arm to make him look at me. “What do you mean? What conversation?”
But instead of responding, he simply jerks himself free of my grip. “She is mine. End of story.”
Tobias makes a face. “God … I hope you’re certain about this. I’d hate to see your choice go to waste.”
What choice?
Eli’s back muscles tighten hard as though he’s holding a breath. “It won’t. She’s the one.”
The one? What?
Tobias snorts and shakes his head. “Fine. You’re going to destroy us, but whatever.”
“I will make it work,” Eli says.
“Of course, you will,” Tobias scoffs, and he turns around, probably to walk off.
“We need this house to continue. You know that,” Eli adds.
Tobias glances at us over his shoulder. “And you think she wants to be your wife?”
“Wife?!”
Both men now stare at me, and it’s only then that I realize I said that out loud. My cheeks turn crimson red from the sudden attention … and the fact that I’m to become his wife.
But I never agreed with that.
He never even asked.
And I don’t know which one makes me more upset.
“No, no, no,” I mutter, taking a step back. “I’m not marrying anyone.”
Eli turns to me and grabs my wrist before I can walk away. “Stay.”
I gulp at the seriousness in his voice and those dark eyes blazing with fire. Just one word, a simple command, is enough to make me listen. Why? Why does it come so easy to him? And why am I so happy to let him control me?
I’m so conflicted, and I hate it.
I hate that he made me feel things.
Because this man does not deserve any of my emotions. None.
He wasted that opportunity the minute he chose to bring me back here.
Tobias laughs. “I can’t believe this. You’ve got to be kidding me. You didn’t even tell her?”
Eli sucks in a breath. “Tobias … not now.”
“You know what?” Tobias shrugs. “It’s not my problem. You reap what you sow.”
Then he saunters back upstairs to the other girls, I presume. Not that I care. I decided that the second I stepped into his car, I was going to shut myself off from everything they do.
But this … how am I supposed to ignore this?
Eli … wants me to become his wife?
No, not in a million years.
“I am not marrying you,” I hiss, standing my ground.
Eli doesn’t turn around. Doesn’t even remotely acknowledge the fact that I rejected him on the spot, so I keep on talking, “Did you hear me?”
“I heard you,” he says after a few seconds, turning all my hopes into dust that he’d ever care about my wishes.
I reach for his arm again, this time being a lot less civil about it. “What was Tobias talking about?”
“Nothing of importance,” he says. “Now come.”
When he tries to grab my hand, I pull away. “No. It was important. There’s more going on than you’ve let on. Tell me.”
His nostrils flare as he gazes at me from underneath those dark lashes, his eyes giving way to a certain kind of need that I haven’t seen before. “This house needs to continue its legacy, like my father did before me and the owners of this house have done all the years before. And for that …”
My eyes widen, and my jaw drops.
No. He isn’t talking about what I think he’s talking about, right?
“No …” I murmur, my feet pushing me farther and farther away from him. “No, not in a million fucking years.”
I can’t spend another second in his vicinity.
All this time, I thought this was about my sins. His lust. My body.
And now that I find out it’s about much more than that, I run upstairs, back to that hellish, godforsaken room that I spent so long trying to escape. Now I want nothing more than to be locked up here, far away from any of his schemes.
Because I’m not ready to be anyone’s wife, let alone as a prisoner.
But even worse is the fact that he actually brought me back … just to give him a successor.
No child deserves to be born into this.
And I will die before I ever let him do that.
Eli
When she ran, I wanted nothing more than to chase her. But I knew that wasn’t the right thing to do. She needs time to come to terms with what’s been said and the truth beneath all that has happened to her.
I don’t blame her for running off. I merely blame myself for keeping my true intentions hidden from her for far too long. I tell myself I had no choice, that I couldn’t tell her sooner because of the implications. It would have killed her to know she had to spend an eternity in this house with me, so she’d never have gone with me freely.