Forbidden Fate (Crowne Point 3)

A look flickered across his features.

He thumbed my chin. “Do you care?”

Yes. I wanted to know if there was more to West du Lac than darkness. But I wasn’t going to let him know.

“You’re evil.”

He laughed. “I haven’t done shit Grayson wouldn’t do. You’re fucking my sister’s husband. What do they say about glass houses?”

I mashed my lips, biting them until I tasted blood.

Because it didn’t matter. He was right.

“I’m a shitty person,” I said roughly, quietly. “But so are you. I’ll divorce you. I’ll stay quiet. You’ll never see me again.”

And I could forget all those times I wondered if there was more to West du Lac.

He laughed. “I’m not done with you, Angel.” He pushed the hair behind my ear, tangling it in his fist and drawing my face closer. “I’m taking you as my mistress, and that baby will be mine in name. No one will ever know about you and Grayson Crowne, not officially, nothing past unsubstantiated rumors.”

What?

Why would he want that?

“Why do you need my fucking child? Why do you need me?”

“I think you’re starting to feel for me, Angel. We just need time.”

I could only speak in stuttering breaths. “Y-you don’t love me. If you loved me, you would remain married to me, not divorce me and make me your fucking mistress. You wouldn’t threaten me.”

“Like Grayson married you? You should know better by now, Angel. There’s only one reason I was ever allowed to marry you.”

I looked away as hot oil burned through my veins.

“We can live happily ever after, just not as man and wife.”

That was what finally did it.

Why I didn’t just slap him but punched him in the nose.

He wiped the blood off, then looked at his hand like he’d accidentally run into a branch.

“Are you done?”

I spat in his face. “I’m worth more. You could lock me in a tower with you for a thousand years and I’d still hate your guts.”

But something in my chest worried at my words.

It had taken only a couple of months for me to fall for his mind games.

His eyes flashed dark at my words, his smile gone. “But you’d belong to me, Angel. You’re mine. For as long as I want to keep you.”

I’m not his.

My heart doesn’t even belong to me anymore.

Right?

“Grayson will never let you take his child, and I won’t either,” I gritted. “I’ll never be your fucking mistress, West. There’s nothing you can threaten me with. You could tell the entire world I’m a whore, and I still wouldn’t be your mistress.”