Forbidden Fate (Crowne Point 3)
“I don’t love you,” I said softly. “I’m not even sure I like you.”
The humor on his face faded. “I get it, Angel. You’re using me.”
I opened my mouth…to what? Argue? That’s exactly what I was doing. Using him like all those girls had used Grayson.
West stroked a knuckle along my jaw. “I have two months to get you to love me, Angel. Two months to open your eyes to what I see.”
I got lost in his warm brown eyes, in the boy I’d loved years ago.
“What do you see?” I asked.
A slow smile speared his plump berry lips. “That we were made for each other.”
I jerked out of his touch, heart hammering.
“Are—” I swallowed, trying to change the subject. “Are your parents going to excommunicate you?” Why was my throat so thick? My chest pounding? “I need you to be a du Lac.”
West watched me, giving me nothing in his look. After a moment of intense, probing brown eyes, he spoke.
“And you’ll get a du Lac, Angel. You know…the du Lac name comes with the du Lac publishing house. You’re my wife now, I said I could get your poetry published and I wasn’t lying.”
“I didn’t marry you to get my poetry published,” I gritted.
“Why not? You have no problem using me, Angel.”
My lips parted.
Another moment of silence passed before he stood.
“I’ll sleep in the other room.”
My chest hurt. He was being too kind. I needed him to be a villain.
I needed someone to be the villain.
Someone other than me.
“West.” He stopped at my voice, throwing me a look over his shoulder. “Why don’t you hate me?”
His brow furrowed; then he gave me an easy smile.
“I’m hoping it’s the same reason you agreed to marry me.” I blinked, waiting for him to elaborate. “We’re both building our happily ever after.”
I couldn’t speak, but he didn’t wait for my response. He shut the door, leaving me to reel.
A happily ever after with West du Lac? Maybe this was what fate had meant for me all along.
Twenty-Two
STORY
* * *
Lottie du Lac and I walked hand in hand through Tansy’s garden maze, the paparazzi a few feet behind us. Gray and West were at our sides, and occasionally Lottie would break to kiss her husband.
I’ve lived here for only two days, and in that time Grayson hasn’t so much as looked at me.
I watched him. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t help it. It was like before, when he didn’t look back.