‘If I built that casino, you would have come to hate me.’ He spears me with his eyes. ‘And, every day you looked out on it, you would have hated me more. I realised I couldn’t live with that.’

‘I wouldn’t hate you for that.’

‘Of course you would. And you should. One day, someone will build a casino in Marlsdoven, Freja. I believe it’s inevitable. But that person will not be me.’

I had come to terms with his damned casino; I had loved him despite it. And yet now gratitude steamrollers into love, and I feel as though I’m going to turn into a blubbering mess. I’ve already thrown myself at Santiago once, though, and made a fool of myself by declaring my unwanted love. For months I have lived with the pain of his rejection. I won’t do it again. I have to get out of here before I say too much.

‘Thank you.’ I scrape the chair back abruptly, standing and moving around the table, putting furniture between us out of desperation. He watches me with a haunted look in his eyes.

‘Why did you bring the coronation forward?’

My own response is quiet. ‘Why not?’ I run my finger over the chair-back. ‘My destiny has been plotted out for me since birth. Why delay the inevitable?’

A muscle jerks in the base of his jaw. ‘I see.’

I swallow past a lump in my throat. Leave, now. ‘Well...’ I pull on the strap of my handbag, trying to smile. ‘If that’s everything...?’ What kind of fool am I that even now I hope he’ll say something, that he’ll offer me what I desperately want?

But he’s quiet. Watchful. His body is tense, shoulders held firm.

And, as I turn to leave, he doesn’t try to stop me. Every footstep draws me further from him until my hand is on the door, turning the handle.

‘Wait.’ His voice is no longer commanding. It’s heavy with surrender, desperate. ‘Stop a moment.’

My shoulders slump because, for all that I’d been hoping he would stop me, I can’t take much more of this.

‘I have to go. Claudia’s waiting in the car.’

He swears under his breath, so I turn to look at him. He runs a hand over the back of his neck, staring at the plans on the table. My heart twists.

‘So everything is confirmed?’

I frown. ‘I don’t understand. With the building?’

‘No, Princesa.’ His features are haunted. ‘With your marriage.’

All the air rushes out of me. ‘I...’ It hadn’t even occurred to me that he wouldn’t know. But why should he? My engagement to Heydar hadn’t been public knowledge, and there’s been no report in the press that we’ve broken it.

‘Just tell me.’ Now it’s Santiago’s turn to grip the back of the chair as though he needs the support. ‘I appreciate that you’re trying to choose the right words, but I would prefer to have the facts.’

My lips part in confusion. He sounds so wounded, as though his whole life rides on the status of my betrothal. Why?

‘Will it happen soon?’

I shake my head, anguished.

‘When?’

‘We’re not getting married.’

His head whips up to face mine. For a second, it’s as though he can’t speak. He stares at me, reading me, as if perhaps I’m lying—though for what purpose, I can’t say.

‘You’re not getting married?’

‘Not to Heydar,’ I respond with a small shrug. ‘But one day, I guess.’

‘What happened?’ The words rush out of him, startling me.

‘Does it matter?’

Tags: Clare Connelly Billionaire Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net