Page 121 of Carnal Wagers

His words fanned against my skin, spreading goosebumps up and down my neck.

“Yes,” I murmured.

“Because…” His lips brushed up my neck to my temple. “The woman is incapable of anonymity. That woman loves attention. God knows, she tried hard enough to get mine over the years.”

He just kept laying it on, hit after hit. He wasn’t wrong, but the bruises piled on all the same.

“But let’s say she did.”

“She wouldn’t.”

“If she did. If you knew her. If you liked her company.” Another snort came out of him and mocked me. “And after all that, she finally told you who she was, what would you do?”

He shrugged. “Simple. Cut ties and toss her out. Make my message clear, if I have to.”

“That easy?”

“If she hid who she was to get close, aye, absolutely. I won’t care for people I can’t trust.”

A crack splintered through my rib cage, and I tried to breathe through the ache. “Is-is…is it because she’s French? Or a De Villier? Or because she’s rich? Or-or—”

“Alice, calm down. Why so much about her?” He tilted my face back and took in the hurt etched into my features that I couldn’t hide. “You know her. How?”

This was my opening. I could have told him exactly who I was, but everything in this conversation fit in with Maeve’s doubts. It meant denying myself these moments with him for the rest of my life. It meant finally admitting I was giving up on what I’d come here for. And for what? To risk him turning his back on me, like he’d just admitted he’d do, or risk not getting that divorce and having a shot at the love life I craved. Because I did—I craved it down to my cellular composition. I wasn’t ready to give this up, not when I finally got to jump into the fairy tale myself.

“I’ve always known her. Ever since I can remember, it has been her and me. Me and her.” That much truth I could give him.

He grunted, slowly sliding in behind me, arm curved around my waist, the other hand stroking down my jaw. “Did she tell you to come here? After me?”

“Tell me? No. I was curious.”

“About?”

He clasped my neck and inched his palm up, forcing my head back a little to nose my chin. It was such a soft touch in contradiction to the pressure of his fingers.

“I wanted to know why you stayed married to her when she’s practically begging you for a divorce.”

His huff against my chin practically burned with the way my nerves flared. Each puff of breath shocked its way down in a flood of wetness to my pussy. When did this conversation slip away from me?

“You jealous, síbhean? You want what she has?”

He trailed his tongue up my jawline and nibbled my earlobe. I hissed and pulled away.

“Not if that’s all I get. I would never be satisfied with that. Ever.”

He chuckled. “I know. You’re my Alice. You’d never compromise like that.” I winced, because that was exactly what I’d done seven years ago. “I promise you’ll never have to.”

“Difficult to do as the other woman.”

His teeth nicked my jaw. “Not for long.”

I jerked in his hold and twisted around to face him. “What does that mean?”

“You’ll find out soon enough. Just know that you have never been other to me.”

Maybe that twisted smirk on his face and the soft caress of his fingers were supposed to be reassuring, but they only made the knot in my belly coil tighter and tighter and tug the edges of my stomach together.

“You know I should punish you, síbhean. You’ve been playing me.”