Page 64 of Vicious Betrayal

"Declan," I say, watching her carefully. "There's some business I need to take care of. Nothing urgent, but I'll need to spend a few hours on my laptop today."

"Oh." Her smile falters slightly. "Okay. Do you need me to... I don't know, stay out of your way?"

"No, a chumann. You're fine. I just wanted to let you know."

She nods and comes over to me, wrapping her arms around my waist and pressing her face against my chest. "I'm happy here," she whispers. "I really love it."

I feel a small pang in my chest. She hasn't said she loves me yet. But she'll get there. I remind myself again of her youth, of how quickly this all got so serious.

"I love you," I murmur. And I've never meant anything more.

But as I hold her, feeling the warmth of her body against mine, I can't shake the feeling that something is wrong.

16

OKSANA

His words hang in the warm Mediterranean air between us, making my heart ache.

I love you.

I press my face harder against the warmth of his bare chest. Beneath my cheek, his heartbeat is slow and steady, absolutely sure of this, and of me. I want to say it back. The words sit on my tongue, aching to be let loose, burning the back of my throat.

I love you, Cormac. I love you so much it's tearing me apart.

I can't say it. If I don't tell him, then when I betray him, he can comfort himself by believing he was fooled, that I never loved him, that I was lying all along. It will still hurt, but he can be angry at me. He can think it was never anything but a trap.

It will be so much more cruel if he knows how I really feel. Doing it this way hurts me, but I deserve that. I deserve worse.

I keep my cheek against his chest, tightening my arms around his waist, and let the silence stretch until I feel his hand come up to stroke the back of my neck. His calloused fingers tangle gently in my damp hair, lifting the strands off my shoulder to let the sea breeze cool my skin.

"You had a call?" I ask, and he nods, a little tightly.

"Just some housekeeping. Declan didn't want to bother me on my honeymoon, but he needs the books clean, especially when the city starts poking around where it shouldn't."

I swallow hard. I heard bits of the voices over the phone when I was standing at the glass door, just before I came outside. My stomach twists with a sudden, violent wave of nausea. The feds aren't waiting anymore. Reyes is pushing from Chicago, and the pressure is mounting on Declan's cover businesses. If I don't give them something solid soon, the hammer will fall.

"You look pale," Cormac murmurs, his hands shifting to my shoulders. He eases me back a fraction, his gaze searching my face. "Is the nausea back?"

"A little," I manage, forcing a faint, self-deprecating smile. "I think... I think I just need some of that lemon soda from the market. The tartness helped yesterday."

He frowns slightly, his thumb brushing over the hollow beneath my cheekbone. "I can have the villa staff bring some up."

"No," I say, a little too quickly, then immediately catch myself and soften my tone. "They only have the sweetened ginger ale in the pantry here. The market in the village has the bitter sparkling lemon. You know, the glass bottles with the yellow caps?"

Cormac studies me for a second longer, and for one agonizing heartbeat, I think he's going to refuse. I think he's going to stay right here on this terrace, watching every breath I take.

Then his expression softens. "Alright. It'll take me twenty minutes to walk there and back. Lie down on the sofa in the shade, yeah? Don't go standing in the sun."

"I will," I whisper. "Thank you."

He leans down, pressing a warm, lingering kiss to my forehead. "Let me check and see if Declan sent me what I need, and then I'll go. Be back in a few minutes, a chumann."

I follow him inside, lying down on the sofa in the cool living room. Through the doorway to the bedroom, I see him scanning some things on his laptop before he closes it and leaves it on the bed.

He trusts me.

The thought feels like a knife as he walks over to me, gives me a light kiss, and then leaves to get my soda. My heart is pounding in my chest. I have less than twenty minutes to try to find something in what Declan just sent him.