Part 19:

His hand closed around her wrist. Calm down, Anita. Her breath was coming fast and shallow now, and she couldn’t seem to slow it. “Your nerves are shot.” His voice stayed low, without heat. The last two days have been hard on you. I want you to calm down. His fingers moved into her hair and stroked it back.

“I’m not going to hurt you. First, we get these welts down, then you rest,” a glance at her throat. “And tonight, we eat a real meal.” “All right.” He studied the red marks. The ice is working. Her chest was still rising and falling too fast, but she stopped fighting him. Her eyes went somewhere else, anywhere but his face. Os got to his feet. Rest now.

I’ll come check on you. We eat at 7. At the door, he looked back once at the woman in the bed. Then he was walking the corridor with his hands in his pockets, something working behind his eyes. “Stubborn girl,” he murmured. Isabella woke to a room gone gold. The sun was dropping toward the water, and the light came in long and warm across the bed where she’d slept the afternoon away.

At the sink, she washed her face, and when she lifted her head to the mirror, the welts were gone. Her skin had come back to itself clear, like none of it had happened. But it had. She remembered the worry that had sat in his eyes when he found her on the floor. She remembered the cold of the cloth and the careful way his hand had moved it along her throat like she was something he didn’t want to break, and she remembered what he’d said while he did it.

If Isabella were you, I might enjoy the marriage more than the revenge. For one strange moment a thought slipped in before she could stop it. What if the only way to keep the two of them from destroying each other was for her to actually be Isabella Sino? What if that was the door out? She caught her lower lip between her teeth. No, no, Isabella, don’t be ridiculous.

You are not going to marry that man. The corner of her mouth tugged, and she let out a small laugh at herself in the glass. Stop thinking about insane things. But on her way out the door, she tried not to think about why her heart was beating the way it was, knowing she was about to see him.

The terrace had been set like something out of a different life. A long table, candles already lit against the falling light, and food laid out the way she remembered it from summers she wasn’t supposed to remember. Fish, three kinds, shrimp, small maltes plates she could have named with her eyes closed. The smell reached her first, and hunger moved through her so sharply she picked up a shrimp before she thought better of it.

That was when his voice came from behind her. The sun sets beautifully here, doesn’t it? Isabella made herself keep her eyes on the table. Why is it set for two? OS came around to her side. Because it’s just the two of us. He drew her chair back for her. She sat and she watched him out of the corner of her eye while he did it.

The ease of him, the way he moved like the whole island ran on his schedule. He filled her glass with sparkling water. His own he filled with wine. She looked from one glass to the other and then at him, the question plain on her face. Eros sat across from her. “After your little adventure with the wine yesterday, the stress you’ve been under, and the reaction you had today, alcohol isn’t a good idea for you tonight.

” Isabella reached over, took the bottle, and poured the wine into her own glass herself. “I’ll be the one to decide that.” Os watched her do it. “Lucky for you, it’s a Chardonnay. It won’t hit too hard. She ate for 5 minutes. She didn’t lift her head, didn’t slow down, and the whole time she could feel him watching her across the candles.

He let her get most of the way through the plate before he broke it. What are you planning for yourself, Anita? His voice was easy, unbothered. Do you mean to grow old in the K’s service, or is there something else? She stopped with her fork halfway up, set it down, and looked at him. You’re wasting your time trying to figure me out, she told him, still chewing.

You should be getting to know Miss Ki right now, not me. Aos took a slow sip of his wine. A smile moved at his mouth. But I’m the one who wants to know you. Not Isabella Ki. She swallowed. Why? There was nothing sharp in it this time. Just the question. Aeros leaned back in his chair. You know why? You’re a smart girl.

The candle light caught the dark of his eyes. Tell me something, Anita. Pretend we met tonight. Just a man and a woman at dinner. A blind date if you need a name for it. Isabella tilted her head and narrowed her eyes at him. After the two days we’ve had, that’s not going to be easy. OS ran his tongue slow along the inside of his cheek. Then try. Fine.

She leaned forward and set her arms on the table closer to him than she’d meant to get. What scares you the most? His answer came before she’d finished the question. Failing the people who trusted me to keep them alive. Her smile froze halfway. You answered too fast. The ease had gone out of his voice now.

Some answers don’t change. When you fail someone who trusted you and you watch them get hurt for it, you don’t forget that kind of pain. And believe me, you spend the rest of your life making sure you never live it twice. He let that sit, then turned it back on her. And you? What scares you? Isabella looked out at the water. The sun had nearly gone now, the last of it bleeding along the edge of the sea.

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