that he found that refreshing, but he did.
Strange that he should care at all what she thought. But he did. He had made a practice of shedding outside opinion from an early age. When he’d first come back from the shadows and into the public eye as a teenager.
“I get the feeling you don’t read a lot of gossip news.”
“No,” she said.
He sat down in the chair opposite her, affecting a casual posture. He was a professional at pretending not to care, particularly at moments when he cared quite a bit. “Then you won’t have read about my escapades. They’re legendary. There isn’t a woman I can’t seduce. No supermodel with sex on her mind I’ve ever refused. I always leave them wanting more, as I rarely stay with a woman for more than one night. I have no shame. No morals to speak of whatsoever.”
He watched as the color in her cheeks rose, turning a dark pink that matched the embroidery on her dress. “Is that so?” Her voice was husky, her eyes focused somewhere on the wall behind him. He couldn’t work her out. Was she simply uncomfortable in his presence, angry and biding her time, or did she feel the insistent tug of attraction just as he did?
He had been with a great many women. And while he wasn’t particularly proud of that behavior when he stood back and took stock of it, it could not be denied. With his vast experience it made no sense that he would be tempted by this woman. She was not sophisticated. She was beautiful, but a great many women were beautiful. Beautiful without being too sharp, too fearsome and too wild.
She was like the wind, bottled up and stitched into a gown. He had to wonder if she had allowed for herself to be harnessed and was simply waiting for the right moment to free herself again.
“Yes. The media always said I had no shame. I imagine that I must have some, though I have not felt any in quite some time. It’s very liberating,” he said, not sure why he was adding this to the conversation, “to feel no embarrassment. To feel no compunction about simply acting on your impulses because you have accepted that you are capable of nothing else. Still, I didn’t imagine that I was absent of shame entirely. That isn’t true of anyone except for sociopaths. And I never thought that I was a sociopath. Then my brother and I, and his fiancée, Francesca, flew to Monte Carlo for a bit of fun and games. Kairos, being Kairos, was having fun in a very dignified manner. Largely he was meeting with world leaders in a more casual environment. I was there to have real fun. And so, it turned out, was Francesca. While Kairos was out I threw a party in my suite. I invited every beautiful woman I could find, every man interested in engaging in a bit of gambling and debauchery. There was a lot of alcohol, as there invariably is at these things. It turns out, the right amount of alcohol is all it takes for me to lose my last vestiges of shame. It was at this party that I proved the media right.”
“What did you do?” Her question, confused, mystified, enhanced by those wide dark eyes, shamed him in a way nothing else ever had. She truly couldn’t guess. Couldn’t even fathom the betrayal he was about to uncover for her.
Yes, if she was going to be his wife, it was best she understood now. Just who he was. Just what he was.
What your parents always knew you were.
“I screwed my brother’s fiancée. I wouldn’t even have remembered if it had not been for videos of the event. Not only did I humiliate my brother, but I made both Francesca and myself porn stars. That did not go over well with her family, if you were wondering. Nor did it go over well with mine.”
Those wide eyes now registered shock, horror. He was torn between the disappointment of watching her understand, of seeing her accept the reality of what he was, and a strange fascination that he could still shock someone. That she hadn’t somehow sensed upon their first meeting that he was flawed in a very real and insurmountable way. In a way he had fully embraced. He was not a man capable of doing things by halves. And since he could not be good, then he had purposed to be debauched to his very core.
He had a feeling that if he tried to explain that to Zara she would look at him as though he had grown another head. He was struck just then at how different their lives had been. He lived in a different world. The moment he’d gained control of his life, he’d made it exactly what he’d wanted. One filled with parties, as much human contact as he wanted. A different woman every night, helping to fill the void that might have been tempted to widen inside him if he allowed it.
She had lived a much more solitary existence. While his had been cluttered with noise. As much as he could possibly surround himself with.
They might as well have been from other planets entirely.
“Now,” he said, not seeing the point in continuing the discussion. “You will tell me something about yourself.”
She tilted her chin up, her expression proud. “The fact that I witnessed my family’s death isn’t enough information for you?”
Something uncomfortable, heavy, shifted in his chest. “You don’t want to marry me,” he said.
“Of course not.”
“Why not?”
“Aside from the fact that you’re a stranger, you just confessed to me that you betrayed your brother. You... You just told me you were the most faithless man on the planet, and now you’re seriously asking me why I don’t want to marry you?”
“You said yourself you had no plans to marry. Don’t tell me now that you had fantasies of a white picket fence and a husband who only had eyes for you. Our marriage could be whatever you want it to be, but you haven’t even asked me what my designs on you are. You haven’t asked me what my goal is for our union, haven’t given any input on how you would like things to be conducted. You simply don’t want to marry me. Which makes me think you must have a goal apart from me.”
She looked away, her jaw set, stubborn.
“Answer me, feral creature, or I will make good on my earlier threat.”
“Listen to you,” she said, her head whipping around, her lip contorted into a sneer, “the man who just professed to being able to seduce any woman is threatening me with his body.”
“You would be seduced soon enough.” He ground his teeth together. “And I might even find I don’t mind being bitten.”
“I don’t wish to get my mouth dirty.”
He laughed, though he felt no amusement. “I will remember that. Now, tell me. I grow impatient.”
“I too am impatient, and yet no one seems concerned about that. I have been held captive for the past two months, before my ownership was transferred to you. Yes, I find I am quite impatient. I’ve never had any say in my life. I was born into royalty, in a position more vulnerable than I could ever have imagined when surrounded by the stone walls of the palace. Then I lost everyone and was taken away to the middle of the forest. Then I was taken captive. And now I have been delivered to you, to be your wife, and I have no choice, yet again. Who am I? What am I to be? The pawn of whoever holds me in their hand at any given time? I must be more than that, Andres. I should like a chance to find out.”
Her words touched something in him. Strange, because nothing about her should resonate. They were different. From different worlds, as he had only just been thinking. Somehow he recognized these words as though they had originated in his own head.
“You
