Page 206 of Hate to Love You
He smirks to himself, once again looking down at his wedding band on his ring finger, and the tattoo beneath it.
“But of all the stupid, selfish reasons we have to gamble with our lives, love is perhaps the only one that’s actually worth the risk. And the fight.”
I’m not sure if it’s what he says exactly, or how he says it, but his words resonate with me, and it feels as if some forgotten chord plays within my soul.
But realizing how uncomfortably deep this conversation just suddenly became, I clear my throat.
“Thank you,” I chuckle, taking a drink. “I’ll have to file that away in the Jaxon Proverbs.”
This makes him laugh.
“All I can say is that I’m sure that hearts are breaking all of New York tonight.”
“...As I’m sure they did in Chicago when you actually tied the knot with your own lovely paramour,” I smile, narrowing my eyes at him. “Whom I’m dying to meet by the way. I hear she actually came with you on this trip. Don’t tell me that you two are still in the honeymoon phase, Mr. Pace?”
“No, my wife just wanted to keep her bodyguard in one piece. She was worried I might push Wesley out of my moving plane on the way home,” he growls, his frustration evident. “Because truth be told, I might’ve.”
This time I chuckle, waving him off.
“It’s fine.”
“No, it’s unprofessional,” Jaxon seethes. “He’s lucky he only ended up with a bullet in his ass.”
“Nah, it wasn’t his fault. At least not entirely,” I snort. “Pasha is a hard man to refuse, especially when fucking absinthe is involved. But rest assured, if I ever get my hands on his little bitch of a best friend, I’m going to remove his testicles and keep them in a jar on my desk.”
Jaxon closes his eyes and shakes his head, his tone darkening.
“I still cannot believe they did that.”
“Yeah, neither can I, actually,” I groan. “But while we’re on that subject, there is something else I’d like to discuss with you…”
Chapter Thirty
ABBY
The look on Roman’s face replays in my mind. He knew, and he caged me instead of killing me. Well, there was still time for him to kill me.
Plenty of it.
His face was murderous, that rage aimed directly at me.
Not that I can blame him, I’ve slowly been picking off his men during my time at Nikotech. Honestly, I’m surprised I’ve gotten away with it for this long. I wasn’t planning each kill out like I normally did, I simply went for every opportunity that presented itself to me, with no hesitation.
But I did hesitate with Roman. And my body clenched with regret for Oleg. Without realizing it, he humanized himself in a way that had my knees buckling. The pain in his voice over the woman he loved being trapped in an arranged marriage with a monster, whispered to my demons, making them pause before he even took a sip of our deadly concoction.
The relief that flooded my body and soul when the glass shattered, seeping that deadly liquid everywhere, was soon replaced with dread when I realized it was Roman who was interrupting us.
But he didn’t even give me a chance to explain. He silenced me.
I’m so sick of being silenced.
He’s right, I did have my story ready to go. But it wasn’t a story, it was truth and not lies that I was ready to throw at his feet.
Yet, when he whispered in my ear, he’d hunt me to the ends of the earth a shiver trembled through my body, and my demons rolled over in submission.
It wasn’t fear I felt at that moment. No, it was heat, pure fucking heat.
A part of me wanted him to hunt me, so much so that for a second, I even considered running…just so he would chase me.