Page 44 of Untamed Billionaire's Innocent Bride
Had he not been paying attention? Or had he not wanted to see?
“Yes, you,” she said, answering the question he’d asked, and all the ones he hadn’t. “You make me happy, Dominik. And hopeful. I’m sorry if that’s not what you want to hear.”
She kept her gaze trained on his, and he didn’t know what astounded him more. That she kept saying these terrible, impossible things. Or that she looked so fearless as she did it, despite the color in her cheeks.
He wanted to tell her to stop, but he couldn’t seem to move.
And she kept right on going. “I thought I knew myself, but I didn’t. I thought I knew what I needed, but I had no idea. I asked you to teach me and I meant very specifically about sex. And you did that, but you taught me so much more. You taught me everything.” She smiled then, a smile he’d never seen before, so tremulous and full of hope—and it actually hurt him. “I think you made me whole, Dominik, and I had no idea I wasn’t already.”
If she had thrust a sword into the center of his chest, then slammed it home, he could not have felt more betrayed.
“I did none of those things,” he managed to grit out. “Sex is not happiness. It is not hope. And it is certainly no way to go looking for yourself, Lauren.”
“And yet that’s who I found.” And she was still aiming that smile at him, clearly unaware that she was killing him. “Follow the bread crumbs long enough, even into a terrible forest teeming with scary creatures and wolves like men, and there’s no telling what you’ll find at the other end.”
“I know exactly what you’ll find on the other end. Nothing. Because there’s no witch in a gingerbread house. There’s no Big Bad Wolf. You were sent to find me by a man who was executing a duty, nothing more. And I came along with you because—”
“Because why, exactly?” Again, it was the very softness and certainty in her voice that hit him like a gut punch. “You certainly didn’t have to invite me into your cabin. But you did.”
“Something I will be questioning for some time to come, I imagine.” Dominik slashed a hand through the air, but he didn’t know if it was aimed at her—or him. “But this is over, Lauren. You had your experiment and now it’s done.”
“Because I like it too much?” She had the audacity to laugh. “Surely, you’ve done this before, Dominik. Surely, you knew the risks. If you open someone up, chances are, they’re going to like it. Isn’t that what you wanted? Me to fall head over heels in love with you like every virgin cliché ever? Why else would you have dedicated yourself to my experiment the way you did?”
He actually backed away from her then. As if the word she’d used was poison. Worse than that. A toxic bomb that could block out the sun.
It felt as if she’d blinded him already.
“There is no risk whatsoever of anyone falling in love with me,” he told her harshly.
“I think you know that isn’t true.” She studied him as if he’d disappointed her, as if he was currently letting her down, right there in full view of all the smug volumes of fancy books he’d never read and never would. “I assumed that was why you stayed all this time.”
“I stayed all this time because that was the deal we made.”
“The deal we made was for a wedding night, Dominik. Maybe a day or so after. It’s been nearly two months.”
“It doesn’t matter how long it’s been. It doesn’t matter why. I’m glad that you decided you can feel all these emotions.” But he wasn’t glad. He was something far, far away from glad. “But I don’t. I won’t.”
“But you do.” And that was the worst yet. Another betrayal, another weapon. Because it was so matter-of-fact. Because she stared right back at him as if she knew things about him he didn’t, and that was unbearable. Dominik had never been known. He wanted nothing to do with it. “I think you do.”
And Dominik never knew what he might have said to that—how he might have raged or, more terrifying, how he might not have—because the doors to the library were pushed open then, and one of Combe Manor’s quietly competent staff members stood there, frowning.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” she said, looking back and forth between them. “But something’s happened, I’m afraid.” She gestured in the direction of the long drive out front. “There are reporters. Everywhere. Cameras, microphones and shouting.”
The maid’s eyes moved to Dominik, and he thought she looked apologetic. When all he could feel was that emptiness inside him that had always been there and always would. Even if now, thanks to Lauren, it ached.
The maid cleared her throat. “They’re calling for you, sir. By name.”