The Kinsmen Universe (Kinsmen #1-3) - Ilona Andrews Page 0,19

you can change my mind by begging?” he finished for her. He crossed the battle line and strode to her, his movement stalking and sleek. He knew every inch of the old gymnasium. He was a predator in a familiar territory. She tensed as he came near and he stopped a few feet away from her. “I didn’t come here to beg. You were promised to me and I came to claim you.”

She sighed. “I’ve forgiven you for breaking the engagement a long time ago. I have never forgiven my family or yours for forcing it on us, but I’ve forgiven you. You were fighting for your freedom. I respect that.”

“Then why are you punishing me?”

“Because you wouldn’t listen to me, Celino. Had you married me for one day and divorced me the next, I would be free. I would have proof that you no longer wanted me. That’s what I had come to ask of you that night. One day. You didn’t have to consummate the marriage, you didn’t have to attend the wedding, you had only to sign the damn paper and then, twenty-four hours later, sign another. I would’ve been released. Free to choose a mate, free to make my own future, just like you.”

“You were anyway,” he said, puzzled.

“Nobody wanted me, Celino!” The ribbon struck from her hand, mincing the closest interceptor into electronic gravel. “They were afraid that one day you might change your mind, show up on their doorstep, and demand restitution for stealing your bride. You didn’t even marry. The rest of the kinsmen didn’t expect you to lay claim to me, but they couldn’t ignore the possibility that you might. Just like you’re trying to now.”

It finally dawned on him. He bought his freedom with hers.

“I never meant for it to happen.”

She faced him. “I hope that you truly love me. I hope it hurts.”

“It does. I had no idea it could hurt this much.”

She snapped her wrist brace open, sank to the floor, and let her weapon slide from her hand. “Go away, Celino.”

“I can’t. If I could rip out my heart and give it to you to make you happy, I would. I’m not a good man. I’m a coldblooded, brutal, terrible bastard. But I feel human when you’re near me and I know you feel at peace in my presence. Be with me, Meli. I swear I will do everything in my power to make you happy. I will protect you. I will be your sheltered harbor. You will never have to hide from me.”

She shook her head in apathy. “You don’t even know me.”

“I know that you think Magyar’s Revenge started slow but finished well and you consider me a fool for not forcing myself to read past the beginning chapter. I know that you don’t lack in patience and that you consistently forget that the constant of standard return on the planet is 4.58, not 4.56. That’s why all your calculations differed from mine on the breakdown of Parson Takeover.”

It had taken him eight hours to reach Dahlia and he had taken a booster shot to keep himself awake so he could memorize her notes.

She glanced at him. “You hacked the Galdes database. I thought those files were destroyed.”

“I did and they aren’t. I know the details of every assassination you have ever done. They requested sixteen of you and you did eleven, all of which were retaliations for violence done to your family. I think the risks you took with Garcia were idiotic.” He knelt by her. “I also kidnapped your father and your brothers. I would’ve tortured them if I thought they knew where you were.”

She laughed softly, but without humor. “That is an odd way to endear yourself to me.”

“I never claimed to be kind or virtuous. But for you, I will be.” He swept her into his arms, holding her back against his chest, wrapping her with his body. She jerked away from him, but her advantage lay in precision, not in strength, and he restrained her with laughable ease. “I love you, Meli. I didn’t love you when you were sixteen, but I love you now. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I ruined your life. But I will help you build a new one. Be with me.”

“Let me go.”

He growled his frustration. “You’re sentencing us both to misery. In the name of what, Meli? Haven’t you been miserable enough? Wouldn’t a more fitting punishment be sentencing me to a lifetime of making you