Page 29

“You look good,” Mano said, his eyes eating me up, his gaze lewd and lustful. “Tits getting bigger. Getting more curves all over you. Wonder if your milk will come in soon.”

“Why did my brother say he should have let you marry me?”

“Because I wanted you. And we always had a connection. It’s just that of course Étienne could offer more.”

Watching me to see what I’d do, he put his thumb on my lip and dragged it down, exposing my teeth like I was a horse at the fair.

Inwardly raging, I forced myself not to make a move, not to spit at him like I wanted to do.

“And what would you have done to get me?” I asked softly. “Hid in my room? Pretended we were lovers?”

His thumb covered in my saliva, he dragged it down my throat, his fingers leaving a sticky trail along my cleavage.

“I would have done more than that. My big brother doesn’t know how far I would have gone.”

“You lied to him, didn’t you?”

“You still in love with Étienne?” he returned tauntingly. “I've seen him around with Faustine. She’s all over him like a boar in rut season.”

“No,” I said as my heart seemed to shrivel inside me. “I’m not in love with him anymore.”

He smirked.

“Good girl. You’re not too good for me now, are you princess? Now that you’re damaged goods.”

“If you tell him the truth⁠—"

“You don’t get him. At this point, there’s no going back. He can’t be seen with a slut. A whore. Any woman with even a suspicion of threatening his status. So you might as well give in, sweetheart. Play nice with me and I’ll make sure you get some good treats in here.”

Was he right that it didn’t matter anyway? That he had been the only one to set me up? That Étienne would never forget⁠—

“So you set me up just to get me to yourself? No one else knew about it?”

“Do you really think you’re in a position to make demands?” he laughed arrogantly. “All you need to know now is your fate is in my hands now.”

Mano thought he held all the cards, but even if what he said was true—I refused to just meekly submit to being passed from brother to brother.

In fact, I was done weakly submitting at all. I was done with not knowing what was happening.

“I think there’s something wrong with the water heater in the basement,” I said. “Could you please look at it?”

Would he really fall for something so ridiculous?

I had every reason to hate him, and he should know that.

But he took a long, lingering look down my body, his eyes lingering on the swell of my breasts, the way my swollen nipples were bursting out of my too-small bra, the way the maternity shirt he had bought me stretched across my belly.

“Yeah,” Mano said. “Yeah, I’ll take a look at it. Give me a kiss first.”

I had never kissed anyone except my husband. But didn’t I have a husband only in name now?

My skin crawling, I took a step closer.

“This is your brother’s baby,” I said.

“I don’t care.”

Almost shivering, I put my hands on his chest, felt the hammering of his heart under my fingers, his shirt slick with sweat in the mountain heat.