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In shock, her hand moves to my chest, and then her eyes travel to that spot before she quickly slides it back to my shoulder, as if she’s been burned. My chest, where she touched me,sears.

When my heart begins to race and I feel my blood turn into a river of desire, I slide my hand up her back to asaferdistance.

“Well, we don’t have to take everything from the past. Some modern concepts are here to stay, you know?” she restarts the conversation with a trembling voice.

“Like?”

“Like… plumbing,” she offers up a measly excuse. “Plumbing is something we should embrace.”

In that moment, I try very hard to hold back a smile. Her eyes fall to my lips, to the upward curve of them, and she breaks into a dazzling smile of her own.

“So, plumbing, we keep. And not consummating a marriage for the sake of it, we leave?”

“Exactly.” She nods vigorously. “You get it.”

“Sure I do,” I murmur, a smirk playing on my lips as I spin her out and back into my arms.

“Are you making fun of me?” Lilibeth’s eyes hold a challenge that stirs a spark of excitement at the banter we’re sharing.

“Making fun of you?” I repeat with a twinkle in my eye. “I’m only enlightening myself on your views.”

She arches a brow, her smile never faltering. “Oh? And what have youenlightenedyourself on so far, wise scholar?”

I dip my head closer, and my voice drops an octave as I lean in to whisper in her ear. “That you have a surprisingly firm stance on plumbing… and an even firmer one on restraint.”

I see the tiny hair on her ear prickle and hear her breath hitch. When she looks up at me, our lips hover an inch away from each other. The music fades away, the people disappear, and the room stills when she whispers, her doe-eyes glued to mine. “Well, someone around here has to have principles.”

I lean in just a bit more. “And someone has to test them.”

Her breath falters just as I feel my blood turn into a river of agony at keeping restraint. A memory gushes back, from our first night as a couple, how I had her backed up against a wall, how desperate I was to kiss her.

I should move back, I think to myself, but I am unable to bridge the distance. What I truly want is to stay out here on this dance floor for the entirety of the night, to keep her talking and sassing until the sun comes up, to see how far I can push her.

She tilts her head slightly, her lips parting before they close. I can almost taste her in the air between us, and for a brief moment, I consider closing the distance that remains between us.

But then I hear a glass crash and break in the distance, see a couple dancing next to us a little too closely, and remember where I am, who I’m with.

What the hell just happened? One moment, I was bantering with her. Next, I wanted more; I was drawn right into her orbit. Memories rush back of just who Lilibeth Agafon is and how she became a part of my life. She’s the very reason I lost my brother, even though I never understood how he could let a woman break him as he did.

Suddenly, the weight of my realizations crashes down on me like a ton of bricks. How Lilibeth, in the course of one dance, made me forget our shared history is a reminder of how easily she swayed Nikandr with her charm and manipulation. She’s doing it once again,to methis time.

I suddenly step back. “Well, we put on quite the show for a power couple. I think the room’s convinced, but you don’t have to play wife much longer,” I say icily as I motion to the general direction of the main doors.

“Agafon—” She stands frozen on the dance floor, her eyes wide with hurt and shock.

“It’s getting late. We should leave.”

Chapter 7 - Lilibeth

I close my eyes and try to count sheep, just like I did as a child when I couldn’t sleep. It doesn’t work now. With a groan, I toss onto my back and resort to staring at the ceiling again.

My mind refuses to quiet down, replaying every second with Agafon at tonight's charity event. The night had been going so well. One minute we were talking—actually talking—and it was fun.

I flip my pillow to the cool side for the fifth time and groan into it. We were doing so well. He was actually joking around with me, keeping me on my toes and challenging me to maintain the fiery exchange. There was a moment when I thought I had made him smile, when the corners of his lips turned slightly up, and I felt absurdly proud—as if I had tamed some wild animal.

And within a matter of minutes, his warm grey eyes turned to frost.

Why does he hate me? What did I do?