Ruthless Creatures by J.T. Geissinger

I try to twist away, but he keeps me against him, wrapping
his strong arms around me and holding me tight. “He won’t
find me a wife. He needs me as I am. Focused. Undistracted.”
“But he could, right?”
When Kage doesn’t respond, I have my answer.
My laugh is an ugly thing, choked and full of dark despair.
“Right. He could decide any time that you should marry some
mafia princess to form an alliance with her family. Isn’t that
how arranged marriages usually go?”
I’m crying again. But these aren’t tears of happiness.
These tears come from a place of rage. A place of pain. A
place of total disappointment in myself that I allowed my heart
to take demonic possession of my head and lead me into this
awful situation.
If I could kick my own ass, I would.
“Let me go.”
After a moment’s hesitation, he does what I ask, opening
his arms and releasing me. I pull away, walk halfway across
the room, then stop and turn back.
“This is why you said you’d have to make me fall in love
with you first, before I found out all your secrets, right?
Because even if I could get past what you do for a living, you
knew I wouldn’t be able to get past this.”
He remains silent. His chest rises and falls rapidly. His
dark eyes burn.
“Well, congratulations. Your plan worked. And don’t you
dare talk to me for the rest of the day, because I’m so mad at
both of us, I could spit!”
His eyes flash. He takes a step forward, his gaze searing
mine. “Are you saying you’re in love with me?”
Exasperated, I throw my hands in the air. “Are you kidding
me? You’re looking for declarations of love right now? I’m
about to chop off your head!”