“You have to let this thing against my father go.”

“That’s not your concern. Give me the dagger.”

“Would you have lied?” I ask instead of giving him what he wants. “Climbed into bed beside me and maybe made love to me after murdering an old man?”

“Murder?” he snorts. “An eye for an eye, Ivy. Give me my knife. Don’t test my patience.”

“Patience?”

“I’m not asking again.”

“No.”

“Be reasonable.”

“Because you are?” Can I tell him what Colette told me? Would Marco help me? Would he hold him down until I made him see reason?

His expression changes, his body relaxes a little, and he smiles that one-sided smile. “You manipulated me last night.”

“I stopped you from committing murder. Tell me what you would have told me this morning if you’d gone through with it.”

“You want to know if I’d lie to you about killing your father? About taking my rightful revenge?”

I falter. He is painfully honest. It’s just that truth has many, many sides. And believing yours too fervently is dangerous.

“I—” I start, and I’m not expecting him to move so quickly. To grab the wrist of the hand that’s holding the hilt of his blade and squeeze until my fingers uncurl so he can take the dagger from me. I’m not expecting him to drag me onto my back and straddle me, the steel of the knife hard against my wrist as he holds it and me, spreading my arms to either side of the bed, face dark as he looms over me.

“You’re going to stop hovering outside my study door.”

“It’s the only way I get any news,” I say. I’m not scared of him. He won’t hurt me. “And I wasn’t hovering,” I say as his gaze runs over me, over the nightgown that’s slightly ripped where he yanked at it last night. At my partially exposed breast.

“No?” he asks, dipping his head down to flick his tongue over my nipple, the sensation sending a charge straight to my clit.

“No,” I say, feeling his grip ease a little, watching as he leans over to his side of the bed, opens the nightstand drawer, and drops the dagger inside it before returning his full attention to me, eyes dark now, pupils dilated. He’s aroused.

“I knew I’d have to safeguard the house for my child, but for my wife, too? That dagger is not a toy, my dear.”

“I know that.”

“Then you know it’s not to be played with.”

“I wasn’t playing. And neither were you.”