“I did listen to you. I heard everything you said. It’s such a sacrifice being with me, isn’t it, Elijah? Poor man to have to have such an inexperienced whore in your bed.” She closed her eyes, ashamed. In pain. He’d gutted her. Torn out her soul.

“Dios, Siena, I thought we were past that bullshit. How many times do you want me to apologize? I said it and I didn’t fucking mean it. You know that. And what the hell do you mean, it’s a sacrifice to be with you?”

She opened her eyes to glare at him. “I heard you. With Drake. I heard you.” She shoved at his chest again. “Get off me.”

“Baby, take a breath. We’ll sort this out.”

He watched her with the focused, unblinking gaze of the leopard. His silver eyes moved over her face as liquid as mercury. Intense. She wanted to block him out, but he was everywhere. She breathed him in with every breath she took. There was no way to get away from him, and she needed to. Desperately.

“You promised me, Siena. You promised you’d talk to me.” His voice was rough with emotion. Raw. Worried.

“That’s before I knew you were such a liar. I’ve had enough of your lies.” She wanted to shout at him, but her voice came out a whisper. “It hurt. What you did to me hurt. At least Paolo was honest. He didn’t try to make me believe he would ever be good to me. Protect me. He didn’t ever tell me I was safe with him.”

He frowned down at her, shaking her head. “I don’t know what you thought you heard, mi vida, but whatever it was, it wasn’t what I said.”

“Elijah, please get off me. Please.” She wasn’t above begging. She couldn’t stand his touch. She didn’t want to smell him, or feel him, or even see him. She tried her best not to hear his lying voice. He sounded torn up. Not angry, but hurt. As if she’d done something wrong, not him.

“You’d go to Alonzo?” he asked. He sounded tortured. “Mi amorcito. That doesn’t even make sense. You’re so mixed up, and until I know what you think you heard, I can’t make this better.”

“You can never make this better because I don’t believe you. I. Don’t. Believe. You.” She enunciated each word, biting it out between her teeth for emphasis.

Elijah stared down into Siena’s face, seeing the stark hurt there. He’d put that look in her eyes and caused the terrible pain that was evident. She wasn’t good at hiding her emotions, and he could see the pain was very real. Somehow, and he wasn’t certain how, he’d made her doubt him all over again.