Page 3 of Bind Me
His expression didn’t change. “I wanted you to say ‘yes’ to me. Not ‘no’ to the law.”
“So you decided what I was allowed to meet first.”
Rafael’s fingers curled into the counter’s edge, then deliberately loosened. “I decided to give you time to trust what matters more than any law.Me.”
Bea kept her chin lifted, meeting him head-on, her voice steady. “If I’m marrying you, I deserve to know what I’m agreeing to.”
His brow lifted. “If?” he repeated, low. “You think I’m going to watch you walk away now, little Bea?”
The words landed softly, but the room changed around them.
She ignored the warning in his tone, folding her arms across her belly. “You’re telling me I would legally belong to you.”
He nodded once. “Our children would, too.”
“Anything else?” Her tone stayed steady even as something splintered inside her.
“Yes. But you’re not ready to hear it.”
She could clobber him. On his offensively symmetrical face.
It must have registered, because he said, with the faintest edge of defensiveness, “It’s not my law. It’s the country’s.”
“Then we’ll get married in another country,” she said, grasping for an exit. “Canada.”
Neutral ground. A ceremony without teeth.
“No.”
“Why not?” she pressed.
“Because I’m a man of the UR.” He stepped closer. “My wife and children will live under UR law.”
“We can still live here.” Bea gestured around the kitchen. “Just marry elsewhere.”
“No.”
“That’s not an argument, Rafael.”
He crossed his arms. “I need the law on my side.”
“For what?”
“To turn threats against you into crimes against my family and the state.”
The weight of Westhaven’s rules crowded in from every angle, but despite her anger, she understood something else too: Rafael would arm himself with every power available to keep her safe.
“You don’t leave room for regret,” she said quietly, thinking of the sister he’d lost. “I know. But you can protect me without it.”
Rafael shook his head stubbornly. “It’s not enough. If you had a child with another man,even by force, he could contest me. And he’d have a higher claim to you.”
Bea recoiled half an inch, skin prickling. “You’re talking in wild hypotheticals.”
“In a country dominated by men, they’re only hypothetical because laws like this exist.”
He meant it. Completely. Bea opened her mouth and found nothing there. Logic had abandoned her. Hunger had not, andshe had the most ridiculous urge to tear into the unopened bag of croissants.
Rafael closed the distance. She stiffened, but his large hands lifted her onto the counter anyway. He settled his frame between her knees, arms braced on either side of her. It was almost the same position as earlier, only this time the heat she felt was frustration.
