Page 111 of The Viper's Wife

“I don’t believe you.” My heart thunders in my chest.

He looks at me from under his eyelashes, my hand on his mouth, his amber eyes glinting in the sunlight from the windows.

“How can I trust you won’t leave?” he asks against my palm.

“That would come with time,” I say, feeling so, so foolish to even pretend there’s a future for us. I know he won’t change. He can’t. “You have to be patient.”

The moment stretches into a long, delicate, spidersilk strand as he searches my eyes.

“Okay,” he finally says. He scrubs a hand over his head. “I gave your cash to a homeless guy.”

He what?

I burst out in shocked laughter at the mental image of a furious Nico in his suit giving a bag of cash to the first person he found.

“Nico, what the hell?”

A light smile brushes his mouth. “Charity’s good, right?”

I laugh harder, my anger dissolving in fuzzy bubbles. “That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

He cups my face and brushes his thumbs against my lower lip like he wants to capture my laughter for himself. “I’ll bring you cash tomorrow.”

My heart skips a beat.

God, I can’t believe I’m doing this.

“Today,” I say.

“Today,” he repeats, his eyes bright.

“Do you understand why I want it?”

“No.”

I snort. Of course he doesn’t. He’s grown up in the lap of luxury.

“Money in the bank?” I explain carefully. “Someone can take that. Physical cash? I can touch it. I can see it. When I know it’s there, I feel safe. Do you want me to feel safe with you?”

“Yes.” His hands move across my jaw and neck like he needs to remind himself I’m still here. “I do. I shouldn’t have done that, and I’m sorry. I overreacted.”

“You think?”

“You can hide it again, if you need. I won’t go looking for it.”

I search his eyes. “Next time, you need to talk to me. With words. And your clothes on.”

He smiles. “Look at us. Talking. Wearing clothes. We’re doing great already.”

I roll my eyes, but I’m biting back a smile.

“You looked incredibly beautiful in your wedding dress,” he says suddenly. “I didn’t think I would ever breathe again.”

My belly clenches.

“I can’t wait to see you on our wedding day,” he continues softly. “It’s the one good thing to come out of all this. You are.”

“Well, now it’ll have to be all black, because you already saw it.”