“Then explain it,” Amelia demanded, her voice shaking but steady, blocking his path to the door. “Tell me why you’re so afraid of me. Tell me why you kiss me like that one moment and call it a mistake the next.”
Alexander’s eyes were storms—violent, churning, full of things he’d sworn never to say. “Because everything I touch gets destroyed,” he said finally, his voice low and rough. “Everyone I’ve ever cared about… I lose them. I won’t lose you too.”
Amelia blinked, her anger faltering. “Alexander…”
He stepped closer, not cold this time but fierce, his pain bleeding through his control. “Do you think I don’t want you? Do you think I don’t wake up every night fighting myself because of you? This marriage was supposed to be a contract. A business arrangement. You weren’t supposed to matt
