The Devil's Favourite Obsession

The echo of his heartbeat... the one she had been carrying in her clenched fist, the one still pulsing warm and treacherous behind her ribs, vanished instantly, obliterated by the sheer audacity of the words that had just left his mouth.

Cixi bit down on her lower lip hard enough to leave teeth marks in the skin. And she once more found herself finding every curse word she had ever learned in two languages surged to the tip of her tongue and pressed against the back of her teeth, begging for release. But she swallowed them. All of them...! Because she needed to maintain the illusion that she loved this man, and women in love did not call their fiancees degenerate filth in front of bodyguards.

She turned to face him and smiled. A wide, teeth-baring, radiant smile that held absolutely zero warmth, zero happiness, and zero sincerity. It was the smile of a woman who was picturing him getting tied to the bed and enjoying the image.

Cassian’s eyes darted at the fake smile Cixi was displaying. Then he looked past it, directly into her pale grey eyes, and read every crafty thought behind them with the ease of a man flipping through a children’s picture book.

”Why did you come to see me?” Cixi dropped the smile before it gave her a cramp. She decided to steer the conversation toward something useful before Cassian produced another line that would make her want to open the car door and roll onto the highway. ”And how did you know which bus stop I was at?”

”I have arranged security for you.” Cassian adjusted his cufflink casually. ”They are keeping their eyes on you.”

Cixi’s eyes snapped toward him. ”All the time?”

”All the time.” His gaze did not waver. ”Even in the cafe.”

”What about inside the palace?”

”I have one person keeping an eye on everyone inside the Palace.”

Cixi’s brows pulled together, and a sharp, acidic edge entered her voice. ”Then that person is doing a terrible job.”

Cassian raised one dark brow, questioning Cixi...

”I spent an entire day and night without a single soul coming to check on me.” Cixi’s frustration poured out in front of Cassian. ”I slept through the night, and no one brought me food. No one knocked on my door. This morning I left the Palace without eating a single bite.” She held his gaze in fury. ”Your security watches me but cannot manage to keep me fed?!”

Cassian’s expression shifted at Cixi’s complaint. The lazy amusement vanished and was replaced by something colder. He turned his head toward the front seat.

”Mark.” His voice sounded like the absolute authority of a command that would be obeyed if not asking for death. ”Take us to a restaurant.”

Then he turned back to Cixi, giving her his full attention.

”No, thank you.” Cixi crossed her arms over her padded belly, her chin lifting with pointed defiance. ”What is the use of acting concerned now, after I have already told you I was starving? Instead of taking me to dinner, you should be arranging everything I need inside the Palace. You gave me three days. Three days to get inside and survive on my own. And this is what that looks like?”

She had finally found something to throw back at him. For once, it was not Cassian delivering the jabs. For once, she had ammunition, and she intended to fire every round.

Cassian watched her with the composed stillness of a man who had been challenged by kings and had not flinched. His dark eyes followed the deepening colour on her cheeks, noticing the determined set of her jaw and the way her fingers gripped her arms, as if she were trying to hold herself together.

”I did not think you would manage to get inside the Palace within three days.” He delivered the words without blinking, without inflexion, or without a single trace of apology.

Cixi stared at him in shock. Her lips parted to say something. Her eyes widened in rage. The disbelief on her face was so raw it was almost comical.

”So you thought I would Fail?!”

”I could have bet on it.” He tilted his head, conceding a minor point in a conversation about the weather.

Cixi’s mouth fell open. Then it snapped shut. Her teeth ground together so hard that the muscle in her jaw visibly twitched. Her nostrils flared. If he didn’t trust her, why would this narcissist give her three days? To see her fail and then mock her? Her hands dropped from her crossed arms and curled into fists against her thighs.

”Good that I proved you wrong!”

”Yes, you did.” He spoke so casually, so utterly devoid of emphasis or admiration, that Cixi’s victory did not feel like a victory at all. It felt like she had climbed a mountain only to find him already sitting at the top, smoking a cigarette and wondering what had taken her so long.

He was beyond redemption...

Cixi exhaled sharply and forced herself to move past the rage before it consumed her entirely. There were more pressing matters.

”What about tomorrow?” Her voice dropped lower to an urgent matter. ”The DNA test.”

”Everything has been arranged.” Cassian’s tone shifted to match hers. It was direct, efficient, stripped of games. ”The results will be in our favour.”

Cixi’s entire body sagged with relief. The tension she had been carrying in her shoulders since those three women cornered her in the spa room released in a single, long exhale. She leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes for three seconds, allowing herself three seconds of gratitude toward a man she was not ready to thank out loud.

Then Cassian’s next question landed.

”I was told you arrived at the hotel in Rafael’s car.”

Cixi opened her eyes. The brief window of relief slammed shut. ”Yes. He was kind enough to—”

”Kind and Rafael do not belong in the same sentence.” Cassian’s voice cut across hers. ”Do not take any help from him.”

”He is the only one in that entire palace who—”

”I said no.”

Cixi’s jaw tightened. Her pale grey eyes hardened into something closer to murdering him. ”Why should I listen to you?”

”Because you love me!” Cassian delivered the line with the same flat certainty he used to order executions.

Cixi’s left eye twitched. ”Does loving a person mean the other person forces them to do things they do not agree with? Does loving someone mean I must blindly obey every command that comes out of your mouth?”