King of Greed (Kings of Sin, #3)

by Ana Huang

Once upon a time, I’d loved my husband.

So what if my husband felt like a stranger? I felt like a stranger to myself sometimes when I looked in the mirror.

don’t have the money to buy you all the flowers you deserve yet,” he said, sounding so solemn and formal I couldn’t help but smile at the contrast between his tone and the jar of colorful paper flowers in his hands. “So I made them instead.”

I’d talk to the goddamn cat lady who was always falling asleep in our lobby if she had an inkling of where Alessandra was.

“I’m asking you one last time,” I said quietly. Blood roared in my ears, nearly drowning out my words. “Where is my wife?”

Forever. The concept seemed laughable a year ago. Nothing lasted forever. People, places, relationships…everything had an expiration date. But for the first time in my life, I allowed myself to believe someone when they said they would stay.

“You know I would choose you.” “That’s the thing. I don’t.” A tear slipped down her cheek. “Because you haven’t chosen me. Not in a very, very long time.”

“You honestly think we’ll be happier if we divorce? That I’ll be happier without you? This is us.” The word ripped from my throat, raw and loaded with emotion. “Você e eu. Para sempre.” You and me. Forever.

The thought of living without her was incomprehensible, like asking a heart to stop beating or the stars to give up the night. “I promise.” We had to. Maybe I haven’t expressed it as much as I should have, but Alessandra was an indelible part of me. She had been since the moment I laid eyes on her eleven years ago, though I hadn’t known it at the time. Without her, there was no me.

Thayer was filled with beautiful girls, but there was beautiful, and there was her.

Everyone loved a rags-to-riches story, and Dominic was basically a legend to every bright-eyed Wall Street newcomer.

“Ask me again on another day, and my answer might be different. I would stalk you if it meant you’d talk to me again.” “How romantic.” “I’m past romantic, Alessandra. I’m desperate.”

caught the tiniest glimpse of the man he used to be—the one who carried me uphill in the pouring rain because my heel broke, who kissed me good night every night no matter how late he came home, and who attempted to bake one of the elaborate cakes I’d saved on Pinterest for my birthday. His cake had come out decidedly un-Pinterest-like, but I’d loved it anyway. It was the thought that counted.

I didn’t believe in fate as a general rule, but as with all rules, there were exceptions. I’ve only had two: the day I met Alessandra in Thayer’s library and today.

After two weeks apart, kissing her felt like coming home.

God, nothing in the world ever sounded as sweet as the sound of my name on her lips.

Dominic’s careful enunciation of my full name told me breaking down his walls would be a challenge. Luckily, I thrived on challenges. But when he sat across from me, and a small swarm of butterflies erupted at the brush of his jeans against my leg, I realized I might already be in well over my head.

“You touch a single strand of hair on her head,” I said softly. “And there won’t be a place on earth where I won’t hunt you down and kill you so slowly you’ll be begging for death.”

I loved her, and I’d missed having her in my arms so damn bad that I would give up every possession just to freeze this moment in time.

I had the dim thought that if I did die, I would do so happily because I was exactly where I belonged: with her.

It would be easier if I never fell for her. I went into our first meeting determined to hate her, not knowing she would be the one who showed me what real love was instead. I might not have expressed it as often as I should’ve, but she’d always been the sun keeping my world in orbit.

“Loving you was never the problem!” She finally met my eyes, her expression equal parts infuriated and anguished. “I’ve loved you for eleven years, Dom. I loved you so much I lost myself. Everything I did, everything I gave up and endured was for you. The late nights, the missed dates, the canceled trips. I believed in you and wanted you to succeed, not because I cared about the money, but because you did. I thought one day, it would be enough, and you would be happy with what we had. But you’ll never be happy, and I’ll never be enough.”

“You’re right. I do still love you. A part of me always will. But you’re not the person I fell in love with anymore, and all this time that I’ve spent trying to pretend you are? It’s killing me.”

“You can go on as many dates as you want, amor,” Dominic said softly. “But no one will love you like I do. Você e eu. Não tem comparação.”

“Work will always be there,” he said. “Other things won’t.”

“By not pushing me away.” His throat flexed. “That’s all I ask. A chance for us to talk and get to know each other as we are now. I want to know what makes you laugh, what makes you cry, what your dreams look like when you sleep and what keeps you up when you can’t. I’ll spend however many lifetimes I need to rediscover those parts of you, because you’re it for me. In every iteration of every life. Things may have changed since we got married, but you and me? We were always meant for forever.”

THIS M A N

Josh, the guy half of the couple in our group, joked. “If you do, wait until we’ve returned to shore. Jules is scared of sharks.” We’d introduced ourselves earlier. Josh and Jules, the couple, were a doctor and lawyer from Washington, DC.

SHUT. UP.

Hatred, I could battle. But indifference? That was the death knell for any relationship.

No matter how solid the rock, waves would eventually erode it through sheer persistence. It was a law of nature, unstoppable and inevitable.

“I’m not your wife anymore.” I shouldn’t have drunk so much. My head swam, and my palms were clammy with sweat. “No.” He didn’t take his eyes off mine. “But you’re still my love. That hasn’t changed.”

sometimes, resisting him was like a falling stone trying to resist the pull of gravity.

“I don’t need a reason to be with you, amor. But I’ll give you ten thousand if it means you’ll say yes.”

When I look at you, I…” Her voice caught. “I think I could never love anyone more than you or after you. That you took everything I had to give, and I gave it freely because I couldn’t imagine a world where we wouldn’t be together.”

But I broke her heart once, and I’d let her break my heart a thousand times in return if it meant that one day, she found her way back to me.

“The difference is, back then, I thought I had nothing to lose. Now, I realize I have everything to lose.” Sadness reflected in his smile. “You.”

“What happens when we reach one thousand?” I didn’t have to think; the answer had been there all along. “Then I’ll start the countdown again, and again, for the rest