King of Greed (Kings of Sin, #3)

by Ana Huang

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

“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.

Learning foreign languages didn’t come easily for him, but the fact that he’d done it anyway because he wanted to make a good impression on my family… The ache deepened. God, I adored this man. “Maybe, but I wanted to.” Dominic’s face softened. “Faria qualquer coisa por você.”

“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.”

“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.”

I was used to being the support instead of the star in my own life.

A shrug. “I love Brazil.” His simple reply didn’t conceal the intimacy of his meaning. I love Brazil. I love you.

Don’t let him fool you. Dominic would do anything to win, but the prize only mattered before he obtained it.

“Work will always be there,” he said. “Other things won’t.” No one spoke again for the rest of the meal.

“What do you want, Dominic?” “I want you back.”

“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.”

Oh Dominic !!!!!

my mind was stuck on the man who held more shares of my attention than he should. He was gone but still there, his gaze a warm weight on my skin, his presence a black hole that drew every inch of awareness toward him.

“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.”

But intentions couldn’t replace actions, and somewhere along the way, I’d mistaken the former for the latter.

“You broke my heart, and you weren’t even there to witness it.”

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

“I’ll do anything for you, amor, but I can’t do the impossible.”

“I left my office for weeks when I went to Brazil and I hardly missed it. But when I came home and found you gone…that night, and every night since, has felt like an eternity. Saudades de você.” I miss you. In the deepest, truest sense.

the strongest things were those that had been broken and healed.

“But I vow to always hear you over the sound of my ambition. I will always be curious about you. You’ve shown me the value of always learning, growing, and caring, and I’ve never loved you more than in this moment. Watching you choose yourself when I didn’t will always prove as a reminder to me of your incredible strength and what a privilege it is to call you mine. I want to spend the rest of my nights with you. I want to spend the next decade working to be the man you always deserved. I want my greed to be for your love, your laughter, and our life together. I can’t bear to be parted from you. Please, Ále, will you be my wife?”