The Carver (Fifth Republic #2)

by Penelope Sky

“We may be married on paper, but we’re not married in any other aspect. I have someone, and I’m sure my replacement is already in your bed.”

“One bitch, one time is a mistake. A mistake I could have forgiven if you had been the one who copped to it. But there were twelve different women on your dick, Adrien. And there would have been a hell of a lot more if Cecilia hadn’t ratted you out—God bless her soul.”

“Love doesn’t just die that quickly.” “It dies instantly when it’s been betrayed. Keep your wealth because I don’t want it. You can draw this out for years, but it won’t change anything.”

I’m depressed, like you died or something.” “Our marriage did,” I said. “And it’s time to move on. Stalling the paperwork isn’t going to change anything, Adrien. I’m already with someone else now.”

“You just said you would kill someone if I fucked them.” “Yeah, I would.” He doubled down, didn’t backpedal, didn’t gaslight me. “So, I would get someone killed…and I would have to carry that guilt.” “Don’t fuck anyone else, and you’ll save lives. You’re a superhero.”

“Let me tell you who I am, sweetheart. I don’t believe in forgiveness or second chances. For those who think they can outsmart me and cross me, I cut them into slices of bacon and feed them to the dogs on the street. My ruthless temper precedes me, and my reputation is its own empire. But there are lines even I don’t cross. I would never hurt a woman or a child, for any reason whatsoever. And I would never hurt you, not just because you fall into that category, but because of how deeply I care for you.” He stared for several beats, his gaze molten-hot as it burned into mine. “That’s who I am. You’re the last person on this earth who needs to be afraid of me.”

“It’s an unspoken rule—families are immune. We don’t come for wives or children. It’s dishonorable, and no one wants to work with a dishonorable man because he may turn around and do the same to you. Being with me doesn’t put you in danger. And even if someone ever tried to start something—” he looked me hard in the eye “—I would never let anything happen to you. I would die for you. I would let my body be pumped with a hundred bullets before you got a single scratch. I would slice my own fucking throat to spare you any discomfort.” His eyes shifted back and forth between mine. “You understand me?”

I hated the fact that I was actually hard knowing she was there to get me back, that she was there to fight for me like I’d fought so fucking hard for her. “What the fuck is it about this woman?”

“Are you sure? Because I’m a dangerous man in a dangerous business, and that’s never going to change. I am who I am, and if you want me, you need to accept me. You need to accept that I want all of you to myself, that I don’t want to share you or be shared, that I want more than just something casual and easy. I want you to be my woman, I want commitment, I want something more than a week or a month or a year. Maybe forever. Don’t forget you aren’t the only one who’s got a heart on the line. Don’t forget you aren’t the only one who’s risking something. I’ve never done this before, but I know I want to do it with you. Those are my terms. So, if any of that is disagreeable to you, then get out now and don’t waste my fucking time.”

“She wouldn’t be my wife if she did. I wouldn’t marry a woman unless she accepted all of me, exactly as I am, and trusted me to protect her.”

“Boys impress girls with nice dinners. Men impress women by making them come. I take you to places like this because I don’t eat horseshit—and I’m not taking my woman to eat horseshit.”

“Bastien…I’m falling for you.” Her words didn’t halt my movements, didn’t interrupt the moment. Only when we were locked together in passion so hot it burned us like a pyre and sent our souls to the heavens did she show who she really was, show how she really felt about me. It was like a safe I had to crack over and over again, a code she changed every few hours. But when that door unlocked, it was worth all the effort—to take another piece of her treasure. “I already fell for you, sweetheart.”

“You sound so busy, I don’t know how you have time for me.” “I don’t have time for you,” he said. “I make time for you.”

“You’re my priority, and it’s my job to make you feel like a priority.”

“Not now, but someday, she’ll be my wife. And when that day comes, I want you to tell her this story. How the two of us sat in this empty bar at three in the morning, and I told you she was the one.”

“I always miss you—even when I’m with you.”

“I knew you would come for me.”

“Turn on the news when you’re done in the shower.” “Why?” “Because I want you to see what I did to them.”

“I will burn you alive as you hang from Notre-Dame, and all of Paris will see you die the death of a traitor.”