Seducing Destiny (Brothers of Fate Book 2) by Allyson Lindt

He helped her to her feet. “Just grief.” If it was her, how was he supposed to tell her? And what if he told her, and it wasn’t true—or worse, she decided she was done with this insanity and left? That might be for the best. At least she could get out before she lost her life again. “Come on.” He guided her toward the recliner, sat in the chair, and tugged her to him.
    She hesitated for the briefest moment, then slid into his lap and buried her head in his chest. “This doesn’t change anything .” Her words were muffled by his shirt.
    “I know.” He wrapped his arms around her and held her. Silence settled in, and they sat like that as the minutes ticked toward an hour. Her weight, her warmth—it all felt so right. “You wanted to know about my past. About the women I’ve loved before.”
    Her bitter chuckle shook her entire frame, but she didn’t pull away. “I’m responsible for an entire apartment building of people being exploded. They don’t even have a body count yet. That happened because of me, and you think telling me about your ex-girlfriends is the best way to take this conversation?”
    She had a point, but he was running on instinct, and that rarely failed him. “First of all, what happened to your apartment isn’t because of you. You couldn’t have predicted or prevented it. Someone else made that decision. Don’t let the guilt destroy you. And second, they’re not ex-girlfriends; they’re wives.”
    Her entire body froze in his arms. “Excuse me?”
    If he overthought this, he’d talk himself out of it. Very little coming out of his mouth sounded rational, but he knew it was the right way to go. “I was married to each of them.”
    “Oh, of course. That makes it all better. Awesome.” She sat up and shifted her weight.
    He grabbed her wrist before she could leave, loosely enough she could break free if she wanted, but he hoped with enough force to convince her to stay. “I have a past. Everyone does. Pretending it doesn’t exist won’t make it go away.” She might just be proof of that. He didn’t want to hope, but couldn’t help himself. “Besides, you wanted to know who I am and who I’ve loved.”
    She clenched her jaw and started at the floor, but she didn’t stand.
    “You don’t have to listen,” he said. “But you should know, even though I remember them, they’re in my past.” Mostly. Was he stretching the truth too thin? “I’m here now, not there.”
    She finally met his gaze. Red rimmed her eyes, though she hadn’t been crying, and dark circles lingered underneath. “What were their names? It had to hurt, watching them grow old and die. Except you didn’t. Did you?”
    Was she guessing or...? “All three of them died within weeks of marrying me.” He didn’t talk about this with anyone. Even giving her the vaguest information unlocked more of himself than he liked to acknowledged. “Sayuri, Elizabeth, and Grace.”
    “Beth,” she whispered. “That’s what you called her.”
    A jolt ran through him. “Yes.” He summoned his restraint and pushed down the surging reaction. It could be a lucky guess. “Beth died because of me—they all did—so I know how you feel right now.” That was enough sharing. He needed to close the door on those thoughts before they consumed him with guilt and hope.
    “How do you deal with it?” she asked.
    Not very well. “I change the subject a lot.”
    She leaned into him, head on his shoulder and fingers splayed over his heart. “In that case, tell me how Marley ascended. You’ve both said more than once she used to be human.”
    He could do that. It might give him the segue he needed to tell her his theory about who she was. It might not, but it was a starting point and a distraction. “I told you there are all sorts of poems out there about the future of the world and the gods’ place in it. There’s one about my brothers and me, as well.”
    “What does it say?”
    “Eli’s stanza comes last,