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“Don’t stand in the way of Jonathan bonding with his cousin. They’re better together. Take it from me.”
    “ And with his doting uncle, too, I imagine.”
    I dared to invoke his name. “Alex really does love him. Through it all. Through everything.”
    His face hardened. “That’s a lot to ask,” he murmured as he considered my request. “What are you willing to offer in return?”
    Always an angle , I thought with a sigh. “Drew,” I began, but he was quick to cut me off.
    “If I bring Max, and by default, Alex, back into the fold, then I will need to know – without any doubt – where your loyalty lies.” He took my hand in his, and his forefinger brushed my inner palm with salacious intent.
    I stared at him, aghast. “You’d really leverage our intimacy like this, Drew? Is that how important it is for you to win?”
    “Yes,” he answered without apology. He placed the china teacup onto the saucer before he leaned me back against the corner of the sofa. “Jonathan isn’t the only one who has wanted a family, Rachel. It is all I have ever wanted as well. It has driven each and every decision I have made since childhood.”
    “I know that,” I told him softly.
    “And you also know how every single one of those decisions was circumvented by those with a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ attitude in regards to family. Elise, Olivia, even your precious Alex. No one else was willing to sacrifice their own selfish needs to help me fortify this family into what it could be. That all changed with you, Rachel. You’re the only one who has the emotional strength and integrity to do what needs to be done to strengthen the family unit as a whole. It is why you married me, is it not?” I didn’t answer, but I didn’t really have to. “So I am willing to consider your request. But you need to be prepared to consider mine. The connection between husband and wife is, after all, the foundation of the family unit.”
    As usual, he wasn’t fighting fair. “You are never going to stop trying to manipulate me, are you, Drew?”
    He pulled my hand into his lap, ultimately drawing me closer. “All I’ve ever wanted was for you to be my wife and my queen. Look around you, Rachel. I’m ready to move heaven and earth to make you happy.” He bent closer until his mouth hovered over mine. “Seems to me the only one playing games here is you. You wear my ring, you took my name… yet you withhold your affection to keep control over me, an infernal carrot on a stick to make me beg like a dog. It is an endless, fruitless quest to win your favor and make up for my multitude of sins. Who, really, is manipulating whom?”
    His kiss hung there for a long, painful moment, as if he dared me to cross those final inches which separated us. “I’m not going to have sex with you to barter those things you should have been doing all along, Drew.”
    “No,” he agreed softly. “You’re going to make love to me because you’re my bride . That is the choice you made willingly and of your own accord. What better time to seal our vows than before we leave here on Monday? This honeymoon can be the true cradle of our love, rather than some hasty one-night-stand because you were lonely and drunk.”
    I grimaced at the brutal honesty of his description. He forged on. “You will do it because it’s your vow, Rachel. Your promise.” His eyes pierced mine as he delivered a blow below the belt. “And isn’t that what separates you from us manipulative, entitled Fullertons? You are the one who never breaks your promises.”
    He rose from the sofa without planting that devastating kiss on my mouth. I watched him leave the room before I slouched against the cushions. He had now tipped the hourglass over, explaining in no uncertain terms what he expected from me and when. Worse, I was bound by my promise, and my unwavering commitment to giving Jonathan the happily ever after he deserved, to submit… to comply… to obey.
    By the time we