Nikolett jumped up too, wobbling a little. “It doesn’t matter.”
He barked out a hard laugh. “Really?” He swallowed a snarl. “Who’s on your husband list?”
“That is none of your business.”
“Don’t pull this aloof, detached bullshit with me. Not today.”
Her expression faltered.
Eric took a calming breath.
“I love you,” he said after a tense silence. “I love you, and that’s why it’s my business who you’re planning to marry, and who you kissed last night.”
She looked to the side, swallowed. “So it’s over then.”
“Over? I just told you I love you.”
“And I just told you I kissed someone else last night.”
“And now you’re going to tell me who it was.”
“Why? What will you do to them? Kill them?” She shook her head.
“I’m not going to kill them. I’m going to smile at them.”
“You’re…what?”
Eric smiled. Not the way he normally smiled at Nikolett. The way he’d smiled at Maxim and Iacob this morning.
Nikolett blinked and swallowed. “Oh. That smile.”
“Yes. That smile.” Eric took a step toward Nikolett. “Who?” Another step. “Did. You. Kiss?” He took one step for each word in the sentence, and she matched him with a step in retreat.
“No one you know,” she said again, but her voice wasn’t as firm.
“Didn’t ask if I knew him.” He thought back to the night on the balcony. If it was no one he knew… “The cookie guy?”
She didn’t react, which for her was confirmation.
“You were going to recruit him so you could marry him.” Eric tried to hold onto his anger. It was better than the sick feeling, like he was once more losing everything.
Nikolett sagged, head down, arms crossed over her midsection. “I had dinner with him last night.”
“And he’s the one you plan to marry?”
They were going to have to figure out her marriage, the logistics of their relationship… A million other things. He knew that and accepted it. But he wasn’t ready for itnow.
“No. No, not really. But at least I felt something with him.”
That hit harder than anything else she’d said and Eric stepped back, putting distance between himself and her words.
“I tried once before, with someone else from the list. Someone from my territory. He was kind, smart, and caring. But he wanted to be in love with his spouses.”
Eric took a slow breath. “And you knew you couldn’t love him?”
She nodded.
“But the man last night…the cookie guy. You could love him?”
