“Once.”
Her pen stilled.
“Almost,” he amended. “There was a colleague. We worked together for three years.”
Mira looked up then, and he saw the question in her eyes even before she asked it.
“What does ‘almost’ mean?”
This...was the trap he should have seen coming.
Zacharie exhaled slowly. “I considered marrying her.”
“Oh.”
It was just one word, but it was enough to make him wince.
“That’s...” She cleared her throat. “That’s good research. Thank you. I think I have enough—”
She was already moving to stand, to retreat, but Zacharie was faster.
He crossed the distance between them before she could finish rising, his hands catching her shoulders, and when she tried to pull away—embarrassed, he realized, mortified that he had seen that flash of hurt—he simply gathered her into his arms and settled back into the armchair with her on his lap.
“Let me go,” she mumbled into his chest, her voice muffled.
“No.”
She tried to squirm away, but this only had him tightening his grip.
“Let me finish, Mira”
The words came out taut. Almost raw. And something in his tone must have reached her, because she went still.
“I was tired,” he said quietly. “Tired of the endless missions. The constant vigilance. I thought marriage might give my life some semblance of normalcy.” His hand moved to her hair, stroking absently. “So yes. I considered it.”
Mira didn’t respond.
“But then she came back from her last assignment,” he continued, “and told me she’d had a one-night stand while undercover. Standard practice. Meaningless, just as mine had been.”
He felt her breath catch.
“I didn’t feel anything,” Zacharie said. “No jealousy. No betrayal. Nothing. And that’s when I knew.”
Slowly, Mira lifted her head. Her eyes were still guarded, but curiosity had crept in alongside the hurt.
“Knew what?”
“That it would be pointless to marry someone who didn’t disturb me.”
Silence stretched between them.
Then, slowly, the tension in her shoulders began to ease. She leaned back just enough to look into his eyes, her expression shifting into something he couldn’t quite read.
“In that case,” she said solemnly, “I accept your indirect proposal. I’ll marry you.”
She was smiling as she spoke, and even though they both knew she was merely joking—the words still sounded too disturbingly right to his ears.
And that was how the days that followed went as well.
