Out the window, a small figure dressed in shorts and a polka dot top walks briskly along the lantern-lit path leading away from Blancbourg Academy. I watch Everly leave, wondering where she’s going by herself after dark. I don’t love the idea of her walking at night alone. Then my stomach sinks when I realize that a beautiful woman like her probably has a date. Sure,we’re married, but it’s a marriage of convenience and we have our rules.
She might even have a boyfriend. I’m not sure how I feel about that, given our arrangement. I haven’t so much as flirted with anyone else since that day in the courthouse, but it’s not necessarily because of loyalty, more like the clouds hadn’t parted long enough for me to think about being single.
Everly is free to date, right? I’d like to consult our Marriage of Convenience rules, but we haven’t gotten that far.
Hands fisted, I lean against the windowsill. “What does it mean to be married but not for love?” My voice is a husky whisper as if I expect someone to answer.
I’ve felt vaguely unsettled ever since I found Everly upset in her suite when delivering her missing luggage. Like our marriage of convenience, it’s something we don’t talk about.
I have a hunch something upsets her—perhaps it’s related to whatever prompted her need for my insurance. But she seems in perfect health, even if her food choices could use some improvement. Whatever it is, she hides it away as carefully as I do my past.
Even though Everly bears the refined grace of someone familiar with a luxurious lifestyle—you have to be to live in Concordia, it’s like paradise on steroids—she isn’t the kind of woman to lose it over a chipped nail. Whatever gnaws at her is bigger.
We’re stacking up secret, forbidden subjects like dominoes. Everyone knows what happens to those. They inevitably fall.
A twinge of guilt butts into my thoughts. I still feel bad about my outburst in the salon, even though Everly forgave me. Seeing my reflection in the mirror after she cut my hair and trimmed my beard was like looking at my brother—same light gray eyes, identical chiseled jaw we inherited from our late father, and thelopsided smile that lifts a bit higher on one side than the other—though a scar blemishes mine.
We resemble each other so much, not even my mother can look at me without a stain of sadness in her eyes. The thought breaks me.
While in that swivel chair, looking in the mirror, memories pressed against the pain and it burst out in one ill-conceived, inescapable surge of emotion. It probably scared Everly. Heck, it startled me, but I’ve tethered my inner angst in the days since and we’ve gotten along reasonably well. Can’t deny that something sparks inside whenever she’s close. It warms the impossibly dead thing inside my chest.
Although she seemed distracted today. I know I was when she stood between my legs, carefully trimming my hair. Breathing in her sweet sunshine scent, the warmth of her body, and gazing at the pair of lips I haven’t been able to forget, softened something in me.
Out the window, Everly returns the way she came. I’m relieved, because unless she was speed dating, only about fifteen minutes have elapsed. That would’ve been the quickest date in history. Unless he was an ogre or he stood her up. The idea of anyone treating her like anything except a queen tightens my fists. Then again, she claims that I’m a Viking and that’s in the same category as a pirate who’d pillage a village.
I’ll admit that I’m hopeful we’re becoming friends—a bit backward since we’re already married.
Everly glances over her shoulder and my gaze follows. A dark figure skulks in the shadows, following her.
A strong sense of protection grips my arms, legs, my entire body. My stomach twists, but I don’t hesitate a moment longer as I pound downstairs and outside. I’m built extra-large, but I’m also fast, mostly because I’ve spent so much time trying to outrun my thoughts and get to the place where all I canconcentrate on is my breathing and the pulse of blood in my ears.
Worried about Everly’s safety, adrenaline kicks in, pushing me even harder, but I soften my steps as I near the gate where I saw the shadow cross her path. She’s badgered me about my heavy footfalls, saying I walk like a herd of buffalo, so I lighten my step, which might surprise my opponents on the field. I put that unexpected trick in my back pocket of football plays this season. I’ll creep up on an opponent in a way that they never see coming...and will do the same right now if someone is harassing Everly.
Nearby, voices rise and fall as I steady my breath.
An acidic male voice hisses, “How dare you humiliate me?”
“I did no such thing. The moment I dissolved our engagement, I stepped out of your life, Todd. I’d appreciate you’d do the same for mine.” Everly’s voice is even, firm.
“Our marriage was simple. Husband, wife. Work, duties. Kids, smiles. What didn’t you understand, Everly?” Todd asks.
“We’ve gone over this a dozen times. More times than that, probably. Do you want to know what I didn’t understand? Your infidelity, for one.”
Todd snorts. “I was in the top running for executive and the breakup blemished my reputation,” he says, skipping past her accusation as though it doesn’t matter.
Red-hot lava pounds through my veins, but I won’t involve myself unless I have to. Don’t need to add to my rap sheet, especially after what she said about having a clean police record.
“You should have thought about that when you were hooking up with your sidepiece.” Exasperation streaks Everly’s voice.
“What can I say? I have needs.”
“Well, I do not need you. Please, leave me alone.”
“No, that’s not how this is going to go. You didn’t satisfy me. You never did anything right. But now you have the opportunity to redeem yourself,” Todd says.
“I’ll be doing no such thing. I’ve started my new life here and I’d like you to leave it.”
“No, sweetheart,” he says in an oily tone. “You are going to come crawling back to me, begging me to take you back. You’re going to get reconstructive surgery—don’t worry. I’ll pay. Then you’ll show up at all of my events, on my arm. You’ll finalize the arrangement between our families and seal the deal, which will one day make me the owner of your daddy’s metal empire.”
