“I promised I’d replace it. It took a little time because I knew exactly what I was looking for.”
“You didn’t even take a week. That doesn’t count as taking long.”
“If it were up to me, I’d have put a ring on your finger the very next day,Little Fae.”
He opens the box, and my breath catches.
The ring is white gold, simple and smooth, with a single pear-shaped stone at its centre. It gleams in a golden hue that looks like liquid sunlight. I’ve never seen anything like it.
“This stone is called Kavir,” he says. “It comes from a very specific region in the United Arab Emirates. Not Dubai—but it felt right. I wanted a stone from there so that every time you look at your ring, you remember it’s not a prison, Nina. I don’t expect our marriage to pull you away from your dreams. I just want it to give me the chance to be part of them.”
I launch myself into his arms before he can say anything else. Papers fly everywhere as I climb onto his lap, covering his face in kisses through tears.
“I love you,” I say between each breathless kiss. “I love you.”
He laughs softly and wipes my tears away.
“Hormones?”
“No. Happiness.”
“Give me your right hand.”
I do, pulling back just enough for him to remove the elastic band and replace it with the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen.
I stretch my arm out, fingers spread. The ring is perfect.
“Now that you have a ring,” he says, “can we talk about the date?”
I look down at him with a wicked smile, rocking my hips slowly.
He lets out a low groan.
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “Now I have other plans.”
And then I kiss him.
CHAPTER 38
NERO ZANTHOS
Ever since Nina came to the export company, I’ve never looked at the cotton fields the same way again. Now, every time I see the land stretching endlessly under white cotton plumes, I find myself wondering what exactly my fiancée’s creative little mind imagined while she was here.
I shake my head, forcing the images my mind so helpfully projected behind my eyes away before I end up with an erection right in the middle of the workday. I wipe the corner of my mouth with my thumb, erasing a smile, and walk toward the machine house, where everything is finally running the way it should.
After weeks of relentless work, we’ve managed to leave damage control behind and return to normal operations. The sun is hot enough to make it feel like peak summer rather than the middle of winter. I push the rolled sleeves of my shirt further up my arms and slide a hand across my forehead, wiping away the thin layer of sweat that’s gathered there.
I greet the workers I pass with brief nods and push through the swinging door at the end of the corridor. The shed is filled only with the sound of machines at work.
Or at least, that’s what I think—until I hear murmurs.
“I heard she was at a party last night. Alone.”
“At least before the horns were friendly, right?”
“Is it still cheating if he knew? I mean, if he didn’t mind sharing…”
“What does that woman even have to drive the boss that crazy? Make him accept that kind of thing?”
