I blinked a couple times, then waved at him to go ahead. “Oh. Okay. Sure. Yeah. Go for it.”
He leaned forward with his elbows on the crisp white tablecloth, his fingers steepled and his gaze locked so intently onmine that it was like the dining room around us just faded away. It was an oddly intimate posture for someone as controlled as he normally was.
“You’re my wife, Jane,” he said, his voice steady and calm. “I know we didn’t go about things in the traditional way, but I want you to know that it means something to me that we’re married.”
My throat tightened, but not in a romantic, swoony kind of way. It was more in awhat fresh complication is thisway.
He continued before I could respond. “I will protect you. I will be loyal to you, but I also understand you didn’t exactly choose this arrangement. Not freely.”
That was the understatement of the decade.
“So if you want to continue to see other people,” he said carefully, “I only ask that you keep it as private as possible.”
I choked. Literally choked. Champagne fizzed up my nose and I started coughing so hard, the couple next to us shot me alarmed glances. Alex immediately reached across the table, his hand warm against mine.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said, his brow furrowing. “It just felt like a natural place to start, considering we’re married now after being engaged for less than an entire weekend and that we didn’t date at all.”
When I finally got enough air into my lungs, a laugh burst out of me, unexpected, bright, and embarrassingly genuine. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d laughed like that. Maybe before the Thayer empire started collapsing. Before my life became a strategy document.
“I’m sorry,” I said, wiping the corners of my eyes. “It’s just you’re, uh, you’re very earnest.”
His brows drew together slightly, like he was offended but was trying not to be.
“I haven’t been with anyone in over a year, Alex.”Wow, that’s humiliating to say out loud.“As for relationships? It’s been far,far longer. I eat and breathe business. That’s it. Being loyal to a husband I barely know isn’t going to be an issue. If anything, I was about to give you that exact same speech.”
His eyes warmed in a way that made my pulse thrum, and suddenly, I became excruciatingly aware of the implications of my own words. I had basically just admitted that I hadn’t had an orgasm since my graduate studies.
Fantastic.
Because now, Alex was looking at me like I’d just confessed something he intended to fix out of sheer principle. Heat curled low in my stomach, a kind I hadn’t felt in an embarrassingly long time. I shifted in my seat, hoping it wasn’t obvious.
“Good,” he said quietly, picking up his glass and looking almost smug. “Then we’ll get along.”
Would we? As I stared back at him, I realized that maybe that was the problem. We were shockingly similar. Same tastes. Same expectations. Same relentless drive. Same ability to bulldoze through obstacles without blinking.
Have I inadvertently met my match?
The thought was both dangerous and unsettlingly attractive.
“I’ve been thinking about your living situation,” he said after a server had come by to take our order.
I tensed instantly. “Oh.”
“You’re not obligated to move in with me,” he said evenly. “If you don’t want to, you don’t have to.”
I frowned. “I assumed it was just something that was going to have to happen at some point.”
“It’s not.” He set down his glass after taking another sip of his champagne. “Your priority is your youngest brother. I understand that. I have younger siblings too.”
My chest softened in a way I didn’t expect. He didn’t know even a fraction of the truth, but the fact that he wasn’t demanding anything soothed me, easing some of the sting thathad been grating at the insides of my veins ever since my mother had told me what she and Douglas had decided.
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
He gave me a small nod, then took another sip of champagne. “However, there is something coming up I’d like you to join me for.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, genuinely curious about what this marriage would look like. What his expectations of me would be. “Such as?”
“A gala,” he said. “It’s this weekend.”
