The limo slows to drop us off at an elevator door.
“Okay, lovebirds, this is your stop,” Nadia says.“Just lie low until I say so.”She points a stern finger at Rex.“No more threatening the press.”
He gives a grim nod, and then it’s my turn to get lectured.
“And you,” Nadia says, looking pointedly at my hand.“You need a ring.”
I don’t need a ring, but I’m not going to backtalk a domme.She turns back to Rex.“Get her a rock the size of Antarctica.Give people something to gossip about.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Rex says and half salutes her while helping me out.
“Is a ring really necessary?”I grumble.
Rex laughs.His hand skates down my back as he leads me into the elevator.“It is if Nadia says so.She’s the best.She’ll feed the rags a bunch of romantic nonsense, keep them speculating about our wedding colors?—”
“There’s going to be a wedding?”This whole thing is supposed to be fake!
“We might be able to avoid it if the engagement ball is spectacular enough.”He presses a button, and the elevator rises.“As for the ring, think of it as costume jewelry.”
If I know Rex, he’s going to get me something that costs more than a house.“Not as a tiny collar?”
He looks smug.“Not unless you want to.”
I sigh.Once we’re back in the hotel room, I turn on the TV.Every news channel is playing footage from the steps of City Hall.
I watch Rex cup my face and kiss me over and over again.
I replay the moment in my head.I was totally swept away by Rex’s warmth, his touch.He looked at me like I was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.Like he never wants to look away.
Just watching it, I feel shaken to my core.I’m overflowing with feelings—fear, lust, acceptance, longing.All my emotions explode out of the box where I’ve kept them locked down.
And now I’ll be on display.
“...is New Rome’s most eligible bachelor settling down?Who is the lucky woman who tamed this notorious playboy?”
They show a picture of Rex on a red carpet, looking suave, then juxtapose that with a police academy picture of me in my dress uniform.I look like a kid playing dress up, clueless, impossibly young.
The news switches to pictures of Rex’s glamorous ex-girlfriends, goddess after goddess with perfect skin and pouting lips like a slideshow on the screen.Women who deserve to stand on a red carpet with him.It’s obvious the press thinks Rex should be with one of them.
But in every picture of Rex and one of his exes, he keeps a space between his body and theirs.In contrast, on the City Hall steps, he crowded close to me and stared at me like we were the only two people on Earth.I’m not imagining this; it’s clearly shown.
Our marriage doesn’t look fake at all.
The chyron readsSecret Wedding: Rex Roy married!
Then it’s back to footage of the press conference.They’re not mentioning the Bondage Killer.Instead, the reporters are speculating about who will be in attendance at the engagement ball.They even include a quote from the chief, who is taking credit for our relationship.Nadia warned us he would, and she was right.And she must be good to be able to suppress the connection between the murders, the Bondage Killer, and me.
A click of ice in a whiskey glass warns me that Rex is approaching.“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” he says.
I mute the TV.“Another perk of being a Roy?”
“The press will settle down.Nadia will reward the ones who behave and squash the others like a bug.”
“I know.”I face him, frowning.It feels like the ground is shifting beneath my feet, and I’m fighting to stay upright.At the same time, Rex is becoming the fixed point, my rock.He took control again and made himself a part of my world.But...I like it.And it’s weirding me out.
“I’m going to find out who that reporter was.Bring him in for questioning.”
I get a flash of insight—a greasy aura, nauseating green—but then it’s gone.“Nadia won’t like that.”
