6
Iris didn’t mean tolisten to Keith’s conversation with his Chief, but the cottage was so small that it was almost impossible not to hear him, no matter how loudly she shuffled her books around.
It was also impossible not to be curious, even though she knew he wouldn’t say much about her. In particular, he was too fundamentally polite to complain about the match when he knew she would hear him.
He said he wasn’t who the Council thought he was, and she could already tell that was true. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be disappointed in her. Here was the woman who was supposed to be his fated mate, and she was scarred, skittish, brittle, and so damaged that she nearly wound up crying just talking about a goldfish. If he wanted to call the whole thing off, she’d already given him more than enough ammunition.
And if he wasn’t afraid of the Council, then he wouldn’t hesitate to reject their choice. For all she knew, he was planning to endure this week with her like a gentleman and then end things as graciously as possible.
It doesn’t seem like he’s thinking that at all, her unicorn protested.
Iris knew it was right, but she felt like she couldn’t afford to listen to it. She knew what it was like to get blindsided when the worst happened, and she didn’t want to go through that again.
Especially since she could already tell that if Keith walked away at the end of this, he wouldn’t just hurt her pride, he’d break her heart. It would be far too easy to get used to his cute, worried frown and the cool sapphire flecks in his gray eyes, and then she’d never see him again.
She’d thought his certified, grade-A tribute perfection would be like a harsh white light shining on her, picking out every little flaw and making her hyper-aware of howwrongshe was.
Instead, he made her feel ... better.
Keith rejoined her, and Iris tried to look like the few snippets of conversation she’d picked up on hadn’t left her wildly curious.
He was nice enough to put her out of her misery pretty quickly.
“Cooper thinks they’ll be able to come the day after tomorrow. Not quite the whole team, but almost. You can look forward to some kind of ludicrously impressive hostess gift—Iz is kind of an etiquette expert.”
She had no idea how to prepare for the arrival of a crowd of U.S. Marshals who would all immediately know that their friend deserved a lot better than he was getting. The etiquette expert would probably insist on Iris returning her gift. She felt a cool prickle of sweat on her palms and had to fight the urge to nervously rub them against her dress.
“I hope I’ll make a good impression.”
“Of course you will,” Keith said. He sounded like the alternative had never even occurred to him, like his life was full of people almost breaking down into tears in front of fish tanks and so he hadn’t thought that was weird at all. “And I think you’ll like them too.”
“I’m sure I will.” She couldn’t imagine not liking people Keith spoke to—and about—with that degree of warmth.
Still, it was stressful to think of being surrounded by people she wanted so badly to please, and she didn’t know why. Wasn’t that just her life at this point? She was a natural embarrassment who had forcibly remade herself into an artificial asset, and the artifice part never got any easier and never felt any more real. She was always playing a role.
But with Keith, and now with his friends, the stakes felt so much higher, and she didn’t know why.
“Do you want to tell them about the mate bond?” Keith asked. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted to wait longer before we mentioned it to other people.”
