Casper gave her a flat look.
She sighed. “I’m not worried about you being a criminal, alright? I probably should be, but I’m not.”
“I’ll be gone in a week, Sienna.”
She was unprepared for the way her heart responded to something as simple as him speaking her name. He said it was such reverence, as if she were something precious and he was afraid of breaking her. Had Erik ever said her name that way?
Maybe at first, but definitely not after the accident.
“Then in a week you can call it off.”
“You’re not worried about what people will say about a second broken engagement? Wasn’t the whole motivation behind this so that your reputation doesn’t suffer?”
“Eh, it’s already happened once. It will be more of a ‘There goes poor Sienna, the woman nobody wants to marry. I wonder what’s wrong with her?’ situation, rather than a ‘That woman has no morals or self-respect and will willingly take any man’ situation. The former leaves me with pity and a little bit of speculation. The latter entails a whole lot more speculation, as well as unwanted attention from men who think that I will give them whatever they want.”
The muscles in his jaw twitched, and she couldn’t read his expression. When he spoke again, his voice was gruff. “What if I didn’t leave in a week?”
Sienna boldly met his eyes. “Then I guess we would get married. Like you said, an engagement is a commitment.”
For whatever reason, that seemed to be the statement that threw him over the edge. He threw his hands in the air. “Sienna, you don’t want to be engaged to me. I’mleaving.”
His roundabout arguments were starting to get old. She propped her fists on her hips and widened her stance. “So call it off when you go.”
“And if I don’t? If I just disappear into the night and you don’t hear from me again.”
“First of all, that would be incredibly rude of you. What would dear old Mormor say? Second, I suppose I would just waste away in my lighthouse tower, waiting for you to return. I would become the subject of sad love ballads—the rejected lover pining for her absent fiancé.”
His words were close to a growl now. “I’m being serious!”
“And so am I. Look, Casper. I will understand completely if this is an inconvenience. I already told you that. No one is forcing you to agree. I am getting a lot more out of this arrangement than you are.”
The tension in his shoulders released. “That’s not true.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
He scrubbed both hands down his face, and when he met her eyes again, Sienna was surprised at the depth of grief and remorse that they held. “I just…I don’t want anyone to get hurt. I’m—”
“Leaving, I know,” she supplied. “But the biggest hurt will come from a broken heart, and I don’t know that it’s possible to fall in love in seven days.”
“It’s not.” His answer was strangely wooden.
“Then how about this: I promise not to allow myself to be swept away by your handsome, brooding face, and you, in turn, will assist me in keeping unwanted visitors named Erik out of the house while Papa’s gone.” She hesitated. “Unless you’re worried that Jem might object?”
“Ha!” Casper barked out a laugh. “I’m sure he’ll be happier than a seal on a sun-bathed rock. You don’t have to worry about Jem.”
She held out her hand. “Then we have a deal?”
He stared down at it, contemplating, for so long that Sienna began to pull it back. His hand finally reached out and wrapped around hers. His fingers were still icy cold.
He really needs to invest in a pair of gloves.
Instead of shaking on their agreement, like she had intended, he sank to one knee.
Her breath hitched. “You don’t have to—”
He cut her off with a look. “If we’re going to do this for real, then we’re going to do it right. Sienna…?”
“Denereid,” she supplied.
