He arches his eyebrows. “Don’t be bitter, Dal. Like every fucking Collins over the last two hundred years, you have to take a wife because the Order says so. Not even being the King savedyour ass, but it’s not as bad as you think it is.Marriageisn’t that bad.”
“Says you,” I grit through my teeth. Whether it’s due to my lingering hangover or how it stings to know that he’s only telling me what I already know, it doesn’t matter. This time, there’s no reason to hide my pissed-off scowl. “Youmarried the woman you loved.”
“That’s not how it started.”
“No,” I reluctantly agree. Because, well,fair. Loni spent close to a decade out of Adrian’s reach—or, at least, she thought she was out of his reach—before the Order caught up with her and brought her back to Harmony Heights.
Me.Idid that.On Jack’s orders, and because she was going to be forced to marry Desmond St. James, I brought Loni back home—and the rest was up to Adrian who used a gun of his own to change his destiny.
Remembering the bloody wedding where Adrian made Loni his wife, I turn my attention to the gun on the desk. Stroking my thumb over the metal, I remind Adrian, “But it’s how it ended.”
“Heather’s a good choice. Even you said so when we first brought up her name.”
I would’ve said anything to end that awkward meeting when Bas and Adrian started throwing out names at me. “It’s fine. She’s an Offering, She’ll do what she’s told.”
And, damn it, so will I.
Adrian doesn’t say anything to that. Worse, he goes quiet. That’s never a good sign. I learned that one as a young kid. When Adrian is silent, he’s thinking. No. He’splotting. Technically, going through this arranged marriage thing was my idea. I needed a wife, I’d get one. It was Adrian who offered to find a loophole for me.
After all, when it came to taking Loni from Desmond, he found one for himself. Sure, it involved a blood oath, but hebested the Order. I’m King now. It should be easy for me to find a way out of this, but I’m sick of trying.
And that’s why, when a gentle knock comes at the door, I take the chance to distract Adrian from his scheming by calling out, “Come in.”
If it was Bas or Connor out there, they’d just let themselves into my office, just like how Adrian does. Anyone else would have to go through my secretary, and she usually buzzes me on the landline phone Jack insisted on in the office.
Unless, of course, she’s looking for an excuse to sneak a peek into the room.
I thought I’d have more time to be alone with my gun before Adrian returned to the office. He came back sooner than I thought, and I figured it was because he didn’t have the chance to do his habitual flirting with my secretary after he saw Heather off. Maybe she was busy doing her actual work, but when the door eases in and the freckle-faced beauty with her strawberry-blonde hair pinned up and out of her face steps into the room, I see that she’s found us.
Like a hunting dog, his head swivels on his neck, spotting her instantly. A slow smile curves his lips as the heated look in his eyes says that he’s mentally stripping her out of the business casual suit she wears to work.
Avalon Heller blows her husband a quick kiss before turning her attention on me, resuming her ‘professional’ expression. “Excuse me. Dallas?”
“What is it, Loni?”
“Sorry for bothering you, but I just had something weird happen. I thought it would be better to explain in person instead of over the phone. Hope that’s okay.”
There’s a dare to her voice that I pick up on.
So does Adrian.
He walks over to Loni, answering her blown kiss with a quick brushing of his lips over her cheek. “Of course it is, princess. What’s wrong?”
“There was a message. For Dallas, I mean. Not specifically the King, but it got transferred to this office anyway.”
This office, and because Loni is my secretary, she’s telling me.
At the beginning of the year, not that long after I decided to start acting like the King, I decided to clean house. If you worked for Jack, you weren’t working for me. Simple as that. That meant Jack’s latest personal assistant had to go, and that I needed one of my own.
Adrian suggested his wife. And while Loni has her degree in accounting, she was willing to take over the desk while also helping Adrian clean up the Order’s books after we discovered just how deep Jack’s embezzling had gone. Not only does it give them an excuse to spend more time together, but I was happy to pay Loni a fat salary to make up for my role in bringing her home to Harmony Heights.
She’s my cousin-in-law, after all. I didn’t want her to hate me forever, especially since Adrian would side with the woman he’d obsessively loved since kindergarten a thousand times over anyone else, including me. Over the last few months, we’ve settled into a truce, and I actually appreciate how she doesn’t simper and kowtow to me all because of who I am. She’s my employee, but she doesn’t give a shit that I’m the King.
If there’s anyone else in Harmony Heights who’d gladly see the Order implode, it’s Loni, and even if I didn’t keep an eye out for her because Adrian worships her, I’d do it because she deserves to have someone at the top watching her back.
Especially after what my old man put her through…
I nod at Loni. “So what’s up? Shoot.”
