CHAPTER EIGHT
Aurelie smiled upat Jace, her hand in his palm, her fingers trembling as he slipped the diamond ring on her finger.Not only did she not think to pick up anything to serve as a ring for Jace, but she’d been presented with a rock that could feed half of the children on Turks for a month.As perfect, stunning,exquisitea piece of jewelry as she’d ever owned.
Then there was the man himself.Sure, he’d told her he didn’t want anything more than physical connection, but then he’d shared such thoughtful vows promising to protect her and make sure no harm came to her—foreign or domestic, he’d added, eliciting a gasp andthwackon his shoulder from her.
It was almost too much.
A ring that was so perfectlyheror the ostentatious part of her that wished she could afford it?
Flowers.
Romance.
Luxury.
It was sexy as hell, sort of.
He was overwhelming her with the realness of it all, even though they couldn’t ever be anything close toreal.She’d worried when he told her earlier at her apartment that she’d want more, but if she was honest, what could she offer a man right now anyway, besides great sex, which she was looking forward to as soon as the ceremony was over.
She needed a distraction so she didn’t jump him the moment this thing ended.
To that end, she’d spent the better half of the justice’s speech ignoring what he said about love and fidelity, instead thinking up a list of all the information she didn’t know about Jace and would need to produce for an immigration judge.
His mom’s life and death.
Why he left Banberry the first time.
His fears.
The list went on and could have filled a bathtub.A royal bathtub.It wasn’t getting her anywhere but worked up—albeit in a different way than thinking of him naked in her bed—so she concentrated instead on what shedidknow.
He ate meat and quite a bit of it, as she recalled, but she hadn’t the faintest idea about any of his other culinary desires.Thinking about his desires led her back down the rabbit hole of imagining how compatible they might be in bed, which made her skin feel as if someone had doused her in kerosene and lit a match.It also brought up a whole host of other worries.
Did Jace expect her to go on birth control, or would he pony up for condoms?Did he like role play in the bedroom?Was he more vanilla and traditional?Would he wrap his fingers in her hair and pull—
She was spiraling, that much was obvious.Especially when the justice stood there staring at her, clearly expecting an answer to a question she couldn’t remember him asking.Jace swept in and whispered the question—did she have anything to offer him as a token of her love for him—kissing her on the neck before taking his place across from her again.
She faltered.Did she have anything to offer him other than a crazy family hell-bent on her destruction?
“I took care of it.”He pulled a small, velour bag from his other pocket and produced a simple silver band.
He really did think of everything, didn’t he?Aurelie felt even more like the freeloading impostor she was—like a remora who didn’t do anything to benefit the shark that let her coast along underneath him, safe from harm.
“No.”
“No?”he asked, fear creeping through that one word.
“I mean, I want you to wear that, but I want to offer something of mine, even if it isn’t as fancy as that.”Aurelie pulled a thin, braided string from her shawl and tied it into a knot.Her father, in his kinder years when Aurelie and her brothers were younger, had taught them all to tie sailor’s knots, arguing that they might need them while confined to life on an island.Who could have foreseen that she’d use it to wed herself to a man to keep her father from roping her back home?
She slipped the ring around Jace’s ring finger, pleased with herself for assessing the size correctly.
“I love it,” he told her.“I’ll wear this one,” he added, placing the silver band on the same finger on his right hand.“But I want this here.”He kissed her as softly as she’d ever been kissed.Instead of it having the desired effect of weakening her knees and making her swoon, it riled her up from the center of her chest, all the way down to where she felt a dampness in her panties at his touch.
Lord, she wanted this man.
As soon as they said theirI dosand kissed, Maddie seemed to sense the break in tension and woke, a soft mewl that made Aurelie’s heart flutter.She bent down to pick up the infant, but Jace swatted her hand away.
“I’ve got this.”Aurelie was stunned silent by the way he effortlessly scooped Maddie up and dug around for one of the premade bottles in the diaper bag, feeding her while he walked circles in the lobby.“Hey there, little one.Do you know what you were just a part of?You were the witness to your aunt and me getting married.That means I’m your uncle now, that I’ll be there to protect you, too.All of you.Man, you can eat.Where do you put it all?”
