Page 134 of Vow to Claim You

But right now, he’s not laughing.

Right now, he looks like a man who’s already made a decision and is bracing for the consequences.

“Don’t play with her.” My eyes bore into his. “I mean it, Eero. This isn’t one of your games. She’s not one of your conquests. If you hurt her⁠—”

“I won’t.”

“If you use her and discard her⁠—”

“I won’t.”

“Then what are you doing?”

He’s silent a long moment. I watch him struggle with something—words he wants to say, words he isn’t sure how to form. This is new. Eero always has words. Eero has too many words, most of them unnecessary, all of them delivered with that infuriating grin.

Not now.

Now he looks at me with eyes that remind me, too much, of my own.

“The truth is, the first time I saw her was at the wedding.” He exhales. “Yours. In Monsera. She was standing near the back, trying not to cry. And I thought—” He swallows. “I thought she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. And the saddest.”

I look at my brother, and for a moment, it’s like looking into a mirror. What he’s describing sounds unnervingly close to what I felt the first time I looked at Ayanna.

“Then again, when we went back for the funeral, but you’d told me about the marriage arrangement⁠—”

“Before I found out about the deal Ayanna made with her father.” I cut in. “That changed things.”

“I tried to forget her, Aric. Told myself it was nothing. A moment. An impression.” He shrugs. “And then she showed up at our door today looking like the world had broken her, and I⁠—”

He looks at me, something raw flicking in his eyes.

“I’m not playing. I don’t know what this is. I don’t know what it’s going to be. But I know it’s not a game.”

“You’ve known her for like three hours total.”

“You’ve known Ayanna for three months, and you’d burn the world for her.”

The words hit like a punch.

“That’s different.”

“Is it?” Eero tilts his head. “Or is it just faster for some of us?”

For once, I’m not sure what to say.

I want to tell him he’s being reckless, impulsive, that whatever he thinks he’s feeling is adrenaline and the thrill of something new.

But I remember standing at that altar. I remember looking at Ayanna for the first time—the hatred in her eyes, the defiance in her chin, the way she looked at me like I was both enemy and executioner.

I remember thinking “This changes nothing.”

And I remember how quickly that became a lie.

“She’s fragile right now,” I tell my brother. “Damaged. Running from a father who tried to sell her. If you push too hard, too fast⁠—”

“I know.” Eero’s voice is serious. “I’m not going to push at all. I’m going to be there. Let her decide what she wants, if she wants anything. Give her room to breathe.”

“And if she doesn’t want you?”