Page 5

He says it like it's nothing at all, and he does it with his back to me, because he's already crossed to the closet and punched a code into the safe inside it.

Except it isn't the kind of safe hotels give you for your passport and your earrings. It's big and black, with a steel door as thick as my arm, so when it swings open, it looks less like a hotel safe and more like a bank vault.

And inside—oh, okay, there's a gun.

And he's, oh, there's another gun and another, and he's laying them out on the bed one after the other, so neatly it's like he's setting a table.

Who is this man?

What kind of person checks into a hotel with a vault full of guns?

And more importantly, why am I still standing here instead of running for the door?

"The only way to get past that⁠—"

His fingers go to the top button of his shirt.

"—is to marry me."

A squeaky sound escapes me as I quickly turn around, and I’m not sure if it’s because he’s just started undressing or it’s because he’s just asked to marry me. Maybe both?

Right?

"There's an American office in this city that doesn't officially exist⁠—”

Am I being a prude? How is he able to speak so calmly without his shirt off?

“The official there can make our union legal."

Right…right…

I’m trying my hardest to concentrate, but my cheeks are on fire, and half of my brain cells feels completely fried.

Like, c’mon, Kar!

You just escaped your stepfather gone bad, and you almost ended up married to the worst man alive, and yet here you are, acting like you’re on your first date⁠—

“Are you listening to what I’m saying?”

“Uh…y-yes.”

I risk taking a peek, and…ugh.

He's pulling on a fresh white shirt, so I still catch an unforgettable glimpse of his bare chest, but phew, at least he's buttoning it now, and so it's safe to face him again.

"My rights as your husband would supersede your stepfather's⁠—”

Then he buckles a black leather harness over the shirt, and right, okay, that’s where guns are

supposed to go, duh.

“But if they get to you while you're still here⁠—”

He slides one gun into the harness under his arm. Another goes at the small of his back while a third disappears somewhere I don't even see. Then he shrugs into a dark suit jacket, and just like that, every gun is hidden.

“They can ask the court to recognize you as someone with diminished mental capacity, which renders the marriage null and void."

I should probably feel very concerned about all of this stuff he’s saying, but right now, I’m just trying not to gape at how really good this man looks in a suit. Like, James Bond meets Bruce Wayne meets—oh, he’s walking toward me?