Page 2 of Theirs to Tempt: The Marriage Claim

This is it. The moment I’ve been maneuvering toward for years. Every carefully orchestrated loss that brought Langford deeper into debt, every strategic piece of information Caleb fed into our network, every move designed to corner this pathetic man into giving us what we’ve wanted since the moment his beautiful daughter would become my obsession.

Langford’s hands shake so violently that I’m amazed he doesn’t drop his cards. “She’s not… She’s not chattel.”

The protest is laughable. Everything is chattel if you have the right leverage.

Altair finally moves, pushing away from the bar with the liquid grace that makes him so formidable. “No.” His voice carries absolute authority. “But you’re in deep, Langford.” His golden eyes fix on the man with focused intensity. “And you’re desperate.”

Perfect. I couldn’t have orchestrated Altair’s intervention better myself. The man understands power, realizes that sometimes you have to sacrifice pawns to capture the queen.

Langford closes his eyes, and I know he’s seeing his dying wife. Seeing the woman he loves wasting away while treatments that could save her sit just out of reach. Treatments we’ve made sure he knows exist, made sure he understands are his wife’s only hope. Treatments his next move can provide.

Does he spare a single thought for Sophie in this moment? For what he’s about to cost her? I doubt it. Love makes men selfish, and desperation makes them ruthless.

“Sophie will never agree to this.”

I smile, letting him see exactly how little his daughter’s initial consent matters to me. “Sophie’s agreement is not a prerequisite for the arrangement. Though I suspect, given your…current financial predicament, she’ll find the terms quite reasonable.”

Reasonable.

The word tastes like victory on my tongue. What’s reasonable is that Sophie Langford belongs with men who can appreciate her fire, who can match her intelligence, who won’t let her waste her considerable talents on charity cases and lost causes. What’s reasonable is that eight years is long enough to wait for what should have been ours from the beginning.

Langford looks at his cards one final time, then sets them face-down. The gesture of a man who’s finally accepted his fate. “If I do this…” He gulps. “My wife gets the treatment. All of it. Whatever it costs.”

“Whatever it costs,” I agree, sealing the bargain that will deliver Sophie Langford straight into our hands.

Caleb smiles, and the heady, familiar surge of satisfaction that comes from a plan perfectly executed rushes through me.

Richard Langford thinks he just lost a hand of cards.

But I have gained everything.

In that moment, I forget about him, and my mind shifts to what really matters—Sophie and the way her stunning green eyes will flash with fury when she learns what’s happened. The way she’ll lift her beautiful, stubborn chin as she struggles to find a way out of our trap.

She’s spent every day since that fateful night building walls to keep men like us away, convinced she’s untouchable.

She’s about to discover how wrong she is.

I picture her walking down the aisle to us, that fire in her eyes slowly transforming into something else entirely. Something hotter. Something that will burn for Caleb and me.

And our wedding night…

Christ.

I’ve been patient as I watched, wanted, waited.

The moment I slide that ring onto her finger, the moment she says “I do”—even if it’s through gritted teeth—she will become ours completely.

I lean back in my chair, satisfaction spreading through me like warm Bonds whiskey.

Sophie Langford has no idea what’s coming for her.

Across the table, Caleb reaches for the deck with deliberate slowness.

The final community card hits the felt with a soft whisper.

Queen of hearts.

Absolutely fucking perfect.