Page 45 of Theirs to Tempt: The Marriage Claim

I turn toward him. “This is yours, right?”

He shakes his head. “It’s ours. Yours, mine”—he gestures to Caleb, who’s watching from the doorway—“ours.”

My knees turn wobbly. He can’t be serious.

Lucian reaches to steady me, and Caleb moves in closer, his broader frame bracketing me from the other side.

More and more, the fragile threads of my old life stretch thin.

There’s no way I can do this.

I can’t.

Chapter Fourteen

Sophie

“Let’s continue.”

I seize on his words. Anything to escape the room that’s suddenly spinning around me.

Caleb leads the way down the wide hallway, and Lucian stops in front of another doorway.

He turns the knob.

The room is empty except for the gleaming polished hardwood floor that catches the soft overhead light.

During the day, sunlight would pour through the tall windows, making the space bright and airy.

“This is your space.”

Blinking, stunned, I face him. “Mine?”

“Yeah.” He shrugs. “We recognize this is a big change for you. And you might want an office for your client files. Or a reading room with a comfortable chair and all the behavioral finance journals you could desire.”

He’d been paying attention to every detail at my apartment.

I glance around again.

The walls are bare, waiting for whatever I choose to hang. The room is oversized and blank, an invitation.

“I…” Words fail me. I want to hate you.

Despite myself, I step inside.

For a heartbeat, I let myself imagine it—my laptop open on a wide desk, a cozy armchair tucked in the corner where afternoon light would spill across the pages of my books, maybe even a small sofa for quiet moments when the weight of everything else becomes too much.

“There’s a caveat.”

I spin. Of course there is.

“It’s for anything except sleeping away from us.”

And once more, he’s given me a reason to hate him.

“You belong there with us.”

“Says you.”