Page 106 of Vow to Claim You

There’s no turning back, and no amount of it’s just an arrangement will ever make it true again.

“Say it’s still an arrangement,” I murmur against her mouth. “Lie to me one more time.”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Ayanna

“Ayanna. Aric.”

We break apart—not far, his hand still warm at my jaw—and turn. Marcelina stands a few paces away on the stone path, hands clasped in front of her, the serene mask she wears in every room slightly askew.

“Forgive me. I didn’t mean to… interrupt.” She hesitates, wincing at her own timing. “I’ll be quick. I came to apologize. For Bobby. For what he did to you in that hallway.” Her voice steadies. “There aren’t words for how sorry I am.”

“You’re not the one who should be sorry,” Aric states, and somehow those are the same words I’d say too. “Nothing your husband does belongs to you.”

“Still.” Her chin lifts, and I can see exactly what it costs her. “I’m his wife. And I’m… God, I’m so embarrassed. That you should be treated like that, at—” She stops, presses her lips together.

“Don’t be.” I step toward her, and I mean it more than I’ve meant most things tonight. “You didn’t put his hand on me. You don’t answer for him. And Marcelina—” My gaze bounces between hers for a second. “If you ever need anything. Anything at all. You come to us.”

She glances between us—Aric, then me, then back—and something careful and disbelieving moves across her face. “You mean that.”

Aric nods. “Yes.”

“You have a friend in me,” I tell her. “Whatever that’s worth in a world like this one. You have one.”

For a moment, Marcelina looks like a woman handed water she didn’t dare ask for. Then the mask resettles—gentler this time—and she nods.

Aric’s hand finds the small of my back as he tips his head toward Olympus. “Tell Nikos we’ve gone. We leave tonight.”

“I will.” She gives us a polite, small smile. “Thank you. Both of you.” She turns and goes back toward the club’s entrance.

The following morning, I wake in our bed. We came back to Norway at night. Back to our reality. Our routine. I shower and dress, and by eight o’clock, we’re at breakfast. But something is different. Something has changed. I can feel it in the breakfast room before a single word is said. In the way Aric’s eyes keep finding me over the rim of a coffee. In the way I keep finding his. We trade the usual barbs, but the edges are gone off all of it, and there’s something underneath now that wasn’t there a week ago.

After breakfast, he walks me as far as his office door, and instead of going in, he stops, and turns, and steps close enough that I have to tip my head back to keep his gaze.

“You’ll be all right today.” It isn’t quite a question—he doesn’t deal in questions—but there’s one buried in it.

“I’ll survive a few hours without you, Vold. I managed twenty-two years.”

The corner of his mouth lifts. “That wasn’t the question.”

“I’ll be all right.”

“Oh, come on.”

We both turn. Eero is leaning in the doorway down the hall, a coffee in one hand, grinning, far too pleased with himself, looking between us like he’s just won a bet against himself.

“What,” Aric says.

“This.” Eero waves the mug vaguely at the pair of us. “Something’s different. Don’t bother denying it because I have eyes. I clocked it at breakfast.”

“Eero.” It’s a warning that has never once worked on his brother.

“What?” He takes a slow sip, delighted with himself. “Watching the two of you trade insults over eggs is my favorite part of the day, and today, the insults had feelings in them. Tragic. You’ve ruined it.”

Eero pushes off the frame and claps his brother on the shoulder. “I’m thrilled for you both. I’ll be insufferable about it, and Tassilo’s been waiting in the car for ten minutes.”

Aric turns back to me. For a moment, he doesn’t say anything. Then he leans in and presses his mouth to my forehead, and it undoes me more thoroughly than the kiss in the garden did. Because a kiss in the dark is one thing, but this is daylight, in his own house, in front of his brother, without a single thing forcing his hand.