Page 56 of The Marriage Bargain

CHAPTER 31

DELLE

I think the world could have stopped in that moment and I wouldn’t have noticed. Maybe the world around us did stop and I simply didn’t realize it. I stared at him, this male from another planet, another world, another race, and I didn’t have any words to offer in reply.

He’d said I love you. He’d said it to me. Maybe I shouldn’t have been shocked and dumbfounded, but I was. Need was okay. Lust was okay. Casual sex was okay. But love? Love wasn’t okay because love made it real.

“You—you weren’t supposed to do that,” I finally murmured. “You weren’t supposed to break the bargain. We had an agreement.”

“I know,” he answered, “but I will not apologize. I will never apologize for loving you.”

He was so sincere, so decided, so firm…how could I be angry at him? I wasn’t. I wasn’t even irritated. Neither, to my shock, was I scared. I should have been. But with him looking at me like that, even with a snowstorm raging outside the transport and his father and the Gorgathelian Flight Commander demanding to speak with us, I felt only peace.

That was a good sign, right? One that indicated I was headed in the same direction—towards falling in love with him?

Not knowing for sure meant I didn’t have words for him, but I had an answer. I leaned over and kissed him firmly on the mouth.

“Whatever happens next,” I said, staring deep into his golden, alien eyes, “we’ll get through it together. I promise.”

If he was disappointed that I didn’t return his proclamation of love, he didn’t show it. Instead, he nodded, and some of the tension eased from his shoulders. Perhaps he was relieved that I hadn’t run at his confession, or perhaps he was comforted that I had no intention of running scared the first time in our marriage that trouble showed up. All his life, he’d been on his own. Now, he had someone who had his back. Me. I was nervous, but I wasn’t going anywhere, and I was going to make him see it.

“Let’s get this over with,” I whispered. “So we can go home.”

A spark lit in his eyes at the promise of a reward at the end of this. He nodded, pressing the button to open the hatches on the transport. We climbed out into the dark, into the snow. I clutched the edges of my coat tightly about myself, beating down my anxiety about what was happening. What could happen.

They can’t take me away from him, I reassured myself as Caide came up next to me, grabbing my hand. I allowed him to draw me towards the building that loomed a few paces away. As he unlocked a side door and led us all in, I went further, telling myself, We’re married. We have those magical tattoo marks. He loves me. That’s enough, right? Nobody can come between us. Nobody and nothing. That’s it. We’re done. We’re stuck together until I decide I want it to be over.

If I decide, popped up another voice in my head, surprising even me. But I didn’t have time to dwell on it at that moment.

Once we were inside, along with his father and the towering Flight Commander who had followed us from Caide’s apartment, Caide waved on the overhead lights and closed the door after us.

“My office,” he announced coldly. “Please, Father, have a seat. Make yourself comfortable.”

“It was for this you left Asterion?”

Caide’s father’s voice was colder than the night outside.

I spun to face him, my mouth already open to rebuke him for talking to Caide that way. My jaw snapped closed. I guess I hadn’t been expecting his father to look the way he did. Truthfully, I don’t know what I’d been expecting. I guess “father” didn’t exactly bring to mind an Asterion Overlord who looked almost identical to his son, except his skin was a shade darker, the silver tinged with an undertone of blue. He was taller than Caide, standing nearly level with the Flight Commander. His wedge-shaped ears held more jewels than Caide’s, and his hair was long, drawn back from his face and falling down his back. Either Asterions aged really gracefully, or this guy had all the right genes, because he looked more like Caide’s sexy older brother than his father.

He was definitely easy to look at—unfortunately—which reminded me of why Caide was here to begin with. Apparently, his father couldn’t keep it in his pants, and rather than accept responsibility for choosing to sleep around, he’d shunned Caide, the offspring of his extramarital sexual encounters. That wasn’t right, and neither was his condescending attitude. I felt my spine stiffen again, as I shook off the spell of the older Asterion’s beauty.

“Yes, it is vastly different from marble halls and stained-glass windows,” Caide acknowledged dryly, “but, as I said, it is mine. It is what I earned by my own work.”

His father turned to him with a condescending smirk. “If you are proud of this, you are proud of little.”

“I am proud to forge my own path, even if on another planet. I am beholden to no one.”

Caide’s father raised his eyebrows. “Are you not? You are, it seems, beholden to me for your wife.”

He nodded towards me. Instinctively, I edged a step closer to Caide. Caide’s father might be beautiful to look at, but he lacked the honor and the stability of his son. There was no comparison between the two Asterions, in my opinion. Looks weren’t everything. Speaking of, I didn’t like the looks he was giving me. Assessing. Crafty. Like he had something up his sleeve that pertained to me. I knew it couldn’t be good, especially with Flight Commander Abidah here. Nevertheless, Caide’s words just a few minutes ago of loving me helped bolster my nerves.

I could trust him, I thought. I could trust him to get me through this.

Caide straightened. Next to him, I felt his muscles tense.

“And how do you reckon that, Father? Delle didn’t choose me because of my lineage, I can assure you of that. Neither did she spurn me because of my lineage, which she had every right to do.”

Caide’s father didn’t miss the insult. His stare narrowed and his voice tightened.

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