Page 39 of Love Her

“Ah, yes, Trevia Falconi, and Miss Ferreo,” said an obsequious looking man in a butler’s uniform, right after his arrival from behind a hidden door in the hallway. “Follow me, please,” he said, and led us back the way he’d come.

I realized we were being taken to wherever it was we were going to via the servant’s corridors, behind the walnut walls we’d left behind.

“Just how powerful do they think my vagina is?” I muttered to Trevia, and heard her snort.

The man in front of us held a door open just so, which deposited us into a smaller room where Marcus, and another man, presumably his own lawyer, were waiting. Both of them stood upon our arrival, and I saw Marcus clock my ensemble with a hint of dismay.

“I wasn’t sure what to wear,” I explained. “No one told me we were time traveling back to 1873.”

Marcus looked to the man who’d brought us. “Bring the drinks we discussed,” he said first, and then turned. “I figuredthis was neutral territory,” he explained, moving over to pull out a heavy chair.

For me.

To sit in.

Because this was happening.

I grit my teeth and strode over like I belonged here. “Yes, doing it at Corvo might’ve seemed odd, seeing as you won’t be getting any of it,” I said, as Trevia found her own seat. “You’re plenty wealthy on your own, you don’t need my father’s company.”

Marcus sat across from me, and gave me a contemplative stare. “But you won’t need it either, when you’re my wife.”

“You’ll have me. Won’t that be enough?” I challenged him.

He didn’t look entirely prepared to answer, when his lawyer, a man in a gray suit with even grayer hair, stepped in and saved him. “And as for the rest of the conditions?” he asked with a French accent—and more of Trevia than me.

Trevia nodded, and handed over her version of the contract. “My client is rejecting any clause that would categorize future earnings or interests in Corvo Enterprises as marital property under equitable distribution standards. And, seeing as Lia is a Ferreo, we’ve added a morality clause of our own.”

She reached over to flip the contract open to the page she’d been writing on in the car, and I read her addition upside down, in her neat handwriting.

The parties agree to refrain from any conduct deemed overtly intimate or sexual—including but not limited to disrobing in the same room, entering one another’s private quarters uninvited, or engaging in any sexually explicit behavior—until after the legal date of marriage.

I wanted to high-five Trev, who was staring at Marcus’s lawyer, looking smug, and I understood why—if Marcus refused her addition, he’d look like a man who was after only one thing.

Me.

Although I still didn’t understand whyI’dbeen chosen as the sacrificial lamb.

“Other than those two issues, however, Miss Ferreo is prepared to acquiesce on every other term.”

I watched Marcus for any tells—and saw his nostrils widen as his eyes narrowed, and his lawyer leaned over to whisper something in his ear.

“All right then. We accept,” he announced. His lawyer got up and left—via a normal door, I noticed—and I got a glimpse of the worsted wool world outside, men lounging, holding drinks, and some of them peeping at me right back. “He’ll go make the changes, and then return with the final documents so we can sign.”

And right after that, the butler-waiter-combo returned, with a tray of drinks.

Three of them were alcoholic, while one of them was water in a cocktail glass.

“This is for you,” Marcus said, handing it over. “I wouldn’t want anyone to say that I’d made you inebriated before signing anything.”

“Oh, the horror,” I murmured, taking a small sip.

“While we’re waiting for Robichard to return though, let’s discuss your plans for the rest of the day. You’ll remain here and have lunch with me and my sons, who are eager to meet you.”

A reasonable request I could hardly deny, but somehow the wood-paneled walls of the room all felt like they’d squeezed in six inches. “That’s fine.”

“And then we’ll work with my event coordinator, to discuss wedding planning.”

“What’s the rush?” I asked, doing my best to sound innocent. “I always viewed myself as a spring bride,” I offered, hoping to give Rhaim as much time as possible to save me.

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