Page 48 of Mating of Convenience
“What?” I asked, prying his fingers away from my mouth. “I was just going to say that you enjoyed the bubbles.” I wriggled my eyebrows at him because we both knew bubbles wasn’t what I was thinking of. No, we’d had some fun in that Jacuzzi the last night of our stay.
“I’m sure.” Without another word, Nathan took my hand and led me into the house, after my grandmother. The front door opened into a hallway with a staircase leading up and several doorways branching out to the left and the right.
“You’ll find you’ll have enough space in here to raise a decently sized family,” my grandmother said, obviously pleased with herself and her purchase. “I’ve inspected the house myself before buying it. There wasn’t enough time to do anything about the rather bland wallpaper, but I’m sure you two won’t mind doing a little nesting by yourselves.”
A decently-sized family? Nesting? I cringed. Even if I could get used to the idea of having kids, or at least one kid, with Nathan, the old hag’s words made me uncomfortable. It was as if she had my future planned for me--which was exactly what buying this house implied too.
But it was also kind of what I’d agreed to when I’d decided to play her game and marry Nathan.
“What about my dad’s debts?” I asked, remembering why I’d let myself dance on her strings in the first place.
“Don’t worry about that.” She turned around to me and Nathan, eying the both of us intently. “I’ve taken care of it. You know our promise was for you to stay married at least a year, but in theory, there are not a lot of steps I could take against you if you decided to get your marriage annulled tomorrow.”
I looked at Nathan, whose expression was carefully void of emotion, and then at my grandma, wondering what kind of game she was playing now. No, it was still the same game--she’d just changed the rules on us, that was all. I didn’t want to annul my marriage. Did she want me to admit that?
But how could she know?
When I only stared at her, completely lost for words, she gave a little laugh that made her sound younger than her years. “Don’t look at me like that, Rafe. I still expect that you uphold your end of the deal, dear boy. The rest of your inheritance will come in monthly installments as long as you keep your marriage alive. I approve of your mate and I believe you’re capable of making better choices than your mother.”
Nathan squeezed my hand, and it was all that kept me from launching myself at the old hag for daring to speak about my mother that way.
“Easy,” Nathan said softly, as if I was a wild animal he wanted to tame. He knew exactly how much my mother had meant to me. After all, it had been his shoulder I cried on after her death. “We’ll go look at the rest of the house,” he announced, taking me by the arm as he started up the stairs. “Thank you so much for your gift,” he said in my grandmother’s direction and then we were on the second floor before I could do any damage.
“You always act so innocent,” I observed, “but you can be an alpha if you want to be.”
“Someone needs to protect you from yourself sometimes.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry. We’ll find a way to get back at your grandmother too. How do you feel about roaches?” Nathan asked in a hushed tone of voice.
Roaches? I snorted. “I can’t believe you’re still using bugs to do the dirty work for you.”
He shrugged. “They’re effective.”
At least my grandma had finally left us on our own to examine the house she had bought for us.
“Are we really going to live here?” I asked Nathan, peering down the second floor hallway.
“Well,” he started, encircling my waist from behind. “It’s bigger than anything I could offer you.”
I leaned back into him, taking comfort in his presence. Feeling him close helped keep me grounded, helped me keep my focus on the things that really mattered. Like the fact that my silly alpha and I were going to be living together, no matter where. “Maybe you could offer me something bigger when your pet store blows up and you make crazy money,” I said looking up at him with a grin.
“Is that really what we should be using your Grandmother’s money on?”
“It was part of our deal, wasn’t it?” I eyed my mate curiously. Did he not want a pet store anymore?
“I don’t want to think that we’re together for the money. Even if we’re married because of it.”
“I get that.” I turned around in his arms to face him. “But you know that’s not the reason, right? It’s only a nice little extra. The witch has enough money. I don’t mind taking some from her so you can fulfill your dreams.”
Nathan shook his head. “I have a lot of dreams and that’s only one of them. What aboutyours?” he countered. “You could have your own tattoo studio.”
“Don’t worry about that. Who wants to get tattooed in Oceanport anyway?”
“I bet there’s plenty of people if they had the option. Oceanport isn’t as backwater as you like to pretend it is.”
Was he trying to talk me into settling down in Oceanport? Silly Nathan. Didn’t he know he already had me? “I don’t want to argue right now. I just want you to go after your dreams. I’ll support you whatever you want to do.”
