Page 9 of Inconvenient Marriage
Another crack in his well-bred mask. Another shift in the level of tension in the den.
Without saying a word, Eric moves past me and heads to the bar cat. Bristling in ill-concealed fury, he pours himself a drink the way he always used to, as if my refusal didn’t happen because he doesn’t want it to.
With the glass in his hand, he sighs. “You’re making this more difficult than it needs to be.”
“I can’t put it any plainer, Eric. We’re done,” I say.
He stirs the whiskey lazily, ice clinking against the glass. “No. We’re not.”
Eric turns toward me, leaning back against the bar, still swirling his whiskey. “I’ll give you one more chance to show some loyalty. Don’t make me remind you what you owe me.”
Owe him? “I don’t owe you anything.”
“Wrong.” His voice drops to a dangerous softness. “You owe meeverything. Your reputation. Your place in the Order. Your future.” He takes a small sip. “And I’ll destroy all of it if you continue to defy me.”
Oh, no… “You can’t.”
A slow, satisfied smile curves his mouth. “Silly girl. You still don’t understand how this works, do you?” He sets his barely-touched glass down on the bar cart. “You think I ruined you and maybe I have. By next August, you won’t have to worry about skipping another Claiming ceremony where… whoops… none ofthe Owed will Claim the woman that I chose as mine at your first one. You’re not an Offering, Annaliese. You’re mine, but if you continue to play these games, I’ll up the ante. There won’t beanyCrawfords at the Claiming ceremony this year. And you know why? Because I’ll get the King to send youbothto the Court.” I gasp, and he looks at me smugly. “That’s right. You’ll be demoted to the Used, and so will your pretty little sister.”
Miranda.
No!
Miranda is only seventeen. While my dad didn’t get inducted into the Order until I was twelve and in middle school, she was four and ended up being raised as the perfect Offering for a future Owed. She got lucky. She fell for Colton Dawes during their first year of high school. Now, with graduation looming in a few months, he has every intention of Claiming her when the Order holds the annual Claiming ceremony in August.
But if she gets demoted before then because Eric arranges it—because the Order is so misogynistic that, if one Crawford daughter slept around, the council would assume that the other did, too, and penalize Miranda—then my sister will lose her sweetheartandher future.
My heart stops.
Eric watches with obvious relish as the horror settles on my face. Then, while I gape at him, he steps closer to me, gently tucking a loose strand behind my ear like he used to. It must’ve fallen free from my updo when I stumbled, giving him the excuse to get even closer to me.
“Miranda’s Claiming is soon, isn’t it?” he reminds me. “Such a lovely girl. So excited. It would be… tragic if her reputation were compromised. If she were reassigned.” His breath warms my cheek. “If she were forced to serve as a Used.”
I whisper, “Eric?—”
“You don’t want that,” he says conversationally, like we’re discussing weekend plans instead of my former lover threatening me. “So behave. Come back to me. Before I make your sister pay for your stubbornness.”
My legs go weak beneath me, but I don’t fall. I pride myself on that. I don’t fall, though I do take a few steps away from Eric.
“I think I should go,” I gasp out.
“You’ll be back.” He returns to the bar cart, saluting me with his drink. “You always come back.”
I turn to leave, pausing only when Eric calls out, “Oh? And, Annaliese?”
I glance at him over my shoulder.
His expression has shadowed. “If I hear that you’re fucking some random guy again? I won’t text you next time I find out. I’ll kill him so you understand that this… what we have? It will never be over.”
That’s what he thinks.
I don’t know how he found out about the stranger in the first place. I purposely went as far away from Harmony Heights as I dared, hoping that anyone I met in the bar would never have heard of the Order of the Owed. I should’ve known better. Harmony Heights is bought and paid for by the secret society, but the King and his council’s power extends further than I thought—and the Order has eyes everywhere.
I’m not surprised I was seen. I’m not really surprised that it took three months for it to get back to Eric. Knowing him, he must’ve only gotten the report today otherwise I would’ve been summoned back to his house well before now. Whoever caught me must’ve decided to hold onto that little nugget until it meant something which makes it even worse since only four people in this world know how intimately I was involved with Eric Ward: me, Eric, Cicely, and Miranda.
Miranda…
It doesn’t matter how Eric found out. I doubt the man I had sex with told since he was as for from a member of the Order as I could find—on purpose—and it’s not like he’s really in danger. For one, he looked like he could take care of himself. For another, if I don’t know who he is, odds are Eric’s informant doesn’t, either. Sure, Eric’s threat means that another one-night stand is off the table for the moment, but I don’t care.
