Page 36 of Sacred Vow

“I’m keeping you safe. I offered to get you out of Chicago, you declined. Do you want to change your mind? I can get you on a plane within an hour.” I can, but I don’t want to. Now that she’s here, now that I have her in my grasp, I’m not willing let her slip through so easily.

She looks down at the book, picking up the upper corner of the page and gently flips it.

“You’re like a broken record,” she mutters.

“What other choices do you see for yourself? You won’t leave the city, which is the only other way to keep them from you.”

“If I leave now, you think they won’t follow? You said yourself they want something from me. If they can find me here, they can find me there.”

She makes a good point. I rub my jaw. There’s no hope for it then. “You’re right.”

“I am?”

“Yes. The only option is marriage.”

She glares at me a solid minute. The wheels in that pretty head of hers are winding up again. “You’ll let me go after? Once these people give up, you’ll let me go?”

I sit back in my chair, steepling my hands. “No.” No sense in lying. “Marriage isn’t temporary, Isolde.”

She crosses her arms over her chest. “Stop calling me that!”

“It’s your name.” I lift a shoulder, enjoying the pink spreading across her cheeks. It’s too easy to get a rise out of her; it’s almost disappointing.

“When did you become such an asshole?”

“Agree to the marriage.” The image of yanking her down the aisle is starting to look better and better.

She chuckles and shakes her head. “No. You can lock me up in that room for days, I won’t do it.”

She’s digging her heels in, but her eyes tell a different story. Last night was an eye opener for her. There’s real danger here, and she’s starting to grasp that. But she’s so hell bent on doing this all herself, she won’t give in.

Yet.

“Oh? You don’t think so?”

“Yeah, I know so.” The fierceness of her frown is back when she brings her eyes level again with mine.

“You didn’t learn much from last night, did you?”

“Are you going to tie me down and spank me until I agree to marry you?” She pushes the book to the side. “We have nothing in common. We barely even get along!”

“Should I show you how wrong you are?” I leave my desk and close the door. With the housekeeper gone for the next few days, there’s no one else here, but she doesn’t know that. She has no idea if we’re alone or not.

“What are you doing?” Not a tremor to her voice. She’s stronger than I probably have given her credit for, but we’ll see how long it lasts.

“Showing you.” I take the book from the couch, close it, and drop it on the end table where she’d found it. “Up.”

“I don’t think so.” She shakes her head with a laugh.

“You scared?”

“Of you? No.”

“Then get up.” I hold out my hand for her, which of course she completely ignores and climbs off the couch on her own.

“I’m up.” She drops her hands to her sides with a slap.

Oh, this will be sweet.

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