Page 118 of The Sinner's Bargain

Ivelle glanced over to where the cloth and cardboard cover had soaked up most of the tea. She pursed her lips. Her pain palpable.

“It’s ... fine.” She groaned a little. “I can probably just air dry it.”

“I will pay for the damages,” Thoran said, carefully inspecting my palm for stray pieces of glass.

Ivelle waved away the offer. “I think it gives it character. At best, I might put it high on the shelf as a trophy to always remember that look on Jeannette Robert’s face. It’ll help me get through the next time she comes in.”

“You can always ban her,” Cyrus offered.

Ivelle barked a laugh. “Ban her high and awfulness? I’d get flogged at dawn. Besides, if I ban Jeannette, Mrs. Walden will forbid Macy from returning and its already hard finding people who want to work in a bookstore.”

I frowned. “Why wouldn’t anyone want to work at a bookstore? I would think it would be the best place to work.”

“I agree!” Ivelle cried, throwing her arms open wide. “It’s the most magical place on earth, next to Disneyland. But it’s a lot of downtime and dusting, and people want exciting jobs.”

I thought that was ridiculous, but what did I know? I’d never worked a day in my life and was raised to never have to. My skills consisted of throwing lavish parties and matching drapes with duvets. I wasn’t the person to judge what was exciting.

“What do you want to do, love?” Thoran asked, glancing up at me.

“Sorry?”

He leaned back slightly to meet my gaze more evenly. “It’s your store. If you want to ban them, that’s your call.”

Both Ivelle and I stared at him with matching expressions of surprise, and horror on my part.

“You own Elysium Plains?” Ivelle asked me.

I immediately shook my head, eyes never leaving Thoran’s. “I do not. You were not serious about that.”

“But I was very serious. This is one of the places my father specifically built for my mother. It belonged to her. After her death, I inherited it. She would want someone who loves books as much as she did to look after it.”

Tears blurred him into a smudged outline. “I can’t take your mother’s bookstore.”

Carefully, he turned the hand he was holding over and brushed the back with his lips. “It’s already done. It’s yours. I’ll even bring you here every day to learn the ropes. Consider it my bribe to get you to stay.”

My laugh was as wet and shaky as the tears that slipped down my cheeks. “I wasn’t going anywhere.”

He leaned up and brushed my mouth with his. “Good.”

There was a long moment where I could only stare at the man holding every piece of my heart in his hands and I could only marvel at my turn of luck. It was too good to be true.

Too easy.

“So, what’s the plan ... boss?” Ivelle hazard, watching me.

I glanced at Thoran to tell me what I was supposed to do, but he merely shrugged and went back to my hands.

“Your call.”

My heart was thumping as I tried to do something I had never done before — make a decision. An independent one that didn’t involve shoes or clothes, or the swapping of the summer and winter furniture. This was a serious decision. My first as a business owner.

Oh my God! I was a business owner. I owned a business. Maybe not officially yet, but it was mine.

“No, you don’t,” Thoran murmured when my fingers started their reflexive curling in, nails waiting to anchor into flesh.

I let my fingers relax and took a deep breath.

“Yes,” I said at last. Then firmer, “yes, they’re banned.”

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