Page 140 of Forced Vows

After almost a minute of silence, during which he stares at me with every bit of mesmerizing intensity his dark eyes are capable of, something shifts in his gaze like he's made a decision.

My breath is stuck in my chest while I wait for him to act on it.

"There is a reason the marriage has to happen now," he says.

Ugh. That's what he said before. Nothing new there. The anticipation buoying me up pops like a birthday balloon filled with too much helium.

Did he bring me here and tell me his secret to soften me up?

It's not going to work. Not about this.

"I am not giving up my education. I do not care if I get to use it," I inform him when he opens his mouth to say something else. "You all made that promise."

Him, the don, and my uncle. My dad made the same one years ago and even dead, he did his best to keep it. I'm not budging.

"I signed that contract contingent on me finishing my degree. How do I trust any of you to keep your word if you break it about this?"

Chapter 46: MICELI

Róise's words hit me with the power of a blow from my brother's closed fist.

I'm showing her my trust in an attempt to gain hers without acknowledging the one thing I have to do for her to consider me trustworthy.

Keep the fucking vows I make to her.

Neither Sev, nor I, questioned my future wife quitting school. To us, it was a given. A necessary sacrifice for the good of our family. After all, what does she need with a Fine Arts degree she can't use?

But it's not about the practical use of her degree, is it? It's about my fiancée's ability to trust my word when I give it.

Cazzo. There is only one reply I can give and maintain my honor.

"Then you finish your degree." Even if it means sending a dozen security guards with her every day.

"How is that going to work?"

I like the question because she's not assuming it's going to be easy. I don't like it because of the distrust I see in her eyes when she asks. Like she doesn't believe I'll follow through.

Why should she? I almost broke my promise to her already. I don't apologize because what's the point of I'm sorry?

It's just words. Actions speak the language that can be believed.

"Are there any courses you can take online?" I start a mental list of what needs to be in place before she returns to college in the fall.

"Uncle Brogan just assumed that if I was going to go to school after we married, I could take all of my classes online." Her pretty lips twist in a grimace. "It doesn't work that way with my degree."

Controlling the urge to grab her and fuck her senseless that's been riding me tighter than her body against my back on the way here, I ask, "Are you saying there aren't any?"

"No. There are two. "

She's looked into it. Good. She's not unreasonable. I knew that the day she put her bloody thumbprint next to mine on the alliance contract.

For whatever reason, she wants to get a degree for a career she can never have. But she's willing to figure out how to make that happen within the framework of our world.

More importantly Róise wants assurance that I will keep my word to her.

I will in every way but one.

She's not divorcing me. Ever.

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