Page 25 of His Collateral Wife

From the day he made her his wife, he had also known that everything had to be her choice, and that there was nothing he would be able to do if she persisted in distrusting and seeing him as the enemy.

From the day he had taken her home with him, he knew he had either damned himself for a lifetime of celibacy or...

This.

His wife was shaking her head at him, an exasperated look on her lovely face. "You know that's not what I meant!"

A lifetime of being with someone he could never deserve.

"I don't, actually."

And there was nothing he wouldn't do to preserve it.

Her expression turned uncertain. "Really?"

Calixte sobered upon realizing that her question was more serious than he thought. "What did you mean?"

She gestured at her surroundings. "I mean, this." When she looked at him again, her gaze was full of worry. "Because this can't possibly be safe or easy."

"Or boring."

"Is that it then?" she asked quietly. "You were bored, and so you chose to live double lives as Calixte and Dauphin?"

"Where are these questions coming from?" he asked gently. "What is it do you truly want to ask?"

"Do you think the day would come when you'd want another job?"

Ah.

"You still fear your father."

"The moment you arrest him, he'll want to know what you have on him, and he'll know it was me. He'll know it can't be anyone else but me."

"And you don't think I can protect you?"

"I'm asking if it's possible to have a life where you won't need to protect me. To just go somewhere far away where no one knows us, and..." Her voice trailed off. "You think I'm being silly."

"Never."

Her expression turned gloomy this time. "I can see that you mean it, which makes it worse since I do think I'm being silly. I know how they work. It's always only a matter of time before they find whoever it is they want to kill."

Calixte cupped his wife's chin and turned her gaze to his. "You need to stop seeing your father in the eyes of a child. He's just human like you and me."

A long silence followed, and Calixte started feeling disturbed. He didn't think he had said anything unnecessarily harsh. But if he had still inadvertently hurt her feelings, then of course he would apologize---

"Thank you," his wife whispered. "I don't know how you do it, but you always seem to know what I need to hear and when to hear it. I wish there's something I could do..."

She stopped speaking all of a sudden, and Calixte tensed. "What is it?"

Instead of answering, she insisted on wriggling off his lap, and his tension grew. "Tell me what's---" It was his turn to abruptly stop speaking. The moment her knees hit the carpet, and she positioned herself between his knees, he already knew what she meant to do.

"You don't have to do this," he grated out.

"But I want to."

She was already reaching for him while speaking, and his blood quickened when he saw how her hands trembled as she unzipped him. His gaze swung back to his wife, and the next thing he noticed was the rapid rise and fall of her chest behind the scooped neckline of her dress.

His desire heightened, and by the time she had released his bulging length from its confines, his entire body was as rigid as steel.

---