Page 39 of Theirs to Corrupt

Link glances at me.

As if I have any idea. “I’ll leave the decision to you.”

“Thank you,” he tells Gianluca.

He uncorks the bottle, and I catch a glimpse of the distinctive label that’s shaped like a shield. It’s everything I can do not to gasp. Even though I don’t really drink, I recognize the brand.

A sample is offered to Link who lifts the glass, swirls it, then takes a sip. “Perfect. Thank you.”

“Salute!”Gianluca says as he leaves the bartender to finish the service.

Once we’re alone, Link picks up his glass as if to offer a toast, but I lean forward. “Link, this is all too much. I don’t need…”

He silences me with a look, his blue eyes intense. “We’re going to be married, Tessa.”

As if that explains everything.

Maybe to Link, it does.

Undeterred, he lifts his glass and tips it in my direction, and then Pax’s. “To new beginnings.”

Pax raises his flute. “Hear, hear.”

Both men look at me expectantly, waiting for me to follow suit.

My fingers are frozen in my lap.

I can’t believe I’m engaged to the Vulture and an overwhelming bodyguard. How can I celebrate, knowing my future with them might be no better than the one I ran away from?

CHAPTER TEN

Link

Oh Tessa.

You need to stop fighting me.

This.

Us.

My stubborn wife-to-be and I are on the sidewalk in front of Rêve de Mode, one of the city’s most exclusive boutiques.

Her chin is angled mutinously, and she’s refusing to step inside.

The sun relentlessly beats down on us, and I worry because we’re in public, exposed, despite the fact Mira is standing just behind Tessa.

Torin is parked illegally, parallel to the curb, and the back door to the vehicle still stands open. Pax is right there, ready to toss our future wife inside if we are forced to make a quick, strategic exit.

“You need clothes,” I point out reasonably as I fight off my impatience with her and the situation. What the hell kind of woman doesn’t want to go shopping on my credit card?

One with her kind of pride, evidently.

The fact she’s so unlike anyone else I’ve been involved with is one of the reasons I want her. Yet right now, that’s the most confounding thing about her.

“I have a drawer full of things at my apartment.”

I bite back my temper. “You’ve agreed to be my wife, Tessa.”

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