Page 105 of Inked Athena

I hide my smile. The castle’s already gleaming, but our housekeeper won’t rest until every surface sparkles like the diamonds Sam gave me last week.

Speaking of my fiancé…

I descend the spiral staircase and find him at the breakfast table, phone in hand, dark brows furrowed in concentration. Nothing abnormal there. But his jaw twitches when I enter, and he checks his Patek Philippe three times in the thirty seconds I spend standing in the doorway, shamelessly admiring him.

“Important meeting?” I slide into the chair beside him, stealing a piece of bacon from his plate.

“Mm.” He doesn’t look up from his screen, but his free hand finds my thigh under the table, squeezing gently.

“Must be. Mrs. Morris is treating today like the Queen’s coming for tea.”

“Mrs. Morris is... enthusiastic.” His lips quirk. “She takes initiative.”

“‘Initiative.’“ I snort. “Is that what we’re calling this not-so-covert military operation?”

Sam finally meets my eyes, and the tenderness there makes my heart stutter. “You deserve the best,krasavitsa.”

“I already have it. Though if you’d like to tell me what the hell is going on, I really wouldn’t mind that at all.” I lean in to kiss him, but before I can Mrs. Morris’s voice rings out again.

“—no, no! The flowers must be arranged precisely as I showed you. No, not like that?—”

I sigh and pinch Sam’s chin between my thumb and forefinger so he has no choice but to look at me. “One more time—and I really am begging this time—please, for all that is good and holy, tell me what is happening.”

Sam grins and starts to give me the same answer he’s given me for the last week, ever since the dinner party disaster, when he started dropping hints about a great “surprise” that will “blow me away.” “You’ll?—”

I press a finger to Sam’s lips. “If you say ‘you’ll see’ one more time, I swear I’ll?—”

The familiar deep woof echoing across the castle grounds stops my heart mid-threat.

That bark.

I know that bark.

I’m out the door before the bark has even stopped echoing, nearly face-planting on the front gate’s steps in my rush. The Scottish morning mist parts like a curtain as I sprint across the drive, my heart thundering against my ribs.

One black Range Rover has already stopped in front of the courtyard fountain. Another crawls through the gates and eases into park behind it.

Suddenly, I’m that seven-year-old girl again, watching life unfold in slow motion. But this time, instead of fear coiling in my gut, it’s pure joy exploding within.

And then something actually explodes through the rear door of the first car.

Two somethings, actually. A pair of furry black shadows, each slobbering in their effort to outrace the other. I’m on my knees, ready to greet them, but there’s no such thing as “ready” for what happens next.

Rufus and Ruby hit me like the runaway trains that they are. We flop backwards onto the soft sand of the driveway, a tangled mess of limbs and tails and tongues and me laughing again and again as tears I can’t stop pour unchecked down my cheeks.

“Ru! Ru!” I keep crying out again and again. They whine, bark, squeal, squeak, and when they can’t figure out how else to express their happiness, they run frantic circles before jumping on me to start the process all over again.

Through my happy tears, I spot two more figures emerging from the Range Rover. My heart, already full to bursting, somehow expands even more.

“Nova, darling!” Grams’s voice carries across the courtyard.

Then I’m up and running, and I collide with Grams almost as hard as Rufus and Ruby collided with me.

“Be careful with her!” Hope scolds, hovering like a mother hen as I squeeze my grandmother in the hardest hug I can muster.

Grams waves off her helping hand. “Oh, hush. I may be old, but I’m not made of glass.” Her eyes sparkle with their familiar mischief as she leans away, though she keeps her hands on my elbows so I can’t go too far. She takes in the castle looming behind me. “Though I must say, this place looks like it’s made of something even more precious.”

I crash back into them both, wrapping my arms around them as Rufus and Ruby dance circles around us, barking their joy to the hills.

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