Page 50 of Forbidden Dark Vows

“And Lizzie. And then you can take my credit card and go shopping for some new clothes. Deal?”

The words ‘I love you’ are on the tip of my tongue, but I hold them back. Maybe I’m being silly or over-cautious or paranoid, but they’re not ready to come out yet. We still have to break down the Celia barrier first.

“Deal.”

Harry’s company—WeissPetroleum—takes up one level in a Manhattan skyscraper owned by the Russo family. When we leave the elevator, the office is bright and busy, and it seems immediately apparent that Harry is ready to expand.

Despite the ‘eligible bachelor’ title bestowed upon him by the news reporter, I hadn’t given much thought to Harry’s company until now, and my chest swells with pride. Harry did this. He built this business, he gave it wings, and now he’s the man in the saddle, steering it onward to greatness. But no one would ever know, because he’s just Harry when he isn’t wearing a suit.

I’m introduced to Lizzie, a woman in her mid- to late-forties, with a blond 70s perm, glossy lips, and wearing a dress with shoulder pads.She smiles with her teeth and blushes slightly when her gaze flits between me and Harry.

“Oh, honey, I can’t tell you how long I’ve waited for this moment.”

She hugs me, squeezing my arms against my sides. As she releases me, her hands drift down to mine, her fingers settling on the diamond. She raises my hand and studies it closely, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish bobbing to the water’s surface for food.

“Is this…?” Her eyes narrow.

“It is,” Harry answers for me.

Her cheeks turn even rosier, and she squeals with delight. “Oh my God, why didn’t you warn me?”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you needed a warning.” Harry succumbs to his secretary’s hug with a chuckle. “We wanted to surprise you.”

“Surprise me? You’ve almost given me a heart attack. Does your father know?” Her eyebrows lower briefly. “No, of course he doesn’t. He wouldn’t have complained…” She clamps her lips together, eyes darting around the office and settling on a door with Harry’s name printed on a neat gold sign.

“Is he through there?” Harry gestures at the door.

“He is.” Lizzie takes my hands in hers again. “Good luck, honey. I promise you his bark is worse than his bite.”

I glance at Harry, but he isn’t listening. He has already opened the door to his office and is waiting for me to join him.

“Dad, I want you to meet?—”

“When did you get back?” His dad cuts him off. “I said I’d have organized the car.”

“I wanted to go home first, Dad. We were traveling almost twenty-four hours.”

“Well, you’re here now.” Pause. “We?”

Harry stands aside, and I join him just across the threshold of his office to meet my future father-in-law for the first time. “Dad, this is Ruby Jackson, my fiancée.”

Karl Weiss is nothing like his son. Taller, stockier, darker, I can instantly tell that Harry’s looks were softened by his mom’s genes. He must’ve inherited the blue eyes from his mom too.

“Hello, Mr. Weiss.”

I cross the room and reach out to shake his hand, but he turns away from the desk, walking around it instead, with his head lowered.

A glance at Harry, and he is watching his father’s reaction with furrowed brows. “Dad?” he prompts him.

Mr. Weiss freezes, his spine stiff. “Your fiancée?” he mutters without looking at either of us.

“Yes.” Harry is undeterred. “Ruby Jackson.”

“I heard you the first time.”

Harry faces me, and I can see anger sparking behind his eyes and in the set of his thin lips. “I apologize for my father’s rudeness, Ruby. I can only assume that he left his manners at home this morning. I’ll ask Lizzie to come shopping with you, and we’ll try again another time.”

I don’t understand what’s going on, but now’s the time when Karl Weiss should relax his shoulders, smile at us apologetically, and begin the conversation over. Only, he doesn’t. He keeps hisback turned as if he can’t bear to look at me, and tears well in my eyes for Harry because he doesn’t deserve this inexplicable reaction.

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