Page 10 of The Saint

“You could have gone to yoga or shopping…better options.”

“I don’t do yoga.”

She could bend in all sorts of ways, a hot pretzel underneath me, so I’d assumed she’d been doing yoga all her life. “Fooled me.”

“And I don’t need to go shopping.”

“I’ve never heard a woman say that.”

She chuckled slightly, my words lifting her spirits a little bit.

I wanted her happy, soaring with the clouds, her smile big and infectious. But I knew it would take time to get there. “You don’t need to work at all, sweetheart. It’s not like you have rent.”

“I broke my lease, so I still have to pay it until a new tenant comes in?—”

“I already took care of it.” I’d paid her landlord for the next six months. That was more than enough time for him to find a replacement.

She stared at me blankly for a few seconds. “You didn’t have to do that.”

“You’re my woman. You’re my responsibility.”

“I don’t want to be a responsibility.”

“It’s a privilege to have you as a responsibility.”

She shifted her eyes away, desperately trying to be angry, but I could tell she wasn’t.

“You don’t need to work.”

Her eyes came back to me. “But I like working.”

I smirked as the laugh inched into my throat. “No, you don’t.” She hated going to work in the morning. She never complained about the work itself, but she didn’t have anything good to say about it either. Didn’t blame her. The idea of sitting behind a computer all day sounded mindless and boring.

“I mean, I like working for my own money.”

“What do you need money for?”

“Food, clothing, essentials?—”

“I provide all of that.”

She released a sigh, a little smile on her lips. “That’s sweet, Bastien. Really, it is. But when I said I didn’t want you for your money, I meant it.”

“And I believe you.”

“It’s fine,” she said. “I don’t mind working.”

“You didn’t work with Adrien.”

“Well, that was different.”

“How?” I was used to barking orders and having people obey, and it was frustrating when I couldn’t apply that to her. Most women would be happy to let a man take care of them, but she chose to be difficult about it, and it was starting to piss me off.

She hesitated before she answered. “We were married…”

I knew I would marry her someday, so I didn’t see why she couldn’t rely on me now. Her yearly income wasn’t even equivalent to a penny of mine. “You said you were in this with me. You said you wouldn’t leave even if I asked you to.”

“And I meant that, Bastien.”

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