Page 18 of A Vow to Set the Virgin Free

“Clearly.”

“Why?”

“Something happened. Something...terrible, and I had to go away for a while, and now I must go back. All will become clear.”

“I would like it to be clearer now.”

“Do shiny rocks and old coins talk back?”

She blinked. “What?”

“The rest of my collection does not cause me such problems.”

“Uh... The rest of your collection hasn’t been asked to marry you.”

“I do not recall asking.”

He was so arrogant. How could a man who never showed his face be so arrogant?

“How long will we...?”

“It depends. On how long you are required for my purposes, and how long it takes for you to feel safe that your father will no longer come for you. Again, it is your legal marriage to me which will make you impervious to another man’s reach.”

“But we...”

“I will not give you romance, Athena. That will come later. With someone else. Ours will be a marriage in name only.”

“Oh.”

Of course it would be. Anything else would be absurd. She had never even set eyes on the man. It was only that... Truly, she had not imagined he would offer her marriage without also wanting to lay claim on her body. He was a mystery, Cameron McKenzie. And not simply because she had never seen his face.

She knew that he was tall.

She knew that he was heavily muscled. And smelled of sandalwood and made her feel safe and small. That his voice could be fire or ice. It could cut, or it could warm.

She knew that he had not left these walls in ten years. What she knew made him even more confusing than what she didn’t know.

What she did know, was this mess, this...business of being part of his collection, was related to choices she’d made. She had made no choices at eight, when she’d come to live with the people she thought of as her family. She’d made a choice when she’d jumped out of that car.

She had suddenly been more than that doll. She’d been Athena, and this was where that choice had led her.

So she would see where this led her too.

“Yes. I will marry you.”

The next day, breakfast was waiting for Athena when she got up. And still, there was no sign of Cameron. It wasn’t until she was having her second cup of coffee, that he spoke to her. Still through his intercom, and not face-to-face.

“In one month, we will make our debut as husband and wife.”

“Oh!” She jumped, sloshing coffee over the edge of the cup.

There was a long pause. “My apologies. I have forgotten certain things about interacting with people.”

“Yes.Whyis it that you don’t interact with people?”

Something had happened. He’d come here.

But why cut everyone off? Why see no one?

---