Page 34 of A Convenient Ring to Claim Her

That seemed to disconcert her, being lumped in with “people I care about.” She rolled her lips together and looked to the water.

“I feel privileged to have met her.”

He choked slightly.

“Not like that.” Her grin flashed. “No, I asked Eden once what your relatives were like and she said she’d never met any of them. Now I have.”

“It’s true. For my mother’s sake, I’ve always kept a firewall around Eden, not letting any of my Gould relatives play their mind games on her. Zara just tried to bait me into criticizing Eden’s marriage. She still believes the story that Remy’s father stole from mine.”

“Oh.” Her brow pleated with empathy. “That’s going to be complicated, isn’t it?”

“Tell me about it,” he muttered, realizing he wanted this, too—her immediate comprehension of his problem. He liked that she understood his complex family dynamic without him having to show her all the skeletons and label them.

“I shouldn’t have said you were broken.” She looped her good arm around his and briefly hugged it. “You’re split in half. It’s different.”

“Torn and frayed.” Definitely losing his concentration. He could feel the soft give of her breast against his elbow. Impure thoughts bled through him.

He gave in to temptation and let his arm curve around her lower back, mostly because he’d been moved when she’d been so upset last night, so filled with despair that she couldn’t hug him. It was one of the reasons he’d wanted to sleep next to her, so she’d be comforted.

So he would.

His hand thought about wandering down to her ass, but he only aligned her a little closer, very gently, under his arm.

Marriage to her could work. He knew it could. He only had to make her see that.

She looked up at him, wary of this casual affection. Uncertain what it meant.

He wanted to kick himself for ever going along with keeping their affair a secret. For only coming together with her in passion, not basic companionship.

“This is good, you know. This injury of yours.” He nodded at her sling.

She choked. “Oh, yeah. That’s what I’ve been thinking this whole time. It’s great.”

“I mean that it’s good we can’t fall back on having sex to avoid talking about things that are hard.” He closed one eye in a wince. “I heard it as I said it.”

She chuckled, but stepped away. She always stepped away.

“Do youwantsex?” She was looking at the water, not letting him see her eyes as she spoke with breezy but vague interest.

“With you? Always. I would think that was obvious.” A waver of uncertainty tipped into his chest. Everything he’d been thinking in the last few minutes slid down into a jumbled pile. Maybe he’d killed whatever she’d felt toward him when he’d quit on her so summarily in Gibraltar. “You?” he asked.

She drew a deep sigh and let it go, like a balloon deflating. “Yes.”

“You’re so good for my ego,” he muttered, but she was very grounding, never letting him take himself too seriously. “What I’m saying is, titillating as the clandestine hookups were, it’s good that it’s not an option right now. We’ll have to use our words.”

“Ew. No, thank you.” She cast him a grimace.

“Coward.”

“It’s my deepest, darkest secret. Now you know.”

She wasn’t a coward. That he knew. But she was afraid. Afraid of being alone, afraid of having no say over herself or her future, afraid of revealing her heart.

Looking at her was like looking at a cracked, distorted reflection of himself.

“Come.” He jerked his head. “Let’s go wash your hair. It will be fun. Like a team-building exercise.” Maybe they couldn’t make love, but he would still get to touch her.

“Are you saying hair washing is something you do with your executives at retreats?”

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