And tomorrow, she ties herself to my family. To my father’s empire of blood and corruption.
No wonder she can’t sleep.
Although I’d expect nothing less from this woman. Of course she’s still here, working the night before her wedding.
I knock on the open door. Adriana looks up from her laptop, and for a split second, something flickers across her face. Surprise, maybe. Or annoyance. Her expressions are usually stoic and damn hard to read.
“Lochlan.” She leans back in her chair and tosses a pen on the desk. “This is unexpected.”
“I was in the neighborhood.”
“At nine o’clock at night. On the tenth floor of my building.”
“What can I say? I’m committed.”
Her lips twitch. Almost a smile.Again.Hell, yeah, I’ll take it.I bite back my own smile.
“What do you want?” she asks.
Good question. If only I had a good answer.
“Just wanted to check in,” I say, stepping into the office and looking around. An aura of luxury and power commands the space. I can feel it everywhere I look, from the expensive décor to the priceless works of art hanging on the walls. “And make sure you weren’t having second thoughts.”
“Would it matter if I was?”
“Probably not. The contract’s signed.”
“Then why ask?”
I shrug and drop into the chair across from her desk. “Seemed polite.”
She stares at me for a long moment. I can see the exhaustion in her posture. The shadows under her eyes she’s tried to coverwith makeup. The tension in her shoulders that hasn’t eased since the night of the gala.
“You look tired,” I say.
“Wow, you’re a charmer. Aren’t I lucky?”
“I’m not trying to be charming. I’m stating a fact.” I lean forward, elbows on my knees. “When’s the last time you slept?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“We’re getting married tomorrow. Your well-being is about to become very much my business.”
“My wellbeing is my concern. Not yours.”
“Okay.”
She blinks, balking at that. “Okay?”
“Yeah. Okay.” I sit back. “You want to run yourself into the ground, that’s your call. I’m just saying you don’t have to.”
Something shifts in her expression. For a fraction of a second, she loses that hard, jagged edge just enough for me to see the fear swirling beyond the façade.
“I briefed my leadership team today,” she says. “And told them about the marriage. The news has reported that there will be a wedding, but nobody knows about the circumstances, other than my assistant. I just told them we’d been dating for a few months and decided to move quickly because of the attack. Life being too short and all that.”
He nods. “How’d that go?”
“About as well as you’d expect. I got a lot of concerned looks. Polite questions about my ‘bandwidth.’” A sharp laugh slips from her lips. “I’m pretty sure they think I’m losing my mind or that I’m lying. Maybe both.”
