“Sit down,” I said, and she dropped back into the chair.
“Sir, this is becoming awkward.” She exhaled and pressed her palms flat against her thighs. “Okay. I made a mistake, and I’m ready to take responsibility. So, what do you want?”
“I’m very sure you already know.”
“You faked a DNA test, hired a lawyer, and walked a police officer to my front door, all for a child who is not your son.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Fine, I’ll find you a boy you can actually adopt if that’s what this is about. I’ll personally visit several orphanages. I have the time.”
“Are you trying to be funny?” I asked. She was, actually. I just wouldn’t tell her that.
“Then what do you want?”
I reached for the file on the desk, opened it, and pushed it across the surface toward her. “You’ll wear that at an auction tomorrow.”
Her eyes dropped to the page. The confusion moved across her face. She pulled the file closer and studied the photograph. “This is a necklace.”
“A diamond necklace centered by a polished jade stone.” I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my jawline. “Valued between seventeen and twenty million dollars.”
Her mouth opened and closed again. She looked back at the photograph, then up at me, as if to check whether the two things existed in the same reality. “Okay, wait. Million dollars?” I said nothing. “You want me to wear it? Sir, I am very confused right now.”
“Only the most trusted person wears it. Or a family member.”
“And that’s me?” She pressed a finger to her own chest. “You trust me with a million-dollar necklace?” A quick laugh escaped her, the kind that came out when something was too absurd for a normal reaction. “You’re joking.”
“And who said I trust you?” She went still. “There is a price for every action, Inna, and we are just getting started. You will wear this at the auction as my wife. Case closed.”
She sat with that for a moment. “I don’t want to be your wife.”
“Why so?” It was a genuine question. I wanted to hear this.
“It was just a lie.” She shifted in her seat. “I wouldn’t want someone like you for a husband.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“No offense, but,” she hesitated, visibly fumbling toward whatever she was building. “I don’t like your nose. It just... sits there on your face and makes you look—” she gestured vaguely, “like that. And your eyes.” She pointed directly at them. “I’m sure people have told you not to look at them with those eyes.”
She paused. The embarrassment was already moving into her expression, but she had come too far to stop now.
She waved a hand across my face as if she were sketching the problem. “In short, I don’t like your face. And you’re too tall. I don’t marry tall men with strong hands and that,” her eyes dropped briefly to my chest before snapping back up. “Can you button those three buttons, please?”
What the hell was this woman?
I once sat across from Rodion’s wife and found her entertaining. But Inna was something else entirely. She insulted my face and accidentally cataloged every detail of my body in the same breath.
This was the moment I would normally smile. One of those deliberate ones that told a person exactly how much ground they had just given away. But if I did that now, she would know I hadcaught it, that she liked every single thing she was complaining about.
“So,” I said. “You like men like me.”
“Yes.” The word came out fast and clean before her brain caught up with her mouth. Her eyes went wide. “No. I mean…” She pressed her lips together and exhaled. “You’re ugly. There. I said it.”
“I see.”
“Yes.” She looked somewhere past my shoulder, her cheeks carrying a warmth she had no interest in explaining.
I let it sit there between us for a moment, then pulled the file back across the desk. “Now that we’ve settled that. You’ll be moving into my place.” I checked my wristwatch. “Your ring will be ready tomorrow. You’ll wear it.”
“There has to be another way.” Her voice tightened. “Because I don’t want to marry you.”
I looked at her. The stubbornness on her face was almost impressive. She probably had talked her way out of enough things to believe she could talk her way out of this. She would learn.
