Page 36 of The Devil’s Lair

This is the least collected I’ve seen Tobias in the short time I’ve known him. He was calmer than this with a gun pointed at his chest. My nerves surge, my palms sticky with sweat.

“Okay.”

“It was Xan’s idea, and my father happens to agree with him. I scoffed at first, but I’ve had some time to think about it, and of course, you can take a few days, a week, a month to think about it, too.”

He’s rambling, and my nerves aren’t surging now. They’re flatlining.

“Please just say it, whatever it is.”

“Marry me.”

There’s a delay, a kind of glitch where my brain can’t process what he’s just said. I open my mouth, shut it, open it, shut it again. When I find my voice, the only word that comes out is, “Huh?”

“It’s ridiculous, I know, but the more I think about it, the more it sounds like the perfect solution. Once you take my name, the La Salles power will vanish. They won’t dare go up against my family.”

“But… but…” I shake my head. This can’t be real. Am I dreaming? “Marcus died two and a half weeks ago. I can’t possibly marry you. Thanks to Felicity, the press already thinks I’m unhinged. Even if I thought this was a good idea, which I don’t, marrying you this soon… they’ll vilify me.”

“No, they won’t. Our PR department will spin this. Trust me, we’ll take care of everything.”

He’s lost his mind. He must have. “Why would you marry a woman you hardly know? You’re giving up a chance of a happy marriage with someone you love for a stranger.”

“Because this agreement benefits me as well as you.”

“How?”

He straightens his cuffs, his gaze sliding to the window. After a beat, he shakes his head. “I don’t want to go into details. Please just believe me when I say I am getting far more out of this deal than you are.”

A snort almost bursts out of me. I stop it in the nick of time. “I find that hard to believe.”

“It’s the truth.” He gazes into my eyes, his swimming with sincerity. “I will never outright lie to you, Rebecca. I might explain that I’d rather keep certain private thoughts to myself, but tell you a straight lie? No.”

I rub my face. “My head is spinning.”

“Mine was, too, when Xan first proposed this. I almost had him sectioned.” He grins.

“Why did he, though? What was the catalyst?”

“Here’s one of those truths I promised you.” He glances over his shoulder at the bedroom door and, satisfied we’re still alone, looks back at me.

“The Lair is the only place I’ve ever felt I can be true to myself. I built it as a… sanctuary of sorts. My involvement wasn’t ever widely known. The shooting changed all that and brought its existence to the attention of the press. Their reporting has invited negative attention on the family. My father wanted me to divest it and bring an end to my association. I refused.“

“But you just said that your PR team can spin the bad press on me. Why can’t they spin this?”

“Because your situation is sympathetic. A widow escaping abuse to protect her child, and in-laws trying to rip a daughter from her loving mother’s arms.” His jaw tightens. “The Lair is different. It’s a sex club. No matter how we frame it, a significant proportion of the public will see it as immoral, deviant. My father is concerned about the optics. My family is often in the press, but as he pointed out to me, it is good press.”

He leans forward, his eyes earnest. “But a marriage? That changes the narrative entirely. It makes me look settled. Respectable. A family man. Our PR can spin that for days and paint the kind of picture the press will lap up. A wedding is playing a winning hand.”

I huff a laugh. “A wedding to a working-class girl whose husband was shot at a sex club and whose family are out for blood.” I arch a brow. “Doesn’t sound like a good news story to me.”

“As I said, it depends how you spin it.”

I shake my head, dumbfounded. “This is madness.”

“Maybe. Or it could be a genius move.” He hitches a shoulder. “Take as much time as you need to think about it. Mull it over. You and Isla could have a great life here. You already said yourself that you don’t ever want another man to touch you. With me, you’ll get the benefits of marriage without the physical side. I’m not interested in you like that.”

I wait for him to say more. He pulls his gaze away from me and stares at a spot somewhere over my right shoulder.

Ah. I think I get it.