Page 27

“There was never a casino,” I said, snapping myself out of it before I could fall any further down that rabbit hole.

Holden and I were not together. We’d signed a piece of paper. That was it. Whatever he did in his personal life did not concern me. I certainly wasn’t about to volunteer as tribute for him to satisfy his urges. Although⁠—

“Have you asked him about the yacht yet?” Tasha’s question mercifully invaded the extremely inappropriate thought I’d been about to have about all the ways in which I would let my husband satisfy those urges with me, and I fought a flush as she sighed. “If he’s going to be living here, the least he can do is share the yacht. Where are we going to put all his stuff, though? What if he brings his own bed?”

“Then we’ll make a plan,” I said, exasperation creeping slowly into my tone. “Cohabitation was part of the contract I signed, Tash. The extremely thorough, extremely complicated contract drawn up by extremely expensive lawyers. I have to honor it.”

Even if, as a Thayer, he would probably look at this room like it was a medieval dungeon. God, he was probably used to sleeping on a bed woven from the silk of endangered spiders and I was sure he was going to show up with an entire moving truck full of custom Italian leather furniture, but I’d cross that bridge when I got to it.

At the end of the day, this was a small price to pay for what I was receiving in return. I just had to keep sight of that.

Tasha looked at me like she was still expecting something and I sighed, raking my fingers through my loose hair as I shook my head. “No, okay? I haven’t asked him about the yacht yet. It didn’t exactly come up.”

She smirked. “So what did come up? You’ve barely told me anything.”

I almost winced, only just managing to catch myself from expressing any sort of external reaction. Tasha didn’t know yet who I’d married.

Last night, after I’d gotten home from the most uncomfortable dinner ever, I’d managed to skirt the finer details with her. I’d practically sprinted through the front door, mumbled that it’d been a long day and that I was exhausted, and then I’d locked myself in my bedroom to hyperventilate over the crazy decision I’d made.

Even now, with the morning sun streaming in through the windows, it felt like I was completely losing my mind. I was a children’s librarian, for heaven’s sake. I organized puppet shows and read Dr. Seuss. I did not enter into marriages of convenience with angry, rich, runway models. I had no idea how I was going to handle this for a day, let alone a lifetime.

People like Holden had always intimidated the crap out of me—and not only because of the likely size of his bank balance. Naturally, knowing how much money that family probably had was intimidating in its own right, but there was so much more to it than that.

He was absolutely nothing like me. Neither were his sister and her husband, and the brother I’d met last night and his wife, and their mother, and probably the entire rest of all those families. They had the confidence of golden gods and the same sort of inescapable presence as lightning. They spoke with the authority of royalty and dressed like they had designers hidden in their closets.

As a group, they gave off this untouchable vibe, even if they were very kind individually. Except for the one I’d married, of course. Holden was a vibe all of his own, as dark as night and as walled off as a fortress.

Suddenly, the doorbell chimed from downstairs and my stomach plummeted to my shoes. Tasha froze, her eyes widening. “Is that him?”

“Probably,” I squeaked, my throat suddenly drier than the Sahara. “He didn’t actually give me a time, so it could be. I don’t know. Are you expecting a delivery?”

“No.”

“Neither am I.”

We walked downstairs together, but my knees felt more and more like jelly with every passing step. By the time she pulled front door open, it felt like I was barely managing to hold myself up.

Holden stood on the porch wearing a black leather jacket with a gray hoodie underneath and a backpack slung over one broad shoulder. Dark blond hair slightly windswept and a sharp sort of edge resting behind those gray eyes, he looked both incredibly handsome and quite dangerous. One of those two observations elevated my heart rate a little more than I was comfortable with, but I refused to examine which one it’d been.

Tasha barked out a loud, surprised laugh. “Holden? What the hell are you doing here? I promise, I don’t have your folder this time. If you lost it, that’s on you.”

As she kept talking, completely oblivious, his eyes flicked over her shoulder, instantly finding mine. “Bro, you’re not going to believe the week we’ve had. Get this, we’re getting a new roommate today. Alicia got married to a total stranger and basically saved our lives, but now, he’s moving in.”

Holden’s jaw rolled, a tiny muscle twitching near his cheekbone. He didn’t break eye contact with me at all, his gaze intense but also completely unreadable.

“Is that so?” he muttered, a dry edge to that deep voice as he arched an eyebrow at me. “Well, I suppose congratulations are in order, then.”

Tasha’s laughter died on her lips when she looked down and finally noticed the large, rugged duffle bag resting at his feet. As she spotted it, Holden bent down, effortlessly hoisted the heavy-looking bag into the air, and stepped past her into the foyer, stopping only once he was standing right in front of me.

“So, where can I put my stuff?” he asked smoothly. “I have class in exactly half an hour, so I’ve got to get going soon.”

Tasha gaped after us, her mouth hanging open so wide I was genuinely worried a stray bug might fly inside. But Holden was so close to me now that I caught the faint scent of cedarwood and something citrusy, and it made my brain shut down for a second.

“Uh, right this way,” I finally mumbled, turning on my heel and leading him up the stairs. “I hope this is going to be okay.”

He didn’t say anything as he followed me, the silence between us growing until it was thick enough to cut with a blunt knife. Downstairs, Tasha must’ve started pacing because I heard the rhythmic thud of her footsteps echoing as she walked one way and then another.

When I went back down there, I was going to be subjected to an absolute tribunal, but I would worry about that in a minute. For now, I had to get past showing my exceptionally wealthy husband his new digs.