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I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him to me. A flash of silver caught my eye under his collar. Jealousy flared as I ripped his collar aside. When I saw what hung on that chain, my heart didn’t beat any slower, but it beat for a very different reason. Valen’s hand gently wrapped around the wrist of the hand gripping his shirt and I finally looked up into his eyes.
“I don’t have to hide it anymore, love,” he said slowly. “Not from Apollo, and I doubt anyone else would look at it and realise it’s yours. Much like no one’s looked at the one around your neck and realised it’s mine.”
“You’re wearing my cross, Valen.”
He nodded, a soft smile in his eyes. “I’m wearing your cross, Harlow.”
“Why are you wearing my cross?”
“Because it means everything to me. The only thing that means more is you.”
“What about your contract with Archer?”
He dropped his forehead to mine. “No one in our world just walks away from a contract, love. You know that. But you will always be first. You can’t not. You’re mine. But more importantly, I’m yours. I am bound to you whether you’ll have me or not, and I will forever be yours. To serve you. To protect you. To love you. If you’ll let me.”
I nodded. “And what’s going to stop you from deciding to do the right thing again and push me to Apollo?”
“I know now that you don’t love each other. That neither of you want to be together. I owe Apollo my life and my service, princess. I don’t owe him the woman I love for no reason.”
“Those are very pretty words, Valen. But I don’t know if I can trust your words anymore.”
“What can I do?” he begged.
“Are you serious about this? About me?”
“You walking out my door that night didn’t stop you being mine, and it won’t now. What can I do?”
“You can spend every day of the rest of our lives showing me I can trust you.”
He nodded. “Easy.”
“Easy? Even when I have to pretend to be with Apollo?”
“Less easy, but I’m not scared off by things being a little difficult.”
“Are you really going to break all the rules for me, Valen?”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s a free country.”
“Only until you get caught.”
“A Kincaid is never caught,” he reminded me.
“A Kincaid also never marries,” I reminded him.
He nodded. “Aye. They beat that into us young.”
“And you?”
“And me?”
“What exactly are you offering me, Valen?” I asked slowly. “You say you want to love me forever, but what does that look like to you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t care. As long as we’re together, I don’t care. Your contract with Apollo will either break, or it won’t. We can’t know that now. But I want a life with you, love. I want us.”
I chewed on my lip, and I thought about what he was saying. He was here, promising me a future. A future I’d firmly told myself he couldn’t – wouldn’t – ever offer me. Did that make him more or less the man I loved?
“What?” he asked. “What are you thinking, love?”
