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“I haven’t changed my mind about your worthiness, lover boy.” He said through gritted teeth.
“And she hasn’t changed her mind about me, either.” I smirked. “And her opinion means more than yours.”
He sat there and simply breathed. I bet he was finding creative ways to kill me in his mind. I waited.
“I am not in the habit of selling women for alliances.” He stood and his stooges stood with him. The woman stepped a little in front of him, and they looked at one another. They exchanged some telepathic words and nodded in unison. They were in a strange and silent congress.
I stood as well, wondering what decision he had made, if any. Not that it mattered. Rose would be mine. Not just behind closed doors, but in front of the world.
“Do you have a ring?” Jericho finally asked.
“Aye.” I fished the velvet box from my pocket and lifted the lid and slid it across the table to him. Thank God Eoghan was able to find it in time.
He looked down at it and quirked his brow. He wasn’t happy. “Not a diamond?”
I smiled and placed my hands in my pockets.
“No. Diamonds are common. Only semi-precious.” I nodded to the box. “That’s a 10-carat ruby, as rare and precious as she is and as red as the flower she’s named for. It’s shaped like a drop of blood as a reminder that I would spill mine for her.”
Jericho looked at it, then looked at me, and, if it was possible, actually got angrier.
“Fuck,” he said under his breath. “She’d love it.”
He looked over at his second again, and they both shrugged.
“I will not force her to marry you.” Jericho finally ruled.
“No, that won’t do.” Eoghan interjected. “We need an official alliance if we’re to stick our necks out for a Russian.”
“Wait,” I said, taking a breath. “We’ll ally with you if, when I ask her, you give your blessing.”
“That’s not enough!” Eoghan yelled. “What the hell type of bargain is that? You’re not even guaranteed a wife.”
I stared at Jericho, and for once, wanted to plead my case to the man. To truly speak to him from somewhere deep in that crooked, black heart of his.
“She won’t say yes to me if she thinks you won’t approve,” I said.
“If you think she listens to my commands, then you don’t—”
“—I do know her.” I cut him off. “And your opinion has the ability to crush her. If she thinks you won’t approve, it doesn’t matter how much she loves me. She’ll be torn, and she might say no.”
I ran my hand through my hair and tugged at the root, needing the pain to keep me centered so that I didn’t let the fear of her rejection get to me. “When I propose, I want her choice to be about us, bound as man and wife. I don’t want her choice to be whether or not she’s going to disappoint you or please me.”
Jericho looked at me, and his eyes softened just for a moment. This might be the first time he had ever truly looked at me. At the very least, the first time he saw me as anything more than the bastard who was fucking his precious daughter.
“If she is assured that you’ll support her and love her, no matter what.” I insist. “Then that’s good enough for me. I don’t ever want her to make a choice between a man she loves like a father, and a man she will learn to love as her husband.”
I let out a sad sigh. “She’s been through enough, don’t you think?”
Jericho peered out into the distance for a moment, then looked back at me.
“Come on,” his sister said, her lip curling up in the corner. “It’s a good offer.”
Jericho’s jaw clenched. He knew he was painted in a corner. It was too good of a deal, and cost him nothing.
“You have a deal.” He nodded, and my heart was ready to jump out of my chest. “But I’ll need it in writing that if she murders you, the alliance still stands.”
“I don’t care,” I said. “As long as she kills me with my ring on her finger.”
