AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t need to. It’s directly in front of the doors. I’m not going to let you walk around with a cheap ring on your finger. You’re mine. Act like it.”
She mutters something that sounds an awful lot like “snob,” but she walks deeper into the store—which brings her closer to me.
As she passes by the display case I’m standing next to, she points into it. “That one is nice.”
I follow her finger and then scowl. “That’s a plain band.”
“Anexpensiveplain band,” she points out.
I check the four-digit price tag and snort. “Hardly.”
“I don’t care about jewelry. I never wear it. When I do, I don’t want it getting in the way. I’d rather have something simple.”
Niles did a good job with Cora’s wardrobe. She’s wearing a pair of high-waisted tweed trousers with a silk cami tucked in. She looks sleek and classy. She looks like she belongs here.
The trouble, it seems, will be teaching her toactlike she belongs here.
Kieran chuckles as he walks back into the showroom. “In all my years as a jeweler, I’ve only heard one other woman say something like that. It was a couple years ago and—”
His eyes catch on Cora and widen.
She snaps her head back down, her hair falling between them like a shield.
“And anyway,” Kieran pivots, trying and failing to make a seamless transition, “I have the mockups if you’d like to see them.”
Cora mumbles a “yes” and we meet at the back display case. Kieran spreads digital renderings across the glass surface, never once meeting Cora’s eyes.
I don’t miss the spark of recognition.
They know each other.
She’s been here before.
Yasha told me Cora’s mother and stepfather are rich. She told me herself that he was at my party the other night. I’m sure she’s been here with her mother, maybe getting a piece cleaned or having something resized.
And yet…some primal part of me chafes against the suggestion that she might’ve come here with another man. The beast in my chest growls.
“I have an array of options,” Kieran begins. “If you’re looking for something on the simple end of the spectrum, we have solitaire engagement rings. Though I would highly recommend an accompanying band after the ceremony. I can keep it understated, but a beautiful woman such as yourself should have a beautiful ring to match.”
There will be no ceremony. This may very well be the only ring I ever buy Cora. I want it to count.
“That sounds nice,” she starts.
But I swipe the renderings of the solitaire settings into a pile. “I want something bigger.”
Cora leans in close. “What about whatIwant?”
I turn and grip her chin gently. “I want everyone within a ten-mile radius to knowyou are mine.Isn’t that what you want, too?”
If she wants to keep her part of the bargain, there is only one answer she can give me.
Her throat bobs. “Yes.”
I brush my thumb over her lower lip and release her. “Good girl.” Then I tap the pile of papers. “Pick something else.”
Kieran and Cora take over the conversation, discussing thousands of different options and customizations. There are no additional signs that they’ve had this same conversation before with another man standing at Cora’s side. But the feeling that I’m filling another man’s absence weighs heavily.
It shouldn’t matter. It doesn’t. Cora and I are not in a relationship. This is a business arrangement. We have ground rules and well-outlined roles and expectations.
