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“No one important,” I tell him. If I decide to use the Reed twins, I’ll let my brothers now. Until then? “What are you doing here? I thought you were taking a ride out to the mountains for the week.”

“I was, but Alexandre has to choose his Offering in a couple of weeks. Poor guys is flipping out. I told him I’d stick around for moral support, but he got so wasted last night, I left him home with our folks. Now I’m laying low in case he wants to go back to the Court again tonight.”

I’m not surprised to hear any of that. Bas, Connor, Dallas, and I all had our reasons for missing the Claiming ceremony, year after year. Alexandre? He’s a commitment-phobe, simple asthat. He can’t fathom the idea of having one woman as his wife, even knowing he can still visit the Used.

It’s thewifepart that Alex has a problem with. He just doesn’t want to have one at all, but he’ll be thirty in September. This is his last chance before Jack will be able to get an iota of revenge against one of the Reynolds.

Bas throws himself into the chair that Nicholas only recently vacated. “You’re married now, Adrian. Any advice for my big bro?”

I can’t help it. I think of what married life has been like so far, and my lips quirk upward of their own accord. “Let’s just say, marriage has its perks.”

Bas laughs. “Holy shit. You already fucked her.”

Guilty as charged. “She is my wife.”

He shakes his head. “Yeah, but if you need to get laid, all you have to do is join me and Alex at the Court. You didn’t need to get hitched, buddy.”

Someday, Bas might understand. Probably not today, but that doesn’t stop me from saying, “You’re missing out… Fucking someone you love instead of a woman who sleeps with you because the Order says she has to… I’ll just say this, Bas: you’re missing out.”

His laugh dies, a strange look flashing across his boyishly pretty face. “Shit. You still love her. You still love Loni.”

I give him a dry look. “Obviously.”

Bas holds up his hands. “No, no. I knew you were obsessed with her. Youkilledfor her.” An echo of his earlier chuckle, only much more hollow this time. “Everyone knows you pissed Jack the hell off with the church stunt… and, yeah. Duh. You love her.”

Yeah.

I do.

FIFTEEN

HEAT WAVE

LONI

Ihave never, ever known Adrian to apologize. That, more than anything, makes me wonder if the last ten years changed him as much as it had me.

I’d hoped so. I didn’t want to think that he was the same bully he once was, and considering my first impression of twenty-eight-year-old Adrian was an angel with a handgun, murdering one of his oldest friends in cold blood, I was terrified that he changed for theworse.

But an apology? When that came through my phone, I was so stunned, I figured it had to be AI or something. Like he asked a computer to sit out someone else’s words and then he passed them off on his own.

So I checked. I ran it through an AI checker, a plagiarism checker, and even Google. Nope. Unless he handed his phone off to someone else—and I’ve seen how possessive of it he is, so I doubt it—those were Adrian’s own words.

I want to believe he meant them. At least then that would justify the second chance I gave him.

I figured the next Monday would be the real test. Sure, he brought me home a bouquet of flowers as a more visible apology, and we’ve still sat down to every meal together when he’s home… and the kisses… whenever the craving hit for a cigarette, he was right there, demanding his due.

But that’s as far as he’s gone. As though he really understood the power his body wields over mine, he’s been careful not to use it again. I was hesitant to trust him the next time I was duty-bound to join him in his bed, but apart from spooning me after I fell asleep, he was the perfect gentleman.

He even wore pajama pants again, a wordless peace offering for me that I accepted with a hesitant smile.

We’ve been falling into an easy rhythm since then. There are moments when I remember that this wasn’t my choice, that in a world without the Order, I wouldn’t have been forced into marrying my childhood bully… and there are moments when I struggle to separate this Adrian from the boy he once was.

Tonight is Monday again. We’ve had a good few days. Dad came over for dinner on Thursday. That was… interesting. In a way, I think he wanted to make sure that I was doing just fine. That, or he finally realized I’d been ducking his calls and he was being a pretty shitty dad, leaving to Adrian Heller’s mercy after he, you know, killed a guy.

I didn’t realize how lonely I was until Dad came by. I’ve had a few conversations with Mrs. Gammond when our paths cross on the days she’s here, but other than that, the only other person I’ve seen is my husband. If Adrian’s not spending long days at the office, he’s finishing his work in his third-floor study. I thought I was a workaholic, but long after I close the lid on my laptop, he’s still at it.

I will say, he does find a couple of hours for me every day. I’ve learned he has a fondness for watching the same sort of cooking shows I do; that’s how he taught himself to cook, he tells me,and I’m only a little jealous that I can still barely hold a knife. A couple of funny sitcoms snag his attention, too, and we catch a couple after dinner before we head to our respective bedrooms.