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He turned and looked at one of the younger girls, who was probably about twelve. He was not an expert on children. “It was not meant to be. I did not get the impression that Stevie is a romantic.”
“She’s not,” one of the other girls said. “But maybe if you treated her like she was, she would soften up a little bit.”
“Hush, Opal,” said Stevie. “I don’t want romance.Especiallynot from him.”
But her cheeks went pink. And he wondered if that was strictly true. They were no longer stuck on the side of a mountain in a hollowed-out plane.
Perhaps then she did see things a bit differently between them.
Of course, they would have to have children. They had already proved there was fire between them in the bedroom. The idea of taking her in a soft bed, without worry of frostbite or potentially bleeding to death, was an appealing one.
That was something he was very much looking forward to.
She was as beautiful as ever. This beacon of glory unlike any other and he craved her touch again. He wanted to feel what he had that first time.
“I am offering you the greatest promotion you will ever receive,” he said.
And then, Stevie did something he did not expect at all. She bent over at the waist, and was silent for a moment, before she reared back and revealed that she was gasping, choking on her laughter. “Oh. My promotion fromnobodyto yourwifeis simply the greatest thing that will ever happen to me. How can I ever refuse you, Your Royal Highness?”
“It is not funny. It is simply true.”
She hiccupped. In a rather unladylike fashion. “Your ego is astonishing,” she said.
“My name is Adonis. I have done my level best to live up to the name. Many would say I have done so indisputably.”
“I can’t believe you. You are… You deserve to be told no. That’s what you want to get. You’re used to people simpering and falling down at your feet. I can tell. Women especially. But not me. I’m not simply going to give you whatever you want after you lied to me then vanished for two weeks, and then showed up like I haven’t been navigating this insanity by myself.”
“I thought you wanted your reward,” he said.
“I’ll live without it. I’ve been managing just fine this whole time, and I’ll keep on managing.”
“Stevie!” Her sisters were grumbling. And it was clear why. Of course they wanted her to marry him. It would be a key to a much easier life for them. Everything would be different. They would be happier. They would be well-fed. They would live in luxury.
They would not be eating beans and sharing a bedroom in a dilapidated cabin.
“I will be here for one more night. Should you change your mind, come and find me.”
He gave her the card of the hotel that he was staying at, pressing it into her palm. She looked at it, and him, and then cast it onto the ground. “Don’t wait around.”
He turned around, and walked toward the door, maneuvering it open while hanging on to his cane. And then he stepped outside into the freezing cold, as the door slammed shut behind him.
He had been refused. By a peasant.
It was nearly as shocking as the plane crash.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Steviewasfilledwith adrenaline. And rage. So much rage.
She couldn’t decide what she hated most. That he had been willing to exploit her vulnerabilities, her poverty, so that he could get what he wanted or…
That she had been tempted to say yes.
He was offering her a life she’d never imagined. Not when she couldn’t see past the day-to-day. The next paycheck, the next therapy her father would need.
He was offering her…children. To be her husband.
She’d never really seen herself with those things.