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“Don’t try to obligate me! I know how those sorts of manipulations work, Atlas. I’ve lived them.”
“With your father?”
“Yes. I told you he’s a challenging person. But we manage.” She brushed aside how painful that was sometimes. “As long as I have my job. Ilikemy job. I have goals and opportunities there. I’m working my way up to manager. As soon as Beate is on her own, and Grettina isn’t so strained, I’ll transfer to different locations and see the world. I have a plan.” It was a good one. A fulfilling one. It was one she had madefor herself.
“You want to manage a hotel? I’ll buy you one. You want to see the world, I’ll take you.”
“I can’t believe you had the nerve to callmestubborn. Let it go, Atlas. The role of wife isn’t some cookie-shaped hole you fill with the next one from the box. It’s insulting that you think you can just shove me into it.”
“I think I’ve made it clear that I wantyou, Stella. If you need a fresh demonstration of my interest, come here. I’m happy to provide it.” He shot the contents of his glass and set it aside.
Her heart swerved and her veins stung with fight-or-flight reaction.
“Marriage is about more than sex.” She looked to the doors to the foyer, ensuring no one was overhearing them. “If that’s all we have, it’s doomed to a very quick death.”
“Oh, Stella. Is that what you’re really holding out for? Love?”
“No,” she insisted, while wondering, maybe? “I deserve to be loved, Atlas.” Anxiety pressed hotly behind her eyes as she declared that because she was loved, but she was also vilified by someone who was supposed to love her.
He sighed, expression turning condescending. “Love doesn’t solve real-world problems. I loved my mother, but it didn’t keep her alive. She loved me, but it didn’t make raising me alone any easier for her. I don’t think you’d be working so hard to help your family if you didn’t love them, but it doesn’t make that easy, does it?Ican make your life easier.”
He leaned forward to claim the drink she hadn’t touched, then negligently dropped into an armchair.
“Let go of your romantic view of marriage, Stella. It should be a strategic alliance that improves your life. Marrying me gives you the means to help your family. It spins our scandal into something viewed as respectable. If it doesn’t work out and we divorce in a year or two, you’ll possess the resources to protect yourself from any fallout.”
“I believe that sort of arrangement is called fortune-hunting. I’m not interested in being that kind of person.”
“Your desire to be independent borders on a fault. This arrangement gets both of us what we want.”
“Like Rafael? Do you seriously want to marry me to cut a business deal?”
“You say it like that’s the only one I’ll secure once I’m at the helm of DVE. But yes. I do.”
“Theylove each other, you know. You must have seen it.”
“Rafael and Alexandra?” He gave a snort of harsh cynicism. “Their marriage was notoriously tactical. Alexandra had a grudge against her parents so she married a man who came from humbler roots than mine. Rafael marriedwayup. He wouldn’t be anywhere near where he is if Alexandra hadn’t used her position to make introductions for him.”
“Well, I can’t get you those sorts of things, so why would you even consider me?”
“I don’t need that the same way Rafael did,” he said blithely. “Having a physical connection with my wife has become my highest priority.”
“I never imagined I would say this, but I would rather have casual sex with you.”
“And I would rather wait until we’re married.” He tilted his glass against his complacent smile.
“What are you going to do?” she mocked. “Hold out until I ask you for a ring?” This was the most ludicrous conversation she’d ever had.
“I’m confident you’ll break first. Based on last night.”
She called him something she’d never called anyone to their face before. She said it in German, but the way his expression frosted told her he got the gist of it.
He moved fast, catching her at the door to the foyer, stopping her from opening it by setting his hand over hers on the latch.
“Sex is a big deal for me,” she hissed as she yanked her hand from beneath his and turned on him. “Not because I’ve never done it, but because my father’s voice is in my head, calling me every name you can think of. Theonetime I let things go too far, I got fired for it. Now you’re mocking me for how I acted last night? I’m already ashamed of it. You don’t have to make it worse.”
“Don’t be ashamed. Don’t you dare.”
He tried to turn her face to look at him and she knocked his hand away, stubbornly keeping her blurred gaze on the fading afternoon beyond the window.