Page 7

As much as I was a willing participant in the whole ordeal, just like Aria, that didn't mean I wasn't still on the fence about her.

I hardly knew her, and she didn't know me in the slightest. We were perfect strangers, only aware of the fact that we belonged to the same world, with similar ambitions.

She was the heir of a long-standing Levov rival, and her brother alone had caused enough trouble for us. If she turned out to be anything like him, then I could only assume she would do the same.

While I had an idea for what she had accomplished over the last few months, I didn't know the intricacies of how she conducted business, or what her true motives were.

As far as I knew, they could've been as innocent as wanting to preserve her modest empire or as devious as wanting to see both us and the Levovs fall. Either way, she was willing to put herself in the middle of it all to accomplish her goals.

In my experience, trust was hard to come by, and I had very little to spare.

And of course, our first interaction of the day was starting with a bang.

"You lied to me."

There was no missing the heat in her eyes, telling me exactly how she felt about everything and the way I shifted the circumstances in my favor.

"I didn't lie to you. I may have withheld some details of the arrangement, and you made more assumptions than you should have," I returned, keeping my expression blank while I let her stew in her anger alone.

Her features twisted even more, not amused in the slightest by my attempts to dismiss her anger. "You misled me entirely. Being locked up in your house wasn't exactly what I had in mind."

"Would you prefer I actually lock you in the spare bedroom, or what?"

It was strangely funny to watch those pretty features of hers be overcome with her irritation, though I didn't let her see it. Even so, I wasn't in the mood to deal with her attitude or the way she assumed being short with me would get her anywhere.

"This isn't a partnership. You're treating this like I'm your captive," she snapped back, stepping closer to me.

"Get used to it. You willingly trapped yourself with me, and now there's nothing either of us can do about it," I muttered, closing even more of the distance between us until I was right in her personal space, gaze set firmly on her. "If you want to be angry with anyone, it should be with yourself for proposing something so radical."

Locking her up and keeping her completely restricted after we officially tied the knot wasn't necessarily part of my plan, but I could see how greatly that idea was grating her nerves.

In a way, it gave me a great deal of satisfaction to watch her squirm, to watch every moment of her reeling and trying to think of a way out.

But so long as she wanted to play diplomat and was willing to offer herself up to me, I was going to take full advantage of it.

She was a small fish in a big pond, and regardless of how I managed to do it, I was going to prove to her that she was in way over her head—that not everyone was cut out to be a leader just because they came from money.

"Be mad at me all you'd like, but it won't change the fact that you started all of this," I murmured, letting a smug grin pull at my lips, still scarcely giving her an inch of room to breathe. "Digging your grave, and all that."

Something seemed to snap in her at that, and the moment her hand flew up to hit me, seconds away from colliding with my face, I snatched her wrist.

A flicker of surprise moved through her face at my speed and the fact that I could anticipate her move before she could even land the blow. But as quickly as it appeared, that shock dropped and morphed back into rage.

Unable to help it, I chuckled at the attempt while I kept my fingers around her wrist, feeling the rapid flutter of her pulse beneath my touch.

A part of me hated to admit how funny I thought the whole thing was since I didn't want to give her even an ounce of credit, but she was slipping and letting go of that previous composure she tried to wear like a second skin.

Something in Aria was already breaking merely from being in my house, from being stuck with me. That felt like a victory in and of itself.

"You should behave, you know," I murmured, taking in the faintest fluster in her face, regardless of how she seemed to fight to keep it down. "I'll be back soon enough with the finalizations of our arrangement. I wouldn't go throwing any hissy fits until then."

Watching even more of that wrath consume her brought me more delicious joy than I would've ever thought possible, especially while she was hanging on to my every word and letting realization wash over her.

She still thought I was bluffing, and while I had been initially, all of that changed once I understood that a marriage pact between us wouldn't be her saving grace—it was going to be torturous for her, and potentially more rewarding than hounding her until she couldn't take it anymore.

No debt would be half as satisfying as having her spend every waking moment agonizing over the fact that I was her husband.

That she was going to be stuck with me for the foreseeable future.

A part of me knew I'd start to miss the way her angry expressions were hardly as intimidating she wanted to believe they were if I didn't follow through with the pact.

In a way, her twisted face was somewhat endearing.

When Aria couldn't manage to say anything else, I huffed out an amused breath before letting go of her wrist and taking a step back.

I wanted her to stew in the moment, to know that regardless of her outburst, she was no closer to tasting freedom than the moment she stepped through those doors.

Looking her over for a moment, I hummed, "And by the way—don't go rearranging all my picture frames while I'm gone."

As the mention of it registered in her mind, another wave of rage came in quick to veil her eyes, but I was already on the way out of the room before she could say anything else.

Keeping my amusement to myself, I went up the stairs to get dressed and head out to see my brothers. All the while, I wondered how Aria would handle all I’d left her to think over. How she might lose her mind in my absence.

I hadn't been keen on the idea of entertaining her proposal, given how she made it out to be a beacon of hope for herself, but with more consideration, I couldn't help but think the whole situation might turn out to be fun after all.

For me, at least.