In three and a half months. I should tell him that. But somehow it feels like a defeat.
We finish our meal in silence, but it’s comfortable. A new bond has formed between us. Not many words were spoken, but the meaning runs deep.
Just as Angelica has come to clear our plates, there’s a knock on the glass window behind me. I turn to see Ian’s eyes searching the property behind us.
“Excuse me,” I say to Rath, who simply goes stony-faced and nods.
I walk back into the ballroom and find myself looking over my shoulders, checking for Bitten spying on us from the shadows of the trees.
“I parked off the main road and walked in,” Ian says quietly for some reason. “Why is your driveway so damn long?”
I laugh and slip my fingers through Ian’s. “Don’t blame me, that was all Henry.”
Without thinking about it, I lead us upstairs because the staff is still going about their duties on the main floor. They all usually wrap up around seven, and it’s just past six-thirty.
We slip into my bedroom and close the door behind us. And the second it is, Ian wraps his hands around my waist and brings my lips to his.
“I’ve missed you,” he growls into my mouth.
“It’s only been a week and a half,” I tease him. He backs us into a wall and that sends an explosion of sparks shooting through my body. My hands snake under his shirt, tracing over his muscular back.
“A veritable eternity,” he breathes as he lets me slip his shirt off over his head.
“You shouldn’t go getting ideas in your head about this,” I say as our lips reconnect. “I just really need some of…this.” I run my hands up over his abs, over his very defined chest muscles.
“It’s all yours,” he says with a smile against my lips.
Ian hoists me up and I wrap my legs around his waist. Like I weigh nothing at all, he turns and crosses the room to the bed. He topples us onto it.
“It really has been a long ten days,” Ian says as he runs a hand along my cheek and looks down at me. “I couldn’t get away from work and Lula was in a bad way for a few days.”
“It’s okay,” I say, absentmindedly tracing a finger up and down the valley between his abs. “I’ve been busy, too.”
“I can’t believe you went and got a job at Fred’s,” he says with a chuckle.
I smile back, because working in the bakery is the most natural thing in the world for me, but then I also come home to this house every afternoon. “Well, I’ve not just been busy with work. I went to see Jasmine last week.”
Ian’s face turns a shade whiter and his expression falls. “What?”
I swallow hard. I’m an adult, I don’t have to justify anything. This is my decision. But I do know how Ian feels about me mingling with the House members.
“I wasn’t just going to wait around again for the House to decide what to do with me,” I start. Ian rolls onto his side and we lie there facing each other. “I made a deal with her.”
“A deal with the House is never good,” he says, barely suppressing a hiss.
“Hear me out, please,” I ask softly.
Ian looks away from me for a moment. His jaw is tight and he looks a bit like he wants to hit something. There’s rage and fight and darkness in Ian. So much of it. But most of the times he looks at me, I see something different. Something softer.
With great effort, he takes a second, calms himself down, and looks back at me. “Okay.”
I tell him everything. How I agreed to claim the House, but not until after my birthday. How I didn’t let Jasmine manipulate me into anything. How I thought Lillian might be an ally if I needed one. How Markov brought everything I was giving up to my attention.
“It’s damn scary that you walked right back into that House,” Ian says. His eyes are open, receptive—not angry. “But it sounds like you know what you’re doing. Maybe like you’re even supposed to be doing this. I’m glad you’re not getting involved, but I think you would have been a great House leader. And that, coming from me, says something.”
And this just brings to light everything that’s doomed about our relationship. That hurts, so much because every time I look at Ian, I see everything that makes me okay with this new life. I see hope and excitement. Acceptance.
“We have three and a half months,” I say quietly. “That’s all I could get us. But it’s ours. They promised to leave me alone.”
Ian rolls forward and kisses my lips and everything in me craves more. Which just brings fear into my heart. “You just have to promise me one thing,” I say as I push him away an inch or two.