He’s teasing me but he doesn’t realize I’m actually hurt. I’m actually feeling the pain I am trying to share with him. “She is never coming back! This spastic mess your family has made me, that you have made me, is sticking around forever.” I try joking back with him, hating that my heart is showing.
He laughs like I don’t mean it, but I do. I vow silently never to be cool around him again. He strokes my cheek again and kisses me softly. “I adore you, Jane. I love you, but there is so much more to it, and I don’t know how to explain it. They are my family; I see them once a year. I put in the visit, and that’s that. You are my life. I am marrying you because you are my everything.”
A cheesy grin finds its way to my lips as my eyes lower and a soft blush creeps along my cheeks.
He smiles wider, and the green eyes dazzle me like my very own snake charmer. “There she is. I knew you’d come back.”
I lean in, resting my head on his chest. “I wanted to be me, genuinely, not just Jane who can survive every situation. Does that make sense?”
He kisses the top of my head. “Of course.”
“Is there anything I should know going forward from here, beyond, obviously, the fact that you grew up in a ten-million-dollar home?” I ask as he tenses, making me pull back and look up into his eyes. He hesitates, but I sigh. “At this point, you might as well just say it, whatever it is. We have far surpassed the level of shit I can take in a night, so whatever is left, just do it. Lay it on me.”
“There is the small matter of your job. I told them you are a scientist at the research facility I work at. We met at work. You are incredibly smart, and we are incredibly in love. I proposed in France at the bridge with the keys you are so fond of. You’re not quite as Catholic as you would have my parents believe. You hold a PhD in molecular biology but will quit working when we marry.”
“Are you high? You went for molecular bio instead of psychoanalyzing like I do? I’m a criminal profiler. It’s a job—a real one. It’s respectable. If you wanted you could have told them about the years as an assassin and spy. I do have a title in the military if you were desperate. I am Master Sergeant Spears in the real world. Is that not respectable enough? If not you could have said I was a shop girl. Anything is better than molecular biology! I don’t know my ass from a molecule.”
He chuckles softly. “Deep breaths! Don’t get upset again.” He looks back at the window behind him, where his parents’ house is in perfect view. “They won’t even talk about your job, Jane. Women in society don’t hold jobs after they marry. They partake in tax deductions like charities and such. They raise kids and maintain the home.”
“ ‘Maintain the home’?” I don’t even want to get started on kids. In my mind that conversation ended when he perused my file illegally. I roll my eyes. “Let me guess, you have our house already picked out for us, and it’s just down the road?”
“No. I never come here. My houses aren’t near here.” He swallows hard.
“Did you just say houses?” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “It doesn’t matter. I just can’t believe you say I am bad for keeping things to myself. You picked out a house without me? You picked out a mansion, didn’t you? And you clearly have others. You said houses.” When he doesn’t answer I open my eyes and glare. “How big is our home, Dash?” I can’t help but say his name like it tastes bad. “Did you buy it already?” I don’t actually like the ranting psycho I have become. I sound like a real girl.
He swallows hard. “Actually, that is the funny part.” He looks nervous and glances back at the house. “I know I’ve been staying with you at your place—”
“Our place.”
He nods and laughs nervously. “Right, of course. Our place. But I have actually got a house, well, several, which is why I said houses. Real estate is an excellent investment. And while I own a few, there is one that is my main house. It isn’t close enough to DC, so I never really go there, and the staff—”
“You do own houses? Houses?” I push back, fighting back bile. “Oh my God! Stop.” The panic is building inside of me again. “We can talk about it another time. I don’t need to know this shit for this mission. We are pushing this to need-to-know, that’s it. I don’t need to know you own houses with staff and expect me to go to these houses and keep them up for you.”
“Mission?”
I nod, taking a deep breath and looking around the room for possible weapons again. It’s surprisingly diverting. “Yes, this is a mission. I am a doctor named Jane Spears, and you are my mark.” I snarl at him. “Let’s see if you can live through the entire night.”