He left me in the blue suite, nothing to unpack since we’d come straight from the office. I sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the wall. Time was ticking by, with only a few hours until I had to be ready to meet the family, but I was still too stunned to think about what I would wear, how I’d get my things from the hotel. It might have been ten minutes or an hour before there was a tap at the door.
I choked out an answer, sounding like a cross between a ghost and a mouse. The door swung inward, and the clothes I recognized as being the ones from my shopping spree came through on a rolling rack. I had taken them to the hotel with me, not trusting them to storage, and expecting to have to return them soon enough.
“I had someone retrieve these for you,” Rurik said, pushing the rack through.
Someone? Did he have another, secret assistant I didn’t know about? And how did that person get into my hotel room? It was just one more thing I didn’t have the mental space to think about at the moment. I stood up automatically, helping roll the rack toward the huge, walk-in closet.
He caught my glance as it flashed over all the beautiful, expensive clothes, fitting into the mansion a lot better than I did.
“What should I wear tonight?” I asked.
“Whatever you like,” he said with a slight shake of his head. “You’ve never gone wrong yet, and you look gorgeous in anything.”
The compliment braced me, and I nodded as he reached for my hand to tug me around to his side of the rack. “There’s something else,” he said, not letting go, his palm warm as he encased my fingers. “Something important.”
He reached into his pocket and held out the rings I’d tossed back at him what seemed like a lifetime ago. “We need to get these back where they belong.”
I looked down at my bare left hand, still held in his. It felt naked. Wrong, even after only wearing them for such a short time. Just like he said, they belonged there.
Oh God. I didn’t want to get out of this marriage.
Not because of the Koboyashis. Not because of the millions. Not because it would have been inconvenient.
Because when he’d said “our house,” back when I was freaking out, something inside me had clicked into place. Because when he showed me the library, I felt like I found something I didn’t know was lost.
Because the thought of sharing a room with him, really sharing, not just pretending, had made my skin heat up and my pulse race in ways it had no business doing.
I was terrified. Exhilarated. I was married to Rurik Fokin.
He slid the rings back on, raised my hand to his lips, and placed a soft kiss on my knuckles. “Better,” he said, then gave me a grin. “You’re going to be great tonight.”
Right. That was why the rings were back on. Tonight I’d be meeting the in-laws.
He left me with the rack of clothes and a freshly spinning head. Fine. This was fine. I had a job to do, and I’d do it.
The chandelier light in the closet that was bigger than my last apartment flashed on the rolling rack as I worked to put the clothes away. This was home.
For now.
Maybe longer. Damn it, was that a wish? I had learned long ago that wishes were futile, despite my love of ancient fairy tales. But what could it hurt to try to have a little hope? Something I forgot existed.
Yes, maybe longer. I let the thought settle, as fragile and bright as the crystals hanging over my head, and set about choosing the outfit that would wow my new family.
Chapter 16 - Rurik
There was no way I’d put her through the wringer of having to meet my entire family right away. For one thing, some of them were up in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley region. And another, Clem still seemed unsteady on her feet after so many changes in quick succession.
She was taking it all like a champ, but my family could be… a lot. And all of them at once might send her into hiding. Even a few could be overwhelming, but I needed a distraction. Badly.
Clem was mine. The marriage papers had arrived, and she was finally in my house, albeit in a guest room. I wanted her in my own room—our room—but I wanted her to come to me.
She hadn’t taken the rings off and thrown them back in my face. That was a good sign. But she still believed it was all for the business deal with the Koboyashis. Only time and patience would solve that, and to have patience, I needed to keep my mind off how close she was.
When she came downstairs, precisely on time, she took my breath away in a royal blue dress that skimmed her curves and made her sleek black hair shine like obsidian in contrast. We were going to my cousin’s diner in Hollywood, which was casual at lunchtime but a bit dressier at night when the celebrities came to be seen. As usual, she was perfect and doing her best to hide her nerves.
Her ultra-professional attitude was getting on my nerves, but there was nothing I could do about it. The confident facade crumbled when we were led to the table that was already full of my rowdy, raucous family members.
“This is a few?” she asked, her steps slowing.