"Cassian." Eirene's tone remained light, but her warning was clear.
I offered her a grateful smile and then answered him. "The whispers didn't come close," I replied, earning a soft chuckle from Derrick across the table. "But I suspect you'd be disappointed if they had."
Cassian's eyes sparked with something that might have been respect. "You’d suspect right."
"The whispers are hardly our concern," Alaric added, his voice carrying a subtle edge. "Selene will form her own opinions."
Dominic chuckled, studying both me and his son. "I think we’re off to a good start then.”
Something warm unfurled in my chest as the conversation bloomed again around us, but when I glanced at Alaric, his eyes hadn't moved from my face.
The afternoon light had softened by the time we stepped outside.
Eirene had insisted I see the gardens before leaving, and I hadn’t had the heart to decline. The Kostas estate stretched likea world unto itself. Terraces layered down the hillside, fountains catching sunlight in fractured gold, every path manicured to perfection.
Beauty lived here, but it was the sort that seemed to whisper,admire, don't disturb. Alaric walked beside me in silence for several minutes, hands in his pockets, his stride unhurried. Something electric hummed in the silence between us, not quite tension, not quite ease.
“You handled them well,” he commented at last.
“Your family?”
He nodded. “Cassian can be abrasive. Derrick enjoys stirring him up. Jason might actually be the most normal one, if you don’t go by the usual definition.”
“I noticed,” I replied dryly, a humored smile touching my lips. "So today was an evaluation?"
He paused mid-step, facing me. "Does it change anything if it was?"
I turned too, tilting my head back to look up into his impossibly blue eyes. We were close enough that the crisp scent of his cologne mingled with the garden air between us. The late afternoon sun caught in his dark hair. Our chests were nearly touching.
I tried to ignore how the tailored edges of his jacket framed shoulders that seemed carved from stone, how nothing in his expression betrayed anything less than perfect control, and focus on what actually mattered, which was answering his question.
“Nothing I say can change what’s happening right now.”
"You're right," Alaric agreed. "Nothing you say can change what's happening."
I smiled, but this time it held no humor. "I know."
"No," he replied, stepping closer until the space between us disappeared completely. His hand came up to brush a strand ofhair from my face, his touch lingering against my cheek. "You don't know, though, because when I told you before that I'd honor your word if you didn't want this marriage, I've since changed my mind."
The garden air suddenly felt too thin. My pulse quickened beneath my skin as his words registered. "Why?" I asked, wanting to know what changed even if in reality it would change nothing.
His eyes darkened as they traced my features, his thumb brushing across my cheek in a touch so light it might have been imagined. "Because I've decided I won’t let you go.”
I felt caught between the instinct to retreat and the inexplicable urge to lean into his touch.
"I'm not yours yet," I reminded him.
His smile was slow and predatory, revealing the edge of his straight white teeth. "Aren't you?"
The question was loaded with meaning.
"My father—."
"Has no power here," Alaric finished for me, his hand sliding to cup the nape of my neck. "Your father trades in fear and control. I deal in absolutes. The difference is that he pretends choice exists where it doesn't." His thumb traced small circles against my skin. "I'm not pretending anything."
I remained as I was, allowing myself to get used to his touch, partially distracted as I silently turned over his words. I wasn’t all that bothered by his declaration, or the casual way he'd stripped away the illusion of choice he’d given. At least his brand of possession came with honesty, which is what had had me asking my next question.
"What about the woman you were with before. Your previous engagement?”