“You haven’t given me a date.” He sat upright in the chair and looked at me with impatience. He was annoyed and angry, but he didn’t emit the same level of evil the other guy had. Hades seemed harmless…for the most part.
“You haven’t given me a ring.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Didn’t realize you wanted one.”
“Isn’t that a requirement for marriage? To wear a wedding ring?”
He didn’t answer my question. “When were you thinking of doing this?”
“I don’t know…people are usually engaged for a year before they tie the knot.”
He immediately looked livid. “I’m not waiting a year. A month, at the most.”
“You expect me to throw a wedding together in a month?”
“Your family plans elaborate parties all the time. Let’s do it in the ballroom here at the hotel.”
That was where I’d always imagined getting married—just not to someone like him.
“Unless you had somewhere else in mind.”
“No…”
“Then make it happen.” He turned to his paperwork. “There’s a meeting with the board tomorrow, and I think—”
“I need a ring.”
His jaw tightened at the request. “Don’t interrupt me.”
“Then don’t change the subject.”
He threw down the papers. “I’ll get you a damn ring, alright?”
“I want it now—not at the wedding.”
Now he just looked perplexed. “For hating me so much, you seem to be in a hurry to marry me.”
“It’s not that. I just want everyone to know I’m betrothed.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Did someone bother you?”
I didn’t want to talk about the creepy man who had made me feel uncomfortable in my own office. Hopefully, I’d never see him again. “A few men have taken an interest in me. If I were wearing a ring, that probably wouldn’t happen.”
Hades digested that confession, his jaw shifting as his teeth ground together. “I’ll get one today. How about that?”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
He sighed before he looked at the paperwork. “At the meeting tomorrow—”
“Aren’t you going to ask me what kind of ring I want?”
His eyes turned hostile. “What did I just say about interrupting me?”
“Let’s finish our conversation first.”
“Why don’t you just spit everything out so we can move on, alright? If you take this long to get your point across, imagine how you’re going to handle the board members and everyone else at this hotel. Get to the goddamn point and be concise.” His hand formed a fist, and he set it on the desk. His brown eyes were steaming like hot coffee, but he didn’t undress me the way Maddox did. He was attracted to me, but he wasn’t creepy about it. He was an asshole, but he didn’t cross the line.
“I want a princess cut ring—white gold.”
“Got it.”
“But I don’t want anything too fancy. I prefer simple things.”
“I’m buying you the biggest diamond I can find.”
“But I don’t want that—”
“You’ll be my wife, so you’ll need to look like my wife. All people will have to do is look at your left hand and know you’re married to a very powerful man. That’s exactly what you want, right? To look the part?”
“Hades, this is the ring I’m going to be wearing for the rest of my life. I want to love it.”
He sighed quietly as his fist relaxed. He looked away for a moment, wrestling with his thoughts before he looked at me again. “Alright.”
“Thank you.”
“We’ll pick one out after work. That way, you’ll get exactly what you want.”
This was super weird.
I was in the passenger seat of his car as we drove to the jewelry store. It was a different car from the last one he’d had, an updated model with the same blacked-out windows. The paint job looked like the deep recesses of space had been plastered across the surface.
Music played through the speakers, drowning out the silence and replacing the conversation we weren’t having.
I looked out the window and tried to pretend I was somewhere else.
He didn’t try to make small talk either. He’d never had much to say, even when things were good between us, and now he was cold like frostbite—the kind of cold that could make your skin turn black.
And soon…he would be my husband.
He parked at the curb, and we entered the store. The door was locked behind us, so we could have all the privacy we wanted. The owner shook hands with Hades. “Congratulations, sir. Now comes the hard part…finding a diamond as beautiful as your future wife.”
Hades gave a slight nod. “Thank you, Emilio.”
I looked through the glass cases and eyed the sparkling diamonds. They were all beautiful, and I’d be lucky to wear any of them. I moved to the princess cut diamonds and found a simple one I liked. With a large diamond in the center and smaller ones along the band, it was exactly what I wanted. Not too big, not too flashy. “Can I try it on?”
Emilio pulled it out of the case and slipped it onto my left hand. “Perfect fit.”
I gazed at my left hand and admired the way the diamonds caught the light. Beautiful rainbows illuminated my gaze because the clarity was phenomenal. There was no price tag listed, so I had no idea how much it cost…not that it mattered to Hades.
Emilio turned to Hades. “She’s in love, sir.”
Hades came to my side and looked at my left hand. “Is that the one you want?”
“Yes…if that’s okay.” I knew he preferred the biggest diamond in the display case, but bigger wasn’t always better. At least not to me. I started to slide it off my finger.
Hades grabbed my hand and steadied me. It was the first time he’d touched me in years. I recognized the familiar heat of his body, felt the tremor as his skin touched mine. It was an authoritative grab. His hold suddenly loosened. “Leave it on.” He let me go and pulled out his wallet. A black credit card was put on the counter, plain with nothing on the front.
Emilio took it. “Thank you, sir.”
“How much is it?” I asked, feeling the extra weight on my left hand. I’d never worn jewelry, so it felt odd to have something squeeze my finger, to feel something weigh me down with commitment.
“Doesn’t matter. I could buy this store and everything in it if I wanted to.”
“I just thought I could—”
“No.” He would never take my money. It seemed pointless to even ask.
He got his card back and slipped it into his wallet. Then we walked back to his car. “I never want to see you without that ring. You understand me?” He opened the passenger door so I could get inside. “That’s one of my conditions.”
“What does it matter?”
He cocked his head slightly. “It shows your loyalty.”
“How would you feel if I made the same demand of you?”
He continued to hold the door, his body rigid as he stared at me in silence. “When I put on that ring, I’m never going to take it off. That’s fidelity. That’s loyalty. That’s commitment. I shouldn’t even have to explain that to you.”