His Ring Is Not Enough

“No, Ajax, you wouldn’t have been. You would have been fine, but not perfect. Because she’s not perfect. You certainly aren’t.”

“But it made sense,” he said. “In my head...in my head she made everything fall into place.”

“She’s not a business venture, and she’s not an ideal, either.”

He rubbed his temples with his fingertips. “I know that.”

“Well, you don’t seem to. You talk like marriage to her was your end goal and then...and then what? It would just be perfect? Your life would suddenly be perfect?”

“I can’t... It’s hard to... I’ve been working, Leah, so hard, all of my life. I came to your family’s home, and your parents treated me more like a son than an employee. They took me in, gave me focus and purpose. Your father set me on this path. He taught me things, taught me how to be a man, to be strong. He gave me goals. He sent me to school. I have been walking that path he set me on, tirelessly, never looking away from the goal, from the end.”

“To where you would make Holt continue on for him. Where you would be part of our family.”

“I’ve been walking for a long time,” he said.

“And then you reach the end and you rest?”

“And then maybe I don’t have to work so hard to stay in control all the damn time because I’ll have arrived at a more stable point,” he bit out. “My...everything would be in place.”

Because things weren’t now. He’d made money, obtained power and connections. He’d used all of the resources at his disposal to bring down his father’s drug and human trafficking ring. And he still couldn’t rest. He still didn’t feel he could stop working. Stop trying to distance himself from his past.

From all he had done.

“Why do you need to hang on to control so tightly, Ajax?” she asked, her eyes filled with...sympathy. Pity. If she knew who she was talking to, if she knew the beast that lived inside him, she wouldn’t look at him like that.

He stood and started to pace the room. “It’s nothing. This is nothing. It can still be fixed.”

Leah studied him, noticed the tension in his jaw, in the lines of his body. He was uncomfortable, and thrown off. And she had to take into account that he could very well be heartbroken.

He said he loved Rachel. But for the first time she wondered. Wondered if he’d ever known her really, or if she’d just been symbolic for him.

“I have a plan, Leah,” he said.

She crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “Oh, good. Let’s hear it.”

He stopped moving, his hands locked behind his back. “First, we must show a united front. I am taking over a massive corporation here, changing the layout in some respects. We need to show solidarity—I will not appear weak.”

“No, you wouldn’t.” She couldn’t imagine him appearing weak anyway.

“And I will not be seen as a man forced into this situation.”

“Pride is a beautiful thing. At least I think it is. I don’t know that I have any left.”

“I find myself in short supply, as well.” His expression turned fierce. “And I will turn my focus to helping mass produce Leah’s Lollies products, as soon as time allows.”

She ignored the leap her heart took and looked down at her fingernails. “Payment for services rendered?”

He looked stricken for a moment, and his face paled. Then, as soon as the reaction occurred, he covered it again. “This is not that sort of arrangement. You are my wife. Not a woman I have purchased.”

“And how long will I be your wife?” That was the one bit left undiscussed. Undecided. Would she be his wife on paper, or in reality.

“I made vows,” he said. “I intend to honor them. Do you?”

“In what regard?”

“In all regards. What’s the sense in divorce when this union could serve us both?”

“We’re missing the love bit.”

“You don’t strike me as the kind of woman who’s overly romantic.”

He was right. Now. It hadn’t always been true. But over time...over time all that sunny optimism had bled from her, an open vein that had truly begun the hemorrhage the moment she’d first seen Rachel standing by Ajax. The perfect couple, so beautiful, so poised. The embodiment of her heartbreak.

“I’m not especially. But what do I get out of this, Ajax? Beyond a husband who is bitter toward me and will think of other women if we ever make love?”

He looked her over, slowly, and something changed in his eyes, heat sparking in their dark depths. Heat that lit an answering fire in her stomach. Heat that reminded her just how strong a pull Ajax had over body.

“What do I get?” she repeated, her voice a whisper.

“What do you want?”

As they’d both pointed out, their pride was all but destroyed. So why cling to it now? She wasn’t going to sit around, angry over not getting what she wanted because she hadn’t asked for it. She was going to make her own demands. If he wanted a marriage, she would give him a marriage.

She had her armor now—she didn’t need love. She didn’t want it. Didn’t want emotion. But a business partnership, cemented by marriage, that she could handle. And sex with Ajax? Well, she was attracted to him. And frankly, she was over being a virgin. This was a convenient way to deal with both her attraction to him and the virginity. A win-win situation, really.

And yeah, kissing him had knocked her defenses a bit, but it wouldn’t happen again. Not when she was the one making demands. Not when it was expected.

She would make this a marriage that would work for her, not just for him. To hell with his plans, she had plans of her own. If he said no, maybe he’d release her.

But if he said yes...

“If we’re going to stay married, then I want a marriage. I want you, in my bed, every night, and never with another woman. I want you to support me personally and professionally. I won’t live a half life forever because of a rash decision I made.”

“Naturally,” he said, “I want children, as I said already. It has always been a part of my plan. And you?”

She hadn’t given it a lot of thought, because marriage had seemed a far-off event. But part of her had always taken for granted that she would be a mother someday.

“I want them,” she said, trying not to think too deeply about it.

“And as you are my wife, sleeping with you seems only logical. What is the point of seeking physical release elsewhere?”

“I’m relieved you feel that way.” Though not overly flattered. “Better for our health, wellness and media image, I imagine.”

“However, I stand by my original statement. You and I may figure out the finer points of our relationship after this whole thing has been smoothed over in the public arena. While we’re attending events as blissful newlyweds, it would be best if our personal relationship was kept as simple as possible. I don’t want Christofides thinking there might be a weakness he can exploit. I don’t want him to get desperate and decide he should come and seduce you.”

“Me?”

“He may very well if he sees that Rachel is a dead end to destroying my goals.”