His question stabbed at her heart.
Stomach knotting, she regarded the ring seated pristinely within its cushion. A square diamond lay at the center and smaller ones studded the braided band. It was far too gorgeous to represent something as ugly as their romance.
A hopeful spark electrified Dayton’s eyes but she kept hers glued to the ring, that inanimate object that wouldn’t try to gauge her expression or prod for an answer.
The man she loved was at her feet, asking for her hand, and all she felt was dread. Despite that love, she had agreed it’d be irresponsible to tie herself to him in any meaningful way.
And then it hit her.
They had never discussed having formally entered a relationship and yet he was proposing.
She remembered what Reynolds had said during her questioning, that Dayton had referred to her as his girlfriend. And, even though they were never official, it didn’t strike her as odd until this moment. Audrey’s words rang through her head.‘This is moving too fast.’
“Sit down,” she commanded in a whisper.
Everyone who had been on standby for applause went back to minding their own business as he returned to the booth, setting the closed box on the table.
Displeasure washed over him but he stayed quiet and waited for Kenna to speak. He drained his glass and refilled it, dark gaze fixed on her.
“Marriage, honestly?”
“Why can’t you wrap your pretty head around the fact that I love you?”
“You may love me, but I know you.” Her throat constricted as she lowered her voice. “How do you suppose I could so much as entertain accepting a proposal from you given that you may be amurderer?”
“Don’t act so innocent. I know what you’ve been up to. You and your Nancy Drew crusades. Your trip to California. Your fake gynecology appointment. You’ve been rifling through my things, stealing DVDs. Tsk, tsk.” Something sinister possessed him and she had flashbacks of the night he’d held her against his bedroom door, fearful that, if she went home with him after this disastrous dinner, things would be much worse.
Through it all, he kept his voice level. “If you want to keep things from me, I suggest you get better at hiding them.”
Tense minutes passed without a word. All Kenna heard was the thudding of her heart in her empty chest.
“There’s a part of you that thinks I did this. I also know there’s a more prevalent part that loves me.”
She’d never said the words and, somehow, he knew. But Dayton couldn’t have actually known what it was like being in love with him. She felt like a balloon stretched to the limit with oxygen, trapping all of that airy lightness but having no room to breathe. Fearing sharp objects at every turn, something that had the power to deflate her modicum of happiness.
“What is this actually about?” she asked.
He was silent, searching her face in earnest, as if he were waiting for her to arrive at a conclusion. He didn’t wait long.
Lips parting, he delivered a statement that chilled her to the bone. “Spouses can’t testify against each other.”
Her gut birthed an intense pain. A hand sprouted within, tearing and twisting at her insides. Bile rose and its acidity blazed a trail up her esophagus but she slammed her eyes shut and willed it to dispel.
Kenna looked at the sparkling ring. The tiny flecks of light casting off the diamonds blurred as her tears welled. She’d received the eviction notice from her landlord and now the prince of darkness was proposing. No matter that she loved him.
Marriage was unthinkable.
She didn’t know if he was guilty and scared or innocent and simply manipulating her into accepting the offer, but as she drank in his face she arrived at her answer.
Though it defied all logic, she wanted only to help him.
Her voice quaked. “If we do this … if there’s a trial, I want out afterward.”
“I knew you would come to your senses.” A faint smile tugged at the lines in his cheeks as he plucked the jewelry from its box, beckoning for her to extend her arm. “I’ve been dying to see how this would look on you.”
Dayton seized her trembling hand with both of his and delicately slid the ring on her finger. It was beautiful, but as it lay against her skin, her head was filled with visions of a curse surging through her veins, blood turning black and coagulated. His intense stare was a bad trip from which she was reeling to escape but she was granted no relief as he placed a featherlight kiss on the inside of her wrist.
“You’re mine now, lamb.”