Betrayed By My Fiancé, I Married His Most Powerful Enemy

Chapter 26: New House

Quinn’s voice came through quieter than it had the day before.

"Valerie, I’m at your place, but it’s just your assistant here."

"I moved."

"Also, since Liam announced you’d be at the corporate event, your fans have completely lost it. They’re saying if you show up, you’re basically endorsing a brand that’s been dragging people through the mud for years now. A lot of them are saying they’re done following you for good if you go through with it."

"What’s Amara saying?"

"She’s thrilled, honestly. Sending you to that event was her idea in the first place. She wants to watch you fall apart in public, and she wants a full audience for it."

I let that settle for a second.

"Then let’s find out whose life actually falls apart by next Wednesday." I paused. "Don’t respond to the fans. Let them talk."

"One more thing," Quinn said. "Liam wants to see you."

Caspian had just gotten home. We were out in the garden, his arm loose around my waist while we wandered slowly between the flower beds, and since he was standing right next to me, he’d heard every single word.

Something shifted across his face. The late golden light caught his eyes, and a slow, amused smile settled there. He bent down close to my ear.

"Give her the address," he said. "Tell Liam you moved, and that the new place actually fits the life you were always supposed to have." His mouth curved slightly at one corner. "Security at Graystone doesn’t let just anyone through the gates."

I laughed under my breath and passed the address along to Quinn.

There was a beat of silence on her end before she relayed it to Liam.

"Valerie says she’s already moved. If you want to see her, you’ll have to come to Graystone Residence."

Graystone Residence.

Anyone in New York who moved in the right circles knew exactly what that name meant. It wasn’t a place you stumbled into by accident. It was a place you were either born into or spent your entire life trying to reach.

Amara’s voice cut in immediately, sharp with disbelief.

"Her? Graystone? How?"

"She comes from an established family," Quinn said flatly. "Graystone is exactly where someone with her background would end up eventually."

The point landed without needing to be spelled out any further. All those years with Liam, I’d quietly folded myself down to fit into his world, made myself smaller so he’d never feel threatened. The second he cut me loose, I’d walked straight back to where I’d always belonged, no hesitation at all.

I ended the call and set my phone down on the table.

Caspian was still right there beside me. He reached over and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear like it was nothing, like his hands just went there on their own without him thinking about it, and that familiar warmth spread through my chest anyway.

"You’re doing it again," I said.

"Doing what?"

"That look."

He didn’t answer. Instead he turned toward me, cupped my face gently in both hands, and kissed me.

It wasn’t the quick, absent kind people traded in passing on their way somewhere else. It was slow and deliberate, carrying something neither of us had bothered to put a name to yet, even though we both already knew exactly what it was. His thumbs traced slowly along my jaw, and before I’d even registered it, my hands had already found the front of his shirt and fisted there.

When we finally broke apart, I felt warmer than the afternoon air alone could explain.

"If you keep doing that," I said, still catching my breath, "waiting is going to get a lot harder for both of us."

"I know." His thumb dragged slowly across my bottom lip, his voice dropping low enough that it was only ever meant for me. "I can’t stop thinking about it. Every time I kiss you I want more, and somehow it’s never enough."

I studied him for a long moment, this man who kept himself so carefully controlled in front of absolutely everyone else.

Then I stepped forward and backed him gently against the garden wall.

"You’re not the only one." My voice came out softer than I actually meant it to. "I keep telling myself not to think about you, and it never works. Especially not when you look at me like that when you think I’m not paying attention."

I held his gaze, steady.

"Can you still hold out?"

"Not much longer," he admitted, no teasing in it at all, just plain, quiet honesty.

"I want you. Right now. Just you."

He was one of the most composed men I’d ever met in my life, and there he was, pressed against his own garden wall, watching that control slip a little more with every passing second. He smiled, restrained and warm, and something underneath it that looked dangerously close to giving in completely.

"A patient man would wait," he said.

"A patient woman wouldn’t be standing this close."

His hands landed on my waist and pulled me flush against him, close enough that I could feel exactly what patience was costing him.

"Tonight," he said quietly. "We’ll finish this tonight."

I smiled against his shoulder and didn’t argue at all.

That was when one of the maids came out to find us. Security had called up from the front gate. Someone was already asking for me.

Caspian smoothed my hair back into place and straightened my collar with the same quiet attention he gave to everything, like nothing about me ever escaped his notice, not even the smallest detail.

"Go change and take the new car."

I understood exactly what he meant and exactly why he meant it.

I kissed his cheek. "Thanks, hubby."

He watched me go with that same small, private smile, and didn’t say another word.

I imagined Liam hadn’t wanted to come at all. Some part of him had to know that showing up here would only make things worse, and I’d have bet good money that feeling hit him hard the second his car pulled up to the gates and security made him wait outside like everyone else, just another name to be cleared before he got anywhere near the people who actually lived inside.

Whatever confidence he’d driven over with, I doubted much of it survived the gate.