Betrayed By My Fiancé, I Married His Most Powerful Enemy

Chapter 33: No One’s Backdrop

Caspian finished dinner and came upstairs a while later, pushing the bedroom door open to find me sitting up in bed with the bouquet of roses in my lap, counting the stems one by one under my breath. I didn’t even notice him standing there until I looked up.

"This is the most flowers anyone’s ever given me," I said, my voice brighter than I meant it to sound. "I really wasn’t expecting this, Caspian."

He leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching me with something warm and a little teasing in his expression. "Why are you so easy to please? A few flowers and you light up like that. There’s so much I want to give you, and you never ask for any of it. Why can’t you be like other women and ask for diamonds, or jewels, or more fame?"

I laughed and tipped my head back to look at him. "I already have all of you. Isn’t that greedy enough? I have your marriage, your name, half your assets, and the rest of your life. Jewels and fame I can get on my own. Nothing matters more than you."

Something shifted across his face. He crossed the room, leaned down, and kissed me without a word, and I felt him smile against my mouth.

"Your lips are too sweet," he murmured. "I can’t help myself."

I pulled him closer by the shoulders and kissed him back just as hard. In under a minute we were tangled together, my shirt already somewhere on the floor, and the warmth of him was overwhelming in the best possible way. I didn’t want any of it to stop.

I followed his lead and started on the buttons of his shirt. When the fabric fell open and I got a good look at the warm bronze of his skin, my face went hot and I turned my head to the side without meaning to.

Caspian laughed low in his chest. He curved a hand around my neck and brought my attention back to him. "Do you want this?"

"Do you?" I threw the question right back at him.

"You already know what I’m waiting for." He said it close to my ear. "Say the word and I’ll keep you in this bed all night."

I understood exactly what he meant. My heart was pounding as I answered. "I’m not a hundred percent sure of everything yet. But I know I want the rest of my life with you, Caspian."

That was enough for him. He didn’t push past where I was ready to go, but he still found ways to make the night feel complete. Afterward we lay tangled together in the quiet, and I pressed my face into his chest with an exaggerated sigh.

"I saw what you bought," I said. "I genuinely thought you were ready to go all the way. I even showered because of it. Mortifying."

He propped his head up on one hand. "What thing?"

I reached under the pillow and pulled out the Durex, holding it up between us. He took it, looked at the packaging, and his eyebrows drew together in something close to indignation.

"I’m not that small."

"Stop, oh my god." I yanked the blanket over my face.

"Nothing to be embarrassed about," he said, and I could hear the laugh in his voice even through the blanket. "I’m completely taken with how you react to things."

I burrowed deeper. "No more talking about it."

He reached in and pulled me back out, tucking me firmly against his side. "Fine. Different subject. You’ve already accepted the Secret Magazine shoot, haven’t you?"

I resurfaced and looked at him. "Why do you ask? Worried I’ll come out looking worse than Amara?"

"If the shoot takes you to the States, tell me your itinerary the second it’s confirmed." Something in his expression said he already had a plan taking shape.

"What are you thinking?" I asked, watching him.

He didn’t answer directly. I wouldn’t find out until much later that he was already thinking about insuring my legs, and that the States was exactly where he intended to arrange it.

"We already agreed," I reminded him lightly. "Outside this house, you’re the head of a major company and I’m a model at a small agency. We don’t get involved in each other’s work."

"Mrs. Novak," he said, one eyebrow lifting, "have I ever gotten involved?" He said it calm and even, but I knew what it cost him to hold that line. Watching Xova treat me the way they had must have made him want to take the whole company apart, and with his reach he could have finished Liam off before I even noticed. He’d held back anyway, because he understood I needed to do this myself.

I understood that completely. It was one of the reasons I loved every single day with him.

"Liam put Amara and me on the same shoot because he wants to use my momentum to lift her profile," I said, thinking it through out loud. "And he’s probably hoping that sharing the spotlight will keep me from going after her, since anything that damages her would come back on me too."

"Except," Caspian said, finishing the thought for me, "with what you’re capable of, even sharing a magazine cover with her, you’d still turn her into your backdrop."

"You have that much faith in me?"

"I believe in you."

That was enough. I curled into him and let myself drift off, settled and safe.

The next morning I arrived at Xova with Quinn and Nicole. Amara and her assistant came through the main entrance almost at the same moment, as commanding as ever. Staff greeted her with visible deference. When they noticed me, the reaction was noticeably flatter, and a few didn’t bother acknowledging me at all.

Amara glanced at me, then let her eyes drift pointedly to Quinn standing at my side. "Valerie, you should be careful who you keep around you. She’s already betrayed one employer."

"I’ve dealt with a mistress who stole another woman’s fiancé," I said, keeping my smile easy. "A manager who switched sides doesn’t exactly keep me up at night."

Her smile sharpened. "Your popularity’s decent right now, I’ll give you that. But no matter how much attention you’re getting, you’ll still be standing behind me. Didn’t Liam explain? The whole point of the Secret shoot is to build me up ahead of the Top Ten Model Awards."

"Then good luck in advance." I turned toward the staff gathered nearby and raised my voice just enough for the room. "My lawyer went through my contract with Liam yesterday. Xova’s agreed to treat me according to what I’m owed. Amara and I are both models under this agency, and I expect to be treated the same way she is. Show me respect, and I’ll return it."

I said it flat, no heat, no apology in it. Firm was enough.

The staff who’d been ignoring me a minute earlier recalibrated fast. It didn’t take them long to work out that I wasn’t someone to overlook anymore, and the greetings that followed were louder and more deliberate than anything they’d given Amara.

Satisfied, I walked forward.

Her backdrop.

She was going to have to keep dreaming.