Shattered Vows: An Arranged Marriage Standalone Romance (Tarnished Empire)
Shattered Vows: Chapter 30

Another whole month together and Bastian was still home pretty much every night. He left sometimes for work, probably flew around the country in a day, but he came back.

I worked at the food truck.

I went to the humane society. Dr. Nathan told me Moonshine was growing and no one wanted her because they didn’t love pit and rottweiler mixes. I petted my little girl more than I did the others.

Bastian and I lived in a weird harmony. My horoscope even said I should continue it.

I prepared myself and went to the board meeting alone, even though Bastian swore up and down he should come with. I hated the old ways, the world trying to make it so that women needed to rely on their husbands. I stood my ground and his driver took me.

The meeting bored me to death while Ronald made small talk with the board members who were mostly my grandmother’s age. Today they weren’t voting on the government funding–whether it would be oil expansion or clean energy. Yet, Ronald rubbed the right elbows and even tried to rub mine.

He came over after the meeting, smiling with those fake white teeth. “You’ll be at my next event, right, Morina? We’re going over to Tybay beach.”

The one and only topless beach in the area. The way the man glanced down at my tits gave me a perfect indication of the man he was.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Great. Great. I’d love to talk more about your shares. I know you and Bastian are married now, but they’re still your call, right?”

Digging for information subtly wasn’t his strong suit. I smiled and waved as a couple of the board members left. Bastian hadn’t let me go alone. My security lingered in the corner, of course.

“It’s a call I’ll make with my husband.” I turned on my heel and walked out. A quick decision, one my grandmother had known I’d make throughout my life, was to leave that man in the dust.

My shares were going to the right place. Bastian wasn’t slime like Ronald. He’d felt the ocean. He knew my town’s beach.

He’d smiled in the sun and surfed a freaking wave.

I teased him that he deserved a reward other than me in a one-piece. God, I knew I was falling for him. The way he shone as a businessman who wanted to be everyone’s friend in daylight. Then I got Sebastian Armanelli when I pushed him over the edge on a rare night: the man behind the suit, tatted up, vicious, commanding, possessive.

He’d held back for a month and I had too against all the gut feelings I’d normally fly head first into. I’d only kissed him once on the beach, and I would have kissed literally anyone who suited up my food truck the way he had.

We’d been good.

He thought it was for the benefit of my sanity and his and the contract as well. He wanted a clean sign over of my shares to him.

He’d get it either way.

I didn’t know if my sanity would get out so clean though.

When I got home, I told Bastian how the board meeting went. I left out all of Ronald’s sleaziness but told him the next event would be in a couple of weeks at the beach.

My husband searched my face like he wanted to dissect every word I said. Then, he grabbed a small dark spray bottle from the side that hadn’t been there when I’d left.

“What is that?”

He went to the sink and tested the water before filling the spray bottle. “I bought it for the plants.”

“You what?” I whispered, not sure I could handle what was about to happen.

The man shrugged in his collared shirt rolled to his elbows and stood there in complete bafflement at my shock as he held up a freaking spray bottle to water my grandma’s plants.

“I got it for the orchids. We keep dumping water in and it’s not evenly dispersed.” He tsked and went to the island counter and misted the damn flowers.

I almost orgasmed right there.

The head of the freaking mafia was misting my grandma’s flowers like it was the most normal thing in the world. He turned the leaves with such gentleness that I almost cried, holding back my orgasm.

Why was this man such a fucking god, a walking-sex-on-a-stick, gentle but possessive and crazy god?

Placing one hand on my salt lamp, I took deep breaths and tried to absorb some negative ions or whatever would calm me the hell down.

“You still think that thing helps you?” Bastian motioned toward the lamp with his stupid spray bottle.

“It can release negative ions, Bastian. Those same ions that are released near waterfalls and oceans. I figure the ocean soothes me, why can’t this?”

“There’s no scientific research to back that.”

I narrowed my eyes on him. “So, you looked it up?”

He cleared his throat. “When’s this beach event?”

“It’s in a couple weeks. It’s on the beach so I don’t think we need to really prepare.”

“I need to fly out for a few days but I’ll be back by then.”

I nodded and bit my lip. Bastian slept in the other room, but he still came home to eat. He silenced his phone. He talked with me.

We’d become married friends.

“Right. That’s fine.” I turned his ring on my finger, then shrugged. “I have to be at the humane society and man the food truck anyway.”

“I’ll have a guy go with you. Just call the number I text you.”

I cleared my throat and looked down the hall. “Great, I’m going to rise with the sun, so I’m off to bed.”

I hurried down the hall, not sure what to do about the fact my heart tightened at the thought of him not being here with me for a few days.

Even without sex, Bastian was muddling my feelings.

Quick decisions about the man with the spray bottle were most likely going to happen and I was most likely going to regret them at a later date.

“Thanks a lot, Grandma. This is still all your fault,” I grumbled and went to bed.