Til Debt Do Us Part (Married At Midnight #4)

Chapter 27

Twenty-Seven

Talia

T aking the elevator to the penthouse, I swallow. I can’t help but run my hands over my hair and the short black dress I chose from the rolling rack that the glam squad left behind. I don’t know what to expect when I step through the doors, but the doors open and I move through them automatically, my eyes roving all around.

The entire loft is huge — absolutely monstrous. There are obscenely high ceilings with skylights, beautiful navy walls with twenty-foot floor-to-ceiling windows, and dark wood and tile flooring. Everything gleams; everything catches my eye.

To my right is a very stylish living room area that is separated from the rest of the house by thin rice paper walls. To my left, I see Dare leaning against the sparkling white countertop of a freestanding kitchen island that looks like a worn cement slab.

Dare is talking to a small, balding man in a dark wool sweater paired with black jeans. Dare’s almost completely ignoring him in favor of the figures that sit at the granite end of that cement island, their hulking figures taking up all the space around them.

One is dressed in an elegant white silk top and dark pants. From here, I can see that she is clearly a female, although I didn’t realize that women as tall and broad as her could also be rather refined and sophisticated. Her thick black hair is pinned up against her head, and she laughs at something that Dare says. Well, ‘chuckles’ is more like it.

Her counterpart is every bit as big as she is—massive like a tree trunk and tall as a skyscraper. He is dressed in black slacks, but he wears a slightly more casual black hoodie. Paired with his graying hair, it makes for a rather remarkable combination.

As I stand in the open living room, Dare looks over and spots me.

He raises his hand, hailing me. "Ah, the woman of the hour! Frick and Frack, meet Talia. Talia, meet Frick and Frack."

The two giants stand up, turning to greet me. I walk forward, my pulse pounding. I shake their hands, grimacing as Frick, the woman, grips my hand a little too hard.

"Hello. We are pleased to meet you." She smiles at me and her accent is thick, something vaguely Middle Eastern. It pairs well with her sandstone-colored skin, I think.

"Pleasure to meet you as well." I shake hands with Frack and wince again, as he is too strong for his own good.

Ending the encounter as soon as possible, I turn to the other young man. "And who is this?"

"That’s Rob, my personal assistant," Dare says. "But don’t pay him any attention right now. I really want you to meet your new security detail."

"Security detail?" I glance at Frick and Frack and then back to Dare. "Is that really necessary?"

He encourages me to step forward and then slides his arm around me. I freeze up at first, but he gives me a sharp look.

"Everybody that has money has security. It’s really not optional for you."

Frick clears her throat and smiles evenly. "We will be with you all the time. There will be other guards with us, but we will be taking point."

I screw up my face. "If you think it’s really needed…"

“It is, believe me. I'd rather have them following you around everywhere and nothing bad happen than be sorry after something bad does happen.”

I give him a skeptical look but shrug. "Okay. I guess." I wave my hand to the whole penthouse. "Are you going to show me around?"

Dare smiles at Rob and then tells Frick and Frack they can wait downstairs in the security room on the fourth floor. Frack waves goodbye to me, Frick bows her head, and then they hustle to the elevator.

I take a deep breath and look at Dare while biting my tongue. He'll get an earful about it later, but for now, I'm focused on Rob.

"I’m sorry, Rob, was it?" I extend my hand, and he shakes it, his grip much less aggressive. "It's nice to meet you. Do you mind if I steal my fiancé for a minute?"

Rob blinks. "I swear, I thought that Dare had somehow tricked you into coming here. Hearing you say that is just surreal for me."

"Rob," Dare says with a glare. "Why don’t you run along and make sure that the photographers get in here okay."

Rob nods his head and agrees. I'm left alone with Dare after his hasty retreat.

"Well? Shall I show you the place?"

I glance at the thin rice paper walls between this room and the living room. "Sure. My only question is, those walls seem so thin. Will that not be a problem when the baby comes?"

"Oh, we won’t be here that long. Maybe two months at the most. You'll probably barely be showing by then." He looks at me, his gaze tightening on my face. "You're about, what? Two months along?"

For some reason, the question hits me with a thud like a baseball bat to the chest. The wind is knocked out of me briefly, and I put my hands on my knees. Closing my eyes, I nod at him.

"What are you doing?" he asks sharply. "What is this?"

I suck in a deep breath and straighten. "Nothing. I just hadn’t really thought about that quite yet. God, how can I already be two months into a pregnancy and barely have any idea?"

Dare picks at a piece of lint on his dark suit sleeve, shrugging a shoulder. "I don’t know. This is the first one that I’ve ever been up close and personal with. I don’t exactly have a lot of pregnant lady friends."

"Ha ha," I shoot back. "Well?" I slide my arm into his, feeling a hint of satisfaction at how well we fit together. "I don’t know exactly what has come over me, but I am a little tired, to tell you the truth."

He smirks down at me and executes a mocking bow. "Allow me to show you the bedroom. Right this way, mademoiselle."

He shows me around the loft quickly, walking past the chic living room I have already seen, an office area, another all-white living room area that’s quite cozy, and an empty space walled off on two sides.

The thin white paper walls seem just like a bare room. "What is this going to be?"

He shrugs. "Undecided. I thought maybe you would like to pick out some furniture for whatever suits you. I’ve already filled a room with office equipment and a desk. So maybe this can be your private quarters."

I turn around and give him a surprised look. "You considered me before you thought about the layout of the apartment?"

Dare moves away, fidgeting. He is rarely uncomfortable, so I have a hard time pinning the emotion on him, but he certainly looks like he doesn’t want to be having this conversation.

"Before you think about it too much, it’s not like I did anything. When I was doing the planning, I left the room empty at Rob’s suggestion. So you really have to think about him. He was key in picking out most of the furniture in this place and your engagement ring. I don’t really like doing much of that stuff."

I nod and poke my cheek out with the tip of my tongue. "I’m getting a sense of that now."

He grabs my arm and hauls me on. "There are two more rooms. This one is the baby’s room.”

It is just beside the kitchen, although I notice that the walls are made of a sturdier material not unlike stucco. I step in and look around, gasping.

There is a gorgeous white crib sitting strategically in a sunbeam with a beautiful white mobile hanging over it. There’s a changing table and a little white dresser, matching the theme of this room. Every surface is done in either stark white with tiny pink and green polka dots. There is even a toy bin in the corner, already stocked with toys. And my favorite part is the huge rocking chair with several little onesies hanging over an arm and a pink and white blanket folded neatly over the back. My eye catches on these little onesies, and I forget to breathe for several seconds.

"Oh my God.” I turned to Dare, my eyes misting over. "Oh my God. I thought you said we weren’t going to be here for very long?"

“We’ll still have to have a place to stay when we are in town.” He raises his hands and tries to calm me down. "It’s missing a lot of things. I just asked Rob to get whatever he thought you would need. I am sure you will still want to shop for baby things before you… you know. Have the baby."

It takes me a minute to calm down, breathing big, deep breaths and blowing them out. "I never thought... I honestly hadn’t even planned any of this out."

Dare waves a hand around the room. "You don't have to. You are not responsible for anything if you don’t want to be. That’s what's amazing about being rich. Well, that and the fact that we don’t actually have to parent our own kids."

"What does that mean?"

"I was left with a nanny for most of my childhood and I turned out fine."

I turn a frown on him. "You did not turn out fine. You turned out like… Well, whatever you are. Besides, isn’t the whole point of being rich that you can choose whether you want to spend time with your kids or not?"

He shrugs and starts to leave the room. "I guess when you put it that way, I can’t argue." He heads to the other end of the loft. "Come on, there’s one more thing that I want to show you."

With one last look over my shoulder, I leave the nursery and follow my soon-to-be husband. He leads me down the hall and then opens a door on his right, urging me to hurry. I rush through the door, and he smirks at me.

Here, the walls are again that thick stucco rather than the thin rice paper. There is a small doorway that leads into what looks like a bathroom and a huge four-poster bed right in the middle of the room. There are two wall cabinets that serve as closets, a pair of minimalistic white wooden bedside tables, and a pair of cozy armchairs sitting by a fireplace that vents all the way up to the roof. I open my mouth, looking around. It’s like I just stepped into a home decor magazine. The linens on the bed are white and gray and expensive looking. Under my feet is a very curly, dark gray rug that feels luxurious.

"What do you think?"

I look around, nodding. "It looks pretty good. Is there a separate sleeping space for me?"

Dare stops and looks at me with a frown, his hands going to his hips. "I thought we talked about this. We are sleeping in the same bed from now on."

"No. You said that when other people were around, we would share the same room. But clearly, there is no one else here. Right?"

"Nice try. But I like having you where I can see you at all times. Anytime you’re not with me, Frick and Frack will be on your tail. Besides, what if you get lonely at night and no one else is around? How would that benefit my interests if you had this all to yourself late at night?"

I huff at him. "Dare, be serious."

"I am serious. If you think that I am done fucking you, you are crazy."

"You are too much." I shake my head and turn around, walking back toward the front of the loft. Dare follows me, not saying a word. But I can feel his eyes on the small of my back, burning a hole right through me.

The rest of the day goes by pretty quickly. Dare forces me to pose for engagement photos, so I do, changing my outfit a few times at his request. I try to keep telling myself that even though he is going to essentially lie with these photos, it’s all for a greater cause. The greater cause may be Hope House and Aunt Minnie, but whatever.

We were only fooling the Morgans, so I feel okay about it. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.

I pose for the pictures, letting Dare move my body around and shout directions at the photographers. I feel awkward, but Dare keeps saying that the key is to stop obsessing over the fact that we are acting out a lie. I bite my tongue and submerge myself in the role, beaming at the camera and telling myself that I am the next Mrs. Morgan. I can’t seem to turn my brain off, but at least I manage to keep my mouth shut.

After the photographers leave, I step out of the sky-high heels that the glam squad left for me and collapse on the white fuzzy couch in the living room. Dare smirks at me.

"Tired?"

"Yeah. I am really wiped even though we didn’t do anything besides just let people take our pictures."

"Well, rest up. In two days, we announce our engagement to the family. So prepare yourself for that. Within a month, we will have a full-on wedding ceremony with everybody who is anybody gathering to toast us as a couple. Then, shortly after that, we can announce that the baby is on the way."

A feeling of overwhelm washes over me. I close my eyes, unable to hold back the sarcastic comments.

"Is that all? We're not going to scale Mount Everest or base jump or anything?"

If Dare realizes that I am not being sincere, he doesn’t respond to the sentiment. "Just tell me that you are ready."

Sitting up, I splay my hand out on the couch and look at him, tilting my head. "I’m ready. It feels weird having to lie to anyone, much less a room full of your family. But I’m still prepared. I have made a decision, and now I’m going to commit to it, no matter what."

The smile on his face is icy cold. "That’s good. You’ll need that steel spine when we announce our engagement to my family."