Free Tempting Fate by Amalia Dillin

on a path she’d set for herself, when it came down to it.
    But just because she was with Jean didn’t mean she was safe. Not if he was that angry, and not if Mia had let her self-satisfaction cloud her better judgment. Adam moved briskly to his car, complete with driver, and waiting just around the corner. She’d said she was staying just outside the city to the south, and perhaps if he got close enough he might catch the flavor of her mind. It might be enough to guide him the rest of the way, and he was sure the DeLeon stench wouldn’t be too difficult to miss when he came across whatever mansion they’d built for themselves from all those Golden Lions—Asgardian Gold, he guessed. The kind that never diminished no matter how much they’d spent.
    His phone rang just after he’d directed his driver south, and some of the tightness in his chest eased to see it was Mia. The stress of imagining himself hunting for her, no doubt, with all that noise in his head. Paris was not a quiet city by any stretch, and the people in it weren’t shy in broadcasting their emotions.
    “My God, I thought you were lying dead in a ditch somewhere! Are you all right? What’s kept you?”
    “I’m afraid that I can’t make it today.” He could tell from her tone, it was the response she’d been hoping for. Sweet, self-centered Mia. “Jean practically locked me up in the house when I told him your name.”
    Adam grimaced. “Did he say why?”
    “He says you’re only using me, but of course he wouldn’t say why. They keep all these stupid secrets and won’t explain anything to me even when it ruins my life!”
    He laughed. She was so dramatic, but it wasn’t anything he hadn’t expected—even if it had come sooner than he’d liked. “They won’t ruin your life, Mia. I won’t permit it.”
    “Well they’ve ruined my plans for today, at least.” She was sulking, he thought, and he could just imagine her wide, doe eyes, begging him to rescue her. “Jean says I’m not allowed to see you anymore. Ever.”
    “And how will Jean stop you from seeing me when you’ve gone back home to London?” he asked.
    “I don’t know, but I’m sure if someone can find a way, it’s him. And Abby. He says she wouldn’t let me see you either. It just isn’t fair! I finally find a man I like and she has to mess it all up with her stupid new family!”
    “Just like?” He hadn’t meant the words to come out so gently. “Not love?”
    “Oh,” she breathed, and the tightness was back, though he didn’t understand why. “I’m afraid to say it.”
    He forced another laugh. “That doesn’t sound like you at all. The Mia I know is fearless.”
    “Do you?” she asked. “Feel that way about me, I mean.”
    “I want to watch you fly, Mia,” he heard himself say. “Free from all of this. The two of us together. Love doesn’t quite cover it.”
    It wasn’t a lie. He hadn’t expected that it wouldn’t be. He’d expected—
    “I love you, too.” She sighed.
    He’d expected to lure her, to set her free, to let her soar, but now? Those words lodged themselves in his chest, thickening his throat with physical need. To have her. Safe and free at his side. In his bed.
    “No one is going to believe us, though,” she went on. “After only three days? How can I love you after only three days? How can you love me?”
    “Fate,” he said, without even a moment’s hesitation. “And if you can find your way free of DeLeon custody, I’ll prove it. We can elope. Tonight, even.”
    The sooner the better. And he didn’t dare put even a toe onto their property, or risk the whole thing ruined. It was only a matter of time before Jean spread word of it all, and any delay now would only make it that much harder. It was now, or never, and never wouldn’t do at all.
    “No one can tell us we can’t be together if we’re already married,” he said softly. If he were only there, with her, it would be no effort at all to persuade her.