Chapter 11: Welcome Home

Kiera's POV

The doors opened and the cameras hit us immediately. The press, questions, bodies moving forward.

"Mrs. Langston can you confirm the reports about your son..."

"How long have you and Mr. Langston been involved..."

"Is he the father of your child..."

I kept moving. My chin up, eyes forward, the face I wore for rooms that wanted to swallow me. Zake's hand came to the small of my back.

Then I saw Denise.

He was moving through the press line toward me, cutting through the crowd. He looked exactly the same as six years ago.

"Kiera." He reached for my arm. "I need to talk to you. About the boy..."

"Get your hand off my wife." Zake stepped forward, positioning himself between Denise and me.

"Your wife." He laughed short and ugly. "Since when?"

"Since about thirty minutes ago." Zake's expression didn't change. "Which makes this conversation finished."

"I'm not talking to you." Denise voice was sharp.

"No, you're not." He held Denise's gaze. "Neither are you talking to her, not here."

"That child could be mine..."

"That child," Zake said, very quietly, "has a father alread. " He took one step forward. "Walk away, Mr. Kingsley."

Denise looked at me over Zake's shoulder. "Kiera, you can't seriously..."

"She doesn't need to say anything." Zake didn't move. "You're done here."

Denise looked between us, then he straightened his jacket, and looked at me one last time.

"This isn't over," he said.

"It is for tonight," Zake said.

Denise left and I stood very still.

"To the car," he said quietly, close to my ear.

I moved.

The door closed and the noise disappeared.

I sat back against the seat and looked at the city moving past the window and breathed for the first time in what felt like an hour.

"You didn't have to do that," I said.

"Do what?"

"The whole my wife thing." I said. "The stepping in front of me. The whole territorial..."

"He was harassing you outside our wedding." He said calmly.

"I can handle Denise..."

"I'm sure you can." His voice was even. "I handled him anyway."

I turned to look at him. He was already looking out his own window, jaw set, completely unbothered.

"Just because we're married," I said, "doesn't mean you own me."

"I never said I owned you." He said.

"Really?" I turned to face him fully. "Because the whole get your hand off my wife back there...."

"You are my wife." He met my gaze without flinching. "That's a fact."

You didn't even ask me..."

"If I should step in while your ex-husband grabbed your arm outside our wedding?" His voice was flat. "I didn't think I needed to."

"You can't make decisions for me." My voice rose slightly. "You can't control me."

"I'm not trying to control you." He said.

"Then what are you doing?" I asked.

"Right now?" The corner of his mouth moved, just slightly. "Apparently arguing with my wife on our wedding day."

I stared at him.

"Which," he continued, voice dropping an octave, "is somehow completely on brand for us."

"Well maybe it wouldn't be if you let me be." My voice was flat. "I've been handling my own life for six years without you. I don't need you stepping in like I can't."

"You're married now." His voice was firm. "So you're not handling it alone anymore."

I turned back to the window. The car turned and the city's skyline shifted outside the window.

"You know," I kept my eyes on the window. "You're not what I expected."

"Really?" I could hear the amusement in his tone. "What were you expecting?"

"The stranger from the bar six years ago." I said. "You were charming. You sat, didn't push and it was just.... easy talking to you, and then everything that happened after was..."

I stopped.

"After was what?" He asked, voice low.

"It was one of the best night in the middle of the worst week of my life," I said quietly. "I felt free alive. Then you turned to this, cold and possessive. Already acting like you own me."

"I'm cold and possessive?" He asked, shaking his head slightly.

"Yes." I said quickly.

"You've only known me for three days." He said

"Cold and possessive." He repeated it. Not a question.

"I've known you for six years." I turned to look at him. "Or I thought I did."

"You knew me for one night." His voice was even. "That's different."

"Exactly. One night and you were..." I stopped. "You were different."

"I'm the same person." He said flatly.

"You're really not." I held his gaze. "That man listened. This one just decides."

"Because that night had no stakes." His jaw tightened slightly. "This does."

"So the charm was just..." I said. "what? A strategy?"

"It wasn't a strategy." He said.

"Then what was it?" I asked.

"It was a bar." His voice was flat. "It was one night. I wasn't running a company or managing a board or handling a marriage clause. I sat down next to a woman who looked like she needed someone to not push her and I didn't push." He looked at me steadily. "That's all that was."

I laughed, short and sharp. "That's all that was."

"What did you want me to say?" He asked.

"You're sitting here telling me that entire night was just...circumstance." My voice rose slightly. "That you just happened to be there and happened to say the right things and happened to..." I stopped. "It meant nothing to you."

"I didn't say that." He said.

"You basically..."

"I said the setting had no stakes." His voice cut through, quiet and sharp. "I didn't say you had no stakes."

The car went quiet.

I looked at him and he looked back, not giving anything away.

"So which is it?" I said. "Circumstance or not?"

"Both." He said.

"It can't be..."

"Yes it can." He shifted toward me slightly. "The night was circumstance. You were not."

"You didn't even know my name." I said.

"I didn't need to." He said.

The car slowed.

"This marriage," I said, very deliberately, "is a legal arrangement. Whatever you think you know about me, whatever you think that night meant, it doesn't give you the right to step in front of me, speak for me."

"The arrangement," he said, "is going to be very interesting."

The car stopped completely.

I looked out the window. The gates of the Langston estate were right there.

"Welcome home." He said.