I Signed a Marriage Contract, Not a Love Triangle のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 81 - チャプター 90

Irene checked the bracelet again, turning her wrist beneath the fluorescent lights to see whether the tiny red glow would come back.Nothing. The clasp looked exactly the way it always had.She stood there for another second, scanner still in her other hand, before forcing herself to go back to inventory. The vampire was gone. The sedan was gone. The store was quiet again, and there was no point staring at a piece of jewelry and expecting it to explain itself.She scanned another box of paper cups.Then another.A car passed outside, and Irene looked toward the windows before she could stop herself.The street looked normal. A bus rolled through the intersection. Someone on the opposite sidewalk was walking a tiny dog in a sweater. Everything outside had gone back to being painfully ordinary.She checked the time.Fifteen minutes had passed since the vampire left.That was all.It felt much longer.Irene reached for another box on the shelf when headlights swept across the front windo

The suggestion sounded stupid the second it left Irene’s mouth, but she pushed through.“Not, like, a whole glass or anything. Just enough to hold you over until Francis gets here.”For one second he only stared at her. Then he laughed, fangs showing.“Oh, my dear wife, do you think I can take a sip?”“I know how it sounds.”“You offered yourself like a glass of water.”“Not, like, a glass of,” she paused, feeling ridiculous already. “Look, I’m just trying to help here. You don’t have to be an ass.”“Irene, you have no idea what you are offering,” he said as his gaze fixed on her.The hunger was more visible now. His pupils had disappeared completely, and a faint dark line stood beneath the skin near one temple before fading again.“I cannot just sip. If I fed from you tonight, it would not be one polite mouthful to keep me comfortable until tomorrow.”His hands stayed flat on the chair arms with visible effort.“And…feeding is intimate for us,” he continued. “With Francis, it is simp

“We need to attend a freaking what?”Irene stared at Ares, convinced for a second that she had heard him wrong.She had not.Apparently, there was such a thing as a treaty gathering, and somehow she had learned about it three days ago, when Ares informed her that she would be attending with him and then spent the next several evenings explaining exactly what that meant.At first, she had assumed it was some kind of formal dinner.It was not.The gathering was held under the treaty between the vampires and lycans, mostly so both sides could sit in the same building every so often and prove they were still capable of doing that without trying to kill each other. Coven leaders, pack leaders, council members, and other people important enough to make Irene nervous would all be there.Ares had explained that there would be discussions about territory, security, disputes, and anything else that might become a bigger problem if everyone ignored it long enough.There was also, apparently, a l

Ares barely spoke on the drive back from the council gathering, and that was how Irene knew he was actually pissed off.Normally, silence never stopped him from finding some way to bother her. Tonight he sat beside her and left her alone.By the time they reached the estate, Irene had stopped being angry about what happened at the gathering and started being irritated by whatever this sulking thing was.Ares disappeared not long after they came inside. Irene went upstairs, changed out of the dress she had worn, washed off her makeup, and spent maybe twenty minutes telling herself she did not need to go looking for him.Then she went looking for him anyway.The study was empty, and so was the sitting room. She checked the conservatory next.He was there with his jacket gone and his sleeves rolled back, standing near the glass with one hand resting on the edge of a planting table.Irene shut the door behind her.“You were an asshole tonight.”Ares glanced over his shoulder. “You think s

Kael showed up before Irene had finished putting away the groceries.She was still at the counter with a carton of eggs in one hand when he knocked. By now she did not need to check who it was.Irene set the eggs down, opened the door, and found Kael. His sleeves were shoved up, his hair was slightly out of place, and he looked tired and pissed off, which seemed to be his normal state whenever he came to see her.His eyes moved over her once before his nostrils flared.“I can smell him.”Irene closed her eyes briefly. “Hi, Kael.”There was no point pretending she did not know what he meant. Ares had been closer lately, even when he was not touching her, and apparently whatever had changed between them was obvious enough for Kael to smell.She stepped aside and let him in.Kael shut the door behind him, then turned back to her. “What happened?”“Nothing you get to interrogate me about.”His jaw tightened.Normally that would have bought them several minutes of arguing before either of