Within These Wicked Walls

by Lauren Blackwood

“What’s keeping you from being mine?” My hands trembled, and I hugged the silver to my stomach to make them stop. “Yours?” “Yes, Andromeda. Be with me.”

“If I fired you, I’d probably never see you again. I want to see you every day of my life.”

“It’s not about surviving. It’s about living. I’m not convinced I was truly doing that before you.” He leaned closer, and my heart picked up. “And now I know I won’t last without you. You are my soulmate, my meaning, the entire point to my existence.”

A wedding … I couldn’t even imagine it. I’d never really wanted to. Men seemed to need periodic babysitting, but women came already fully capable—