“Not going to happen.” She shook her head.

He pulled his shirt over his head and frowned at her. “Why on earth not? You can still keep your American citizenship. You’ll have more legal protections, and you won’t have to leave and come back again.”

“No, Nik. I’m not going to become a citizen of your demesne.” She sat on the edge of the bed to tie her shoes.

“Of my demesne.” What happened to we? “You need to think about this rationally.”

“Oh, believe me,” she said. “I have.”

He planted his fists on his hips and glared at her. “Prove it.”

“If I become a citizen of your demesne, I become subject to your laws. And because you’re high up in the governance of the Dark Court, and you’re the commander of the military, I become subject to your authority. That’s not going to happen. You’re overpowering enough as it is. Remember, I am my own sovereign state.”

“That’s ridiculous,” he snapped. “Nobody is their own sovereign state. You’re subject to all kinds of laws. Besides, when you marry me, you’ll become a Dark Court citizen anyway.”

She wagged a finger. “Nope. Nopers. Noperooni.”

“Those aren’t even words!” he shouted.

She fixed him with a glare. “First of all, nobody has asked me to marry him, and I don’t randomly marry people because they order me to. Secondly, Sophie don’t do nothing Sophie don’t want. I’m not your employee, I’m not a soldier in your army, and I’m not going to become your subject. I am a consultant on vacation.”

He strode around the bed to take her by the arms. “You’re not on vacation! This—you—me—you made a commitment. Why wouldn’t we get married?”

“Wait a minute. Maybe this will bring it home to you.” She pulled out her phone. Holding on to his patience, he waited while she did some incomprehensible search. She stuck the screen of her phone into his face. “Here. This is me.”

He watched a clip of an octopus running away along the ocean floor. The words, “Nope. Nope. NOPE.” appeared at the bottom of the screen.

“What the hell am I looking at?” he barked.

“It’s a nope GIF. You’ve never seen a nope GIF? There are hundreds on the Internet.” She smiled. “We literally never have to have this conversation again. You’ll bring it up again, and I’ll just send you a GIF. Subject closed.”

But she didn’t wait for the topic to come up again. She started sending him nope GIFs anyway. In one, a gorilla stood on his hind legs and walked off into a forest. In another, a cartoon character built a rocket, climbed inside, and shot to the moon. In yet another, a dog wearing a Christmas sweater ran under a sofa.

For some reason the dog was the last straw. When Nikolas’s phone pinged and he saw that she had sent him yet another email, he stormed out of his office, which was located on the ground floor of his own house.

Sophie was supposed to be cooking dinner instead of harassing him. As he rounded the corner to the kitchen, he thundered, “Stop sending nope GIFs to my work email, or I’m going to plant my old-timey foot in your ass.”

There was silence in the kitchen. Sophie had opened the back door, and Annwyn and Gawain stood just outside. All three of them stared at him as if he had lost his mind.

He understood why Annwyn and Gawain looked at him that way. It was Sophie’s utterly unjust expression that sent him ballistic.

Gawain did that thing he did when he was trying to cover up a laugh by coughing into his hand.

Amusement gleamed in Annwyn’s eyes. She said, “I understood only three words in that sentence.”

Nikolas angled out his jaw and rubbed the edge of it. “I’d explain, but it’s a long, exasperating story.”

Sophie twirled a curl around her finger. “I’ll leave you three alone to talk.”

She slipped out the door before Nikolas could stop her. After he, Gawain, and Annwyn had settled their business, Nikolas went to hunt Sophie down.

He found her sprawled on her stomach, on the sofa in her living room. She had kicked off her shoes.

“I thought you were going to cook dinner,” he said.

“I lost my impetus.” When he sat on the floor and leaned his back against the sofa, she said, “I won’t send any more nope GIFs to your work email.”

“Thank you.” He leaned his head back, and she slipped her fingers through his hair. No matter how much they argued, or how angry he got, her touch always soothed him. “Marry me.”

“No.”

He reached behind his head to capture her hand and brought it around to press a kiss to her palm. “Marry me.”

“No, Nikolas.”

She had dug her feet in. He would have to go at this from another angle. He said, “Tell me you don’t want to marry me.”

She sighed and turned on her side, curling around his shoulders. “I don’t want to marry you.”

As falsehoods went, that one was a whopper. It had neon lights all over it, blinking LIE. He began to smile.

Thinking through all her objections, he asked, “Will you marry me sometime in the future when we’re both ready for it, if I get a special dispensation from Annwyn exempting you from my military and/or governance authority so you can remain a consultant on vacation and your own sovereign state?”

Because he was pretty sure she wasn’t really objecting to dual citizenship.