Total pages in book: 206
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192184 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 961(@200wpm)___ 769(@250wpm)___ 641(@300wpm)
“We’ve had no real resistance from your father. He handed you over willingly, knowing you might be married into my family and that you might not be. Even said it was a bit of a relief. My father would like to see me married before he retires and hands over the helm of the family business. I haven’t agreed to anything. He’s given you to me as an option.”
“What if I refuse? Wait, what do you mean a relief?”
“This isn’t up to you,” I answered.
She winced, “Um, yeah, it is. You can’t force someone to marry you.”
“Can’t I?” I gave her a smile.
Her forehead crinkled. “Then what if you don’t take that option?”
I tapped my index finger on my lips for a moment, assessing her body language. She shuffled uncomfortably, no doubt dying to get out of those heels and away from me. I didn’t want her out of the shoes. I wanted her in them, them and nothing else. I wanted those heels up behind my ears.
“Then I’d get to decide what happens to you instead.”
She let out a slow breath. “And what would that be?”
I smiled, “Could be any number of things.”
“Like?”
I snickered. She was trying to mask her anger and fear underneath a bit of snark, but she was failing.
“Could I be… killed?” she asked me.
I raised my brows. “Or worse.”
Confusion swept over her face. She didn’t know what I meant. She doesn’t know there are things worse than death. She doesn’t know that many women sold into slavery wished for death because of the hell that was their existence.
“So you’re having trouble finding someone to marry?” She eyed me up and down as if I was something she scraped off her shoe. “That’s why you’re doing this?”
“Not exactly.”
He sat on that couch staring at me like he wanted to have me for breakfast. He was, to me, what a cunning devil might look like if he were disguised as a handsome man. Oozing with sex appeal and danger. And deception. And more danger. And arrogance.
He’d come into the ice cream parlor on my last day there and flirted with me. Today, he looked like the same guy, but acted different – almost like he was the evil twin. His eyes and his overall demeanor were vastly different. The light and playfulness in his eyes wasn’t there. There was intensity instead, something I could only describe as a sort of darkness, or evil.
His body was broad and muscular, but not bulky. His arms were muscled and because his sleeves were rolled up to the elbows, I could see swirly tribal-looking tattoos on his forearm. His jaw was tight as he assessed me. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I didn’t know if I should try to reason with him, to plead for him to let me go, or to sit and shut up, and wait see what his next move would be.
I couldn’t take this pain in my feet any longer. I sat on the bed, leaned over, and loosened my shoes. My feet were freaking killing me. I wasn’t used to walking in heels this high. I’d wanted to look grown up for my high school grad and they definitely helped with that, adding to my 5’4” height. I let them dangle and one fell to the floor. I flexed my toes in relief. I looked up and he was staring at my legs.
I wanted to ask ‘what, exactly?’ again but suspected I wouldn’t get a straight answer, so I said, “I’m, uh, I’m expected tonight at a graduation party. And tomorrow I’m supposed to move into my own apartment, and–”
He cut me off. “Obviously, things have changed.”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
“If there’s anything important from your old life, it can be picked up. Or we don’t look back and I replace everything.” He was still looking at my legs.
“So, that means…” I wasn’t getting it. Did this mean he wanted to marry me? He didn’t even know me!
“Let’s see how this goes, call it a trial engagement,” he said, answering my unspoken question. “There are some ground rules. I’ll fill you in on those shortly. Right now, I have something to do. It’s best you stay here until I go over the rules with you.”
“Wait, trial engagement? What if I refuse?”
He snickered and then raised a brow at me challengingly. “You don’t want me to answer that.”
I believed that. A chill crawled up my spine. “So, I’m your fiancée now? Just like that?”
He grinned. “Just like that.” He got up, and left. He just left me sitting on the bed.
I heard a text alert on my phone. I pulled it out of my purse. Nick.
Can’t wait to c u tonite ;) U looked hot today. So who the fuck was that asshole in the convertible?