Page 50 of Spin the Damn Bottle

"Just like that?"

He tilts his head. "Well, notjustlike that. But after you're an Alden? Certainly."

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Jason

My pretty doll is so cute when she's speechless.

"You did propose this morning," I remind her. "And I said yes."

"I was joking, Jason."

I'm aware. "I wasn't. Come on, Nadia. You knew this was coming." There's no other path for her and me. Our future was written in stone the moment she claimed me all these years ago.

"We've been together for weeks. We're not getting married."

So cute."Of course we are. I imagine you won't want to live at my parents' next year, and I certainly don't want to commute from Brooklyn, so we're getting a place together. It makes sense to have the wedding before the move. Your parents will feel better."

And the Butcher isn't going to let me live long if he thinks I'm toying with his daughter. Tying the knot sooner rather than later makes sense for many reasons, chief among them, my survival.

"Jason…"

"Nadia."I get into her bath tub and sigh in contentment. "You coming in? We don't have much time, David's waiting to bring us back to town."

"If we don't have much time, I'm not getting in the bath with you," she says dryly.

"Good point."

"I'm still not marrying you anytime soon. It'd be insane. We're eighteen."

"Nothing between us is even remotely sane, doll. And I'm nineteen."

"What?" She seems confused. "Since when?"

She's going to feel bad, and I don't like it, but there's no helping it. "Yesterday, actually. Well, kind of. I was born on the twenty-nineth of February, which is inconvenient as fuck. Though this year, the month stops at twenty-eight, I'm definitely nineteen now."

I watch as her confusion morphs into anger in front of my eyes. "Why the hell didn't you tell me it was your birthday? I would have done something. A cake, some presents, a party…"

"We had a party," I remind her. "And I had tons of fun, doll, for the first time in years." I don't usually celebrate my birthday , but yesterday, it almost felt like I did.

Understanding hits her, and now she's sad. "It's because of your brother, right? It's also his birthday."

I don't need to confirm she's correct. It's obvious.

She must sense I don't want to dwell on the subject because she continues, "Well, eighteenornineteen is a stupid age to get married. We'll become a statistic. Non one stays with their high school sweetheart for more than a few years."

"You'll find the statistic of high school sweethearts who fuck each others' brains out and exchange partners as much as they want highly different, doll. Come on. Since when have I cared what anyone thinks of me?"

"Maybe I care," she mutters.

I stare into her eyes and grin.

"No. This isn't something you get to bully me into. I have to stand there and say ‘I do,’ you know. And I don't."

She's so funny."Do you really want me to make you? You know I can." At her defiant stare, I continue. "Let's play this out. I'll come for your father's restaurant first. He's the most vulnerable. Maybe it gets closed because of health code issues." I wrinkle my nose. "Rats. They're pretty disgusting. If he clears things up, his clientele will still have evaporated by the time he can open up again. Then your mother. I can release a sex tape—one of many, I assure you. She'll lose most of her well-to-do friends. Not that they'd mind it, of course. They'll watch it and wank to her moans, but appearances are everything to the likes of them."

"Oh, fuck you, Jason.