I figure the call is over, and she’s processing through something, except the closer I get to the back room, I realize she’s still on the phone. Nathan’s voice is so loud that I can hear him clearly, as though he’s right there next to her.
My chest tightens and my face heats. I thought she was calling her mother. Shesaidshe was calling her mother.
I want to storm in there, rip this fuck through the phone, and make him pay for hurting my girl, but I have to stay calm. I have to stay composed. I can’t blow this cover before I know what I’m dealing with. I have to reformulate the plan.
“I’m sorry,” she says, tears falling down her sweet, innocent, little cheeks.
“You’re going to pay for this. You know that, right?” he yells into the line, and I take an instinctive step forward, my jaw tight as I wrestle with the urge to threaten his life. “The engagement was a contract. Your name was signed right next to mine with every vendor.” He laughs as though her heart is a joke. “I should tell everyone what a little fucking prude you are. I’ve heard you lie and tell all your friends we’ve had sex so they wouldn’t judge you. Well, I know for certain you won’t find a date again after every man in town finds out you don’t spread your legs until marriage. You really think anyone else would put up with that shit?”
She’s a virgin.
This sweet, little angel I’ve taken is an innocent, tight, little virgin.
What the fuck is wrong with this guy?
What the fuck is wrong with me?
Why is my cock growing at the thought of how tight her little pussy must be? At how much I could teach her? At how safe I could hold her?
I push the door open hard enough that it bumps the wall, and she startles, eyes wide as she turns toward me. She’s still holding the phone to her ear.
Why the hell am I burning hot? Why do I want to take her, make her mine?The room is quiet as Nathan’s irritating voice echoes in from the line, “Hello? Hello? Hello?”
Pulse hammering, I take the phone from her tiny hand, and end the call, my gaze locked on hers. “Did you tell him it was over?”
She nods, wiping away a quick succession of tears.
“Good girl,” I growl, staring at her like a salivating animal who’s gotten the scent of fresh blood. “Then take off the ring.”
Her soft gaze drops to the massive diamond ring weighing her finger down. “I’m going to be so poor.” She leans forward, her breath drawing in and out quickly.
I want to hold her, wipe her tears, and take my time, but something that feels like possession bubbles up from inside of me. It’s sharp and territorial. Instinctive and magnetic.
My jaw clenches, my breath goes shallow, and I grit my teeth uncontrollably. “Ring off.”
“What?”
“I want that ring off your finger,” I growl.
She stares up at me, her eyes red, her mascara running in long streaks down her face. “Is this what you wanted? You want the ring? You could’ve just taken it. You didn’t have to kidnap me too.”
“I don’t want the fucking ring,” I chide, the words grinding their way through my teeth. “Take it off.”
“Why?”
“Because you don’t belong to him anymore.”
Silence ensues for a long second as she stares at me in the dimming light of the room. I’ve never been good at mind reading like my grandma was. She could tell what you were feeling from two rooms away. Me, I’ve gotta have it explained to me four times, and even then, I’m not going to know what to do with what you’ve told me. All I know right now for sure is that this woman is mine.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
“I’m taking it off because I want to,” she says, sliding the gaudy rock off her tiny finger and tucking it into a little pocket sewn into her skirt. If it were up to me, we’d sink the thing to the bottom of the lake, but I’ll put it away for now.
“Good girl,” I sigh, my body still vibrating with some kind of primal instinct I need to hold at bay. “You’re okay now. Daddy’s got you.”
“Look,” she cries harder, “I don’t know you! This whole thing is insane! You took me from my wedding! You kidnapped me! You—”
“Stop,” I growl, brushing my hand down over the side of her soft cheek in an attempt to soothe her.
