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Cassie
What did Maxim say to Victor, check-mate, I win? It certainly feels that way because he just tore into shreds every dream I ever had as payment for my friends. Just thinking of them now, locked in a room, wondering what the hell is going on makes me afraid for them. They don’t deserve this; their fate to be tied to mine in this cruel way. Maxim has given me Hobson’s choice, meaning I’m damned either way I turn and the bastard already knows my answer because I would never put my own needs above those of my friends and he knows it.
If I wasn’t so angry right now, I’d be impressed because he has thought of everything. Marry him and everyone gets what they want—except me.
My mother gets to be the mother of the queen and will die happy knowing she made it. My sisters will be given the best opportunities and a future many could only dream about. My friends get to live their dreams and I can only watch from afar because I will have paid for that with my soul.
Then there’s my dream, the thing I want more than anything, a career in medicine. Just thinking of the past few years when I studied hard and dared to dream I could have it all makes me want to weep bitter tears of loss and frustration. Then there’s him. Maxim Augustus himself. A cruel, arrogant man, with the face and body of perfection. A living Adonis who wants to chain me to his side. Bear his children, be his queen, and pledge my life to him.
The fact he’s watching me like a predator waiting to pounce unnerves me a little and to think he engineered this whole situation just to make me his is a little overwhelming. Why me? I still don’t really understand that because I’m guessing there’s a ballroom of interest waiting downstairs and he could have had his pick. Why an unwilling queen? It doesn’t make sense.
He is waiting for an answer that we both already know. Of course I’ll agree, there is no way out but I don’t have to like it, so as the clock chimes the hour, I raise my eyes in defeat and nod.
“I have no choice, you win.”
I can’t even look at the arrogant smirk on his face as I lower my eyes and feel the tears burn. I can almost hear the prison door slamming behind me and the key turning in the lock because my life may as well be over. One brief glimpse of freedom was enough to make me delirious. I wanted to fly, and he has just clipped my wings. I may as well be dead.
To my surprise, he stands and makes his way to my side, crouching before me and angling my face to his. Just feeling his hands on me makes me jump back a little and yet the dark eyes that appear to bore deep into my soul take my breath away as he whispers, “Thank you.”
Then he reaches inside his jacket and pulls out a small box. Snapping the lid open, he kneels at my feet and takes my hand.
I swear my heart may give out on me as he whispers huskily, “Cassie, will you do me the extreme honor of becoming my queen?”
He presents the box and I gasp when I see the huge white diamond flashing like a star from inside it. I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life and it mesmerizes me.
I swallow hard because this is unexpected. A tender moment in a storm. The animosity I have toward him seems futile right now as he changes into a man any woman would swoon over. The perfect moment in an imperfect situation and I nod shyly and say with bitter regret, “Yes.”
He nods as if he understands and a wry smile ghosts his lips as he slides the rock onto my finger, weighing it down to match my heart.
Lifting my hand to his lips, he kisses it gently and whispers, “Thank you.”
It feels strange seeing this warrior kneeling at my feet, looking at me with a tenderness that surprises me a little.
As he stands, he pulls me up to face him and lifts his finger, tracing a light path down my face. I can’t tear my eyes away from his as I see the storm gathering in his eyes, dark, intoxicating and dangerous, as he stares at me with a hunger I’m not used to seeing.
He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me close against a body that may as well be formed from granite and whispers, “You made the right decision.”
Before I can even think of answering him back, his lips touch mine, causing an explosion of a surprising kind.
As I feel the soft, gentle kiss of a man who freaks me out for a number of reasons, my mind buzzes with a thousand emotions. My own lips betray me almost immediately as they part, allowing him to enter and claim my tongue as his. He tastes, plunders and purges and sends a delicious heat through my body as he takes what he wants, owning, pleasuring and showing me who calls the shots. Fisting my hair, he pulls me in deeper and I’m ashamed at the low moan that joins with his.
Just feeling him owning me is turning me on and I hate this pathetic wreck of a woman I’ve already become. My mind is scrambled with a thousand emotions as he appears in no hurry to break this onslaught on my senses.
Time passes and he continues, seemingly in no hurry to stop anytime soon and I lean a little closer and kiss him back, despite trying hard to remain unaffected. But how can I? He is way too good at this and despite how I’m feeling in my head, my body has its own agenda and appears to want him way too much for my liking.
Finally, he releases me and yet stares into my eyes with a look that could melt stone.
“You will make a strong queen, Cassie. Never doubt your ability to make a difference. You will soon see this is the best possible decision you have ever made.”
“Then why doesn’t it feel like that?”
I lower my eyes and he whispers, “Look at me.”
Raising my eyes to his, I see so much emotion in them it takes me back a little as he whispers huskily, “I won’t let you fall. I will be beside you every step of the way and will support you when you feel like folding. I will guide you through and protect you from the madness and treat you like the queen you will undoubtedly be. I have not taken this decision lightly. I know it’s not what you wanted, but you will soon realize it was always your destiny and I will take great pleasure in showing you how amazing that can be.”
He runs his thumb across my lips, wiping them clean and that small act of care mixed with the kind words I so badly needed to hear changes my perspective a little. Now I’m confused because he has surprised me—a lot. There is compassion in a bastard somewhere deep inside and as I stare at him in confusion, he smiles and steps back, his eyes flashing as the cockiness returns.
“You can join your friends and tell them the good news. Enjoy the rest of your evening, the hard work begins tomorrow.”
