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I have to care. It’s my duty to care. And I don’t want to hurt the Bryce’s.
“Where are you going?” he asks in a growly voice when I move toward the door and he snags me to his chest, pulling me down on the couch again but I struggle against him.
“No, I have to get ready and we need to be at that party tonight. Otherwise we’ll raise only more suspicions.”
Feeling like a nervous wreck, I make my way out of Bram’s embrace and he reluctantly lets go of me. And he looks so sullen and almost like a spoiled boy who’s used to getting his way where he’s lying on the couch that I almost let out a snicker.
“Laughing at my misery are you, you little wench?” he scowls. “You just wait until I get a hold of you and make you regret it.”
I shake my head. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Dove,” he says in an arresting voice and I stop to look at him, “be careful with what you wear for the party unless you want to provoke my jealousy.”
There will be other gentlemen there, unmarried ones and I don’t want to risk Bram making a scene if he sees something he doesn’t like.
“I’ll try,” I mutter with a pinch of sarcasm and then I hurry to get ready for the feast.
8
Abram
A party?
I snarl in annoyance as I put on my tie in front of the mirror and dressed up in a tuxedo, I remind myself of my father. This is what he would usually look like in the evenings when going out, his hair slicked back, his eyes playing to the devil’s own tune.
In his whole life he only loved one woman and one woman alone. And it wasn’t my mother.
Throwing one last look at myself, I walk out of my room, missing the girl’s warmth and presence. My little plaything. The one that I’m going to mark and my teeth have been aching all day, my throat burning with that thirst for her.
I’m going to bite into her pretty throat, let everyone know that she is mine. It is an unusual custom but common in the Rowe family. For centuries we have been fierce and possessive with our women, our trophies, the women we carry on our arms instead of crowns because that is what they make us feel like.
Kings.
It’s not our wealth, or our status but them. I’m the last in line and I have chosen the girl to be the one that I’ll take greater pride in than anything else I’ve accomplished. Her life is linked with mine and she might not understand everything yet but she will.
Soon she will know exactly what she means to me.
Bryce and Pattie are already waiting for me and their cologne’s choke out the air but I force a smile as they welcome me with open arms. They can still afford to stay on my good side. Or so they think.
“We’re only waiting for Zinnia now,” Pattie says, “she should be down any second.”
We proceed with the small talk until I catch something fluttery in my periphery and I turn my head, my breath leaving me in that moment.
She’s a vision, standing at the top of the staircase and I feel years of agony flutter by as the pages in a book in front of my eyes. It was all worth it if this is the reward. The girl is wearing a cream colored dress with a pale pink ribbon around her waist, little embroideries around the cleavage and dressed like this she looks like a bride.
Her hair has been curled and pulled to the side, her eyes shiny with anticipation and my world rocks and shakes with each step that she takes down toward me. This is what it feels like to be entrenched with someone, this is what it feels like finding the reason for a man’s existence.
Pulling a strand behind her ear, she asks, “What do you think? Good enough?”
I’m unable to form words, she’s ripping at my heart, ripping at everything that keeps me upright like she wants me to crawl to her in worship and fuck, I’m not a male who does that but for her...
“Do not worry. You will put those other girl to shame,” I say in a low voice because nobody compares to her and she only barely leans into to me with her body as if thanking me. Miss. Pattie and Mr. Bryce raise their brows but they don’t say anything.
Why would they? In their eyes nothing inappropriate has yet happened. They have no idea what’s been going on behind closed doors. But they will.
And a wolfish grin crosses my face.
****
