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“I got her to agree to marry you, as long as you don’t screw it up and tell her the truth.”
I place the glass on the bar top and lean back, resting my elbows on the edge. “Let me get this straight. First you steal from me, then you bargain with your daughter's life and now you're giving me marital advice that involves me lying to my soon to be wife?” I smirk at the sour expression pursed on his lips. The thought of his daughter becoming my wife must be eating him up inside.
“She doesn’t know about the inheritance or the marriage clause. She doesn’t want either one. What she wants, what she needs,” he emphasizes, “is protection from Xander. I need your word, that's what she’s getting.”
He hangs his head in shame as he should. Once a thief, always a thief. He stole from me, now he’s stealing ownership of her company without her even knowing it belongs to her. If he’s deceived her into agreeing to be my bride, that's on him. I’m only after one thing. Her happiness and her feelings have nothing to do with it. Or so I tell myself as the image of her withering under me enters my mind.
Pushing myself off the bar, I stalk toward him. Danny straightens in the seat when I place my hands on the armrest of the chair on either side of him and lean in. “I gave you my word once. Asking for it twice is insulting. Now call my bride.”
I move back allowing him room to fumble in his pocket for his cellphone. His voice softens when she answers and for a split second, I feel bad for putting him in this impossible situation.
Time moves slowly as we stare each other down, waiting for the woman that seals both our fates. When a small knock raps on the door, I pull my stare away from him and nod to Dixon to answer. As trained, he aims his gun and reaches for the door handle.
“No guns, please. She can’t ever know I’m doing this under duress.” Danny makes one final plea before he hands his daughter off.
“No guns will be drawn on my wife unless it’s necessary.” Dixon tucks the weapon under his shirt and opens the door. The doe in headlights look on her sweet face makes me hard all over again. Her eyes darting from Dixon’s massive frame crowding the doorway and under his arm to me and then her father. Her small breasts rise as she inhales a deep breath and walks past Dixon, stopping in front of her father. She’s trying hard to remain confident and in control and I can’t help but admire that about her. She’s standing face to face with a man ten years older than her. A man she doesn’t even know but is about to pledge her life to for her father’s sake.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Delgado.” She stretches out her small hand and I take it in my larger one.
The instant her skin touches mine, the energy in the room shifts. It’s charged with an intense electricity that shoots throughout my entire body. I wonder if she feels it too. I wonder if she remembers meeting me when she was just a young girl still grieving the loss of her mother and navigating the world of heartache her father made for her.
“There’s no need for formality, it’s Dominic,” I drop her hand before she can see the reaction her touch is causing in me. “Or husband, if you prefer.” I add with a wink, just to take one more dig at her father.
My words cause her composure to falter. “We’ve always had each other. Why is that not enough now?” There’s a sadness in her voice when she questions her father.
“We’ve been through this already, Callie. Dominic can protect you from Xander better than I can.” He runs his fingers across the fading bruise on her cheek. “He’s hurt you once, I can’t allow that to happen again.”
“And we have to be married to have your protection?” She turns back toward me, “I’m not naive Mr. Delgado. What do you really want from me?”
I swallow hard and ignore the screaming in my gut that tells me, lying to her now makes me no better than Xander or her father but I’m not about to let a technicality stand in my way. My gaze narrows as I move closer to the window overlooking the city, I’ve conquered one brick at a time.
When I was a kid, pick-pocketing wallets to be able to afford my next meal, I couldn’t get within ten feet of this hotel without being chased off by security. Now I stand in the penthouse suite, with the city at my feet and with Callie Hawkins as my wife, I’ll soon have the world laid out before me. With a distribution reach so wide, I’ll be unstoppable. “Come here.”
Hesitantly she steps toward me. I want to grab her delicate wrist and pull her to me to close the distance between us faster, but the poor girl is frightened enough. One false move and she’ll be running in the other direction before I can seal the deal. I position her between me and the floor to ceiling window, reminding myself she’s not a conquest, she’s a business arrangement. That is until her perfume hits me again and my cock twitches against the curve of her tiny tight ass.
Maybe she’s both.
Her body tightens against me making my cock even harder. “Do you see that? This city belongs to me. If you agree to be my wife, you’ll belong to me. You’ll share my bed, have my children, and secure my legacy and I’ll kill anyone who tries to take you from me.”
She swallows hard, “And if I don’t agree?”
She tries to wiggle out of my grasp, but I hold her firm, “Then Xander will stop at nothing until he gets all those things from you, by force. I won’t be able to guarantee you or your father’s safety.”
“You could just let that happen?” Her breath hitches in her throat.
“I’d have no reason to stand in another man’s way. This isn’t my fight or my doing, it’s his,” I tip my head in the direction of her father. Her shoulders slump forward, involuntarily positioning her ass closer to my aching cock. “I protect and provide for what’s mine,” I whisper in her ear. “Shall we do this?”
“Neither of you leave me much of a choice.” Her breath fogs the glass in front of us.
I withdraw a pen from my jacket pocket, holding it out in front of her and motioning to the papers on the credenza. After a beat she takes the pen from my hand and scribbles her signature next to the flag markings on the documents. “I’ll be waiting for you in the chapel. Don’t keep me waiting long.”
When she walks away, taking her warmth with her, I brace my palms against the window. Soon she’ll be my wife and I can fuck that innocence out of her while simultaneously stealing her company.
Chapter 4
Callie
His smooth voice lingers in my ear long after I’ve walked away. It was all I could do to keep one foot in front of the other as I exited the penthouse suite. In my head I was graceful and strong, but the heat of his touch had me stumbling toward the door.
