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“But if I walk down that aisle, when it happens again, it will be.”
Damn it.
No. It would be mine. Because she’d asked me to help her. She wouldn’t do that again. And next time, it could be broken bones. Violence impossible to hide, given he’d left bruises before they married. And if he raped her?
A marriage license wasn’t a right to her body, but I doubted Alex Davenport cared about that.
The image of her screaming, trying to fight him off, clawed at me.
You can stop it. You can make sure he never touches her again. And not just by breaking every bone in his hand.
“How long does it take to get to Connecticut?”
Chapter Two
Beau
My hand shookas I signed the marriage license.
Cal saw it.
And I couldn’t stand that he’d seen yet another moment of my weakness. As much as I wanted to claim it was anger that shuddered through my body because I was forced to get married, even if wasn’t to my father’s pick, I couldn’t. Iwasmad. But these were straight-up nerves.
The jolt of pain through my arm was a reminder of why I had to do this. I didn’t want to marry Cal, and he didn’t want to marry me. At least this way, I wasn’t losing control of my life. I was choosing Cal.
He may have caused me emotional hurt many years ago, but he’d never hurt me physically. I hoped we could find a way to cohabitate where we were nothing more than roommates until we could untangle ourselves.
Damn it.We had no prenup. And there wasn’t time. But between spending one second with Alex as his wife or giving up at least half of what I had to Cal to keep that from happening . . . I’d gladly give it all to Cal. Gladly might be a bit strong, but the alternative was far worse.
When I passed the paper to Cal, I hadn’t regained control of my physical reaction. To make matters worse, he felt my fingers tremble when he took the pen. He signed his name confidently. Because nothing rattled him. Nothing.
He was meant to be a fireman. Not many people could face danger without blinking.
And I didn’t know anyone who could run on as little sleep and still look devastating.
I hated I noticed how his muscles stretched his long-sleeved T-shirt. How his jeans hung low on his hips in just the right way. How he probably hadn’t brushed his dark hair in a day and it looked perfectly mussed.
I hated how I pressed my legs together, knowing just how that stubble felt against my thighs. How after everything we’d been through, I couldn’t turn off the physical desire I had for him.
“Congratulations.” The official gave Cal the completed marriage license. “May you have a lifetime of happiness.”
I just wanted to survive.
And that made me angry all over again. Maybe my life hadn’t been my own, but I’d made the most of it. This was like trying to be shoved into a box that was welded shut.
“We have about an hour before our appointment with the minister. Want something to eat?” Cal asked as we stepped outside of the courthouse.
He’d insisted a person in some religious capacity perform the ceremony. Why, I didn’t know. He really was unflappable, taking a sacred oath before God that was a lie.
I wasn’t in a position to argue, so I’d found someone willing to do it on the fly.
“I’m not hungry.”
Could he eat now?My stomach was in knots. This wasn’t even real, but my nerves were jittering like it was.
He held open the car door, and even what was once the safest place in the world couldn’t settle me.
When he got in, the unsettledness became worse.
