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“Look.” Ryzen stood and moved to the seat next to me. “He won’t sign the paperwork until he sees us married. We’ll do it next month.” He snapped his fingers and looked at the ceiling. “We’ll do it at my country house. My assistant will help plan everything. You won’t have to do anything except show up.”
My mouth hung open, but no words came out. How could he possibly think that I would agree to do this? Didn’t he know me at all? Getting married was something I’d never, ever planned on doing, and if for some crazy reason I ever got married, I sure as hell would not be planning the divorce on my honeymoon.
“Or you can be as involved as you want. Make it the wedding of your dreams.” He reached up and pushed my hair behind my ear. “Then, after six months, or maybe a year, we’ll get a divorce. Let’s just play it by ear.”
I leaned back in my seat and shook my head. “No.”
His eyes darkened, and he held my hand in his. “It has to be done, Nova.”
“No.” I tried to yank my hand out of his, but he held on tight. “We have a contract, and that’s not part of the deal.”
He let go of my hand and ran his fingers through his hair. “Don’t make me be a bad guy, Nova.”
What the hell did he mean by that? Be a bad guy? We had a contract. It was legally binding. There was no way he could get out of it. Especially since I had already done my part and participated in this hell week of a trip. “We have a contract, Ryzen. You can’t change it. That isn’t right.”
“I can, and it’s not, but we have no choice.” He stood and paced in front of me. “We’ll add an addendum to the contract, and I’ll double your compensation. Plus, when we’re married, you’ll have access to your own line of credit. We can make this work.”
“And if I say no?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
He stopped pacing and stood in front of me, hands on his hips. He was trying to intimidate me, but I wasn’t going to let him. “If you say no, and I lose this deal, then you will give me no choice.”
“What do you mean?” I threw my hands up.
“Don’t make me lower myself to the person I used to be, Nova.” He tilted my chin up and rubbed his thumb against my bottom lip. I wanted to bite his finger, or kick his knee, but the look on his face had me doing neither. “I have the power and the means. I always get what I want. At any cost.” His voice was so cold, his eyes unflinching as he gripped my chin a little rougher.
I jerked my head out of his grasp and stood. “Oh, yeah? Well, you’re not winning this time, Ryzen.” I pushed past him and his security guards and headed for the bathroom.
I locked the door and sat on the edge of the toilet. He was totally losing it now. There was no way in hell I would ever marry him. And the fact that he was trying to back out on our deal now? Complete bullshit. I opened the cupboard under the sink, not sure what I was looking for. Maybe a parachute. We were only thirty thousand feet in the air. Jumping out of a moving jet sounded a lot better than being in the same room as him.
I reached into my pocket for my phone and realized I had left it on the seat. Damn it. I crossed my arms and leaned back against the toilet. There was no way I was going back out there. I would not let him intimidate me or try to scare me into doing something I didn’t want to do. The air seemed to be snatched right out of me, and I closed my eyes, focusing on my breath. I would not let a man control me like this. Nor let him control my future. I would not end up like my mother.
He didn’t try to talk to me the rest of the flight. As soon as the wheels hit the tarmac, I pressed my ear against the bathroom door and waited for shuffling noises to stop. It must have been fifteen, twenty minutes before I was confident he wasn’t on board anymore. It wasn’t like I was scared of him. This was Ryzen, after all. He wouldn’t actually do anything to ruin my business or harm me.
Would he?
I rubbed my chin on the spot he had grabbed me earlier, my body covered in chills.
The door creaked when I opened it and I peeked around the corner before fully stepping out. It was empty. I had three missed calls from Juliet, and I dialed her back as I gathered my bags. There was a Post-it note on my laptop. My hand shook as I read through the brief message.
Take the weekend to think. I’ll be in touch.
Love, Ryzen
Was he kidding me?Love, Ryzen?I scoffed and crumpled up the note. Did he think I was stupid? That I would quiver with joy at his crappy attempt to be sweet? No, not happening. He had crossed a line, and if there was one thing Grams had taught me, it was the art of being a petty bitch.
I dragged my suitcase off the jet to a waiting car. At least he’d had the decency to leave me with a ride. There was only one place I wanted to go right now, and it didn’t involve seeing any men.
********
“Hold the damn phone!” Juliet yanked the cork out of the wine bottle and refilled my glass. “He said you have to get married? But that’s not in the contract!”
I walked around her and reached for the bottle of whisky on top of the fridge. “That’s what I said.” The whisky burned down my throat. I had spent the last hour going over every single detail of my trip, from the snarky Penelope to the time I had spent with Cian. It seemed like a lifetime had passed, when in reality it had only been a week.
“What am I going to do, Juliet?” I hated that I sounded whiny, but I couldn’t help it. I had kept myself together throughout the whole trip and had stood my ground with Ryzen. But now that I was back home—well, at Juliet’s—things were starting to hit me hard.
She pulled out a giant black marker and dragged me to the whiteboard hanging in the living room. We used to spend hours at this whiteboard making lists and designs for our products. This board never let us down, like a good-luck charm. “We’ll make a list. Pros and cons.”
“I don’t want to make a damn list; I want this whole thing to go away.” I poured another shot and handed it to her.
