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“Marry me,” I said.
“What?”
I almost laughed at the irony that I was already on my knees before her.
“Marry me,” I said. “Marry this mobster instead of that old fucker your father picked. He won't be able to come after you, and I won't touch you. You won’t have to run, constantly looking over your shoulder. You won’t have to resort to settling for a night with me. It's the best of both worlds.”
She furrowed her brow. “You'd rather marry me than fuck me?”
The way her sweet, innocent mouth wrapped around that harsh word had me grinding my teeth together in an effort to stay still. Everything inside me was screaming to bridge the distance between us, to give her exactly what she was asking for and more, but that'd be a line we couldn't come back from.
But marrying her?
It would be like a business arrangement, and I was very good at those.
“It's not like that,” I said, not wanting to give away the fact that what she was asking for was exactly what I’d dreamed of every night since meeting her. “If I fucked you right now, it would burn the deal he's trying to make, but it would give him cause to harm you. You think I want that?”
She studied me for a few heartbeats. “A one-night stand is one thing, but marriage? That’s what I’m trying to avoid.”
“I understand that,” I said. “But from where I’m standing, this is the option that keeps you safe. I’ll never harm you. I know you don’t know me that well, but you can trust that.”
“What about your family?”
“What about them?”
She huffed a little. “Won’t marrying the daughter of a rival family cause problems? Even if it isn’t anything real? Even if you’re doing it as a favor?”
“I’ll handle them,” I said, shocked she was worried about any issues this would cause for me when her life was on the line. “I promise, they won’t hurt you either.”
She swallowed hard. “You want to do this?”
“You’ve called in your favor.”
“This isn’t what I asked for.”
“No,” I said, sighing. “But it’s what you need.”
Something settled in her gaze before she glanced down at herself. “I suppose I am already dressed for the occasion.”
I allowed myself to take in the white nightgown one more time, the silk and lace covering her supple body in all the ways that begged to be uncovered. It would do.
“So you're in?”
“I'm in,” she said.
I stood up, hunting down my phone and firing off a quick text to my assistant. He quickly texted back.
“The jet will be ready in forty-five minutes, and the plane ride will be about two hours. I'll have my witness meet us there.”
I shot a text to my oldest friend, not wanting to get anyone else outside the life involved, so that excluded Asher, Crossland, Weston, and Ethan, even though I knew they’d all be more than supportive if I called them in.
“I need to get changed,” I said, heading back into the closet as I searched through my luggage for a suit.
“Where are we going?”
“Vegas.”
The next three hours passed by in a flurry of chaos that I could barely keep up with. Thankfully, Brooks, my best friend from Chicago, had already been in Vegas and was more than willing to stand as a witness as Serenity and I took our vows.
