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First, he threatened Luca, and now Cristo? It was a low blow, even for him.
His eyes flashed with an unholy look, borderline crazy if you asked me. For the first time, I was scared of him. This wasn’t about love. This was the furthest thing from love.
“I get what I want, and God fucking knows I’ve wanted you for years. You were mine from the beginning.”
“I’m not an object,” I retorted.
“Like hell you aren’t.” My head snapped back like I’d been slapped in the face. “You represent the heart of the Popescus, and if I marry you, I will finally be seen as an equal in the eyes of your father and the entire family. As an equal, I have a chance at being sef once your father retires.”
“And Cristo? Cristo is heir,” I whispered, cringing. I already knew his answer before he spoke.
“Fuck, Cristo. With you by my side, I’m equally capable of taking the crown.” He turned to me, crazy-eyed. “I will get your total cooperation, Cat, or you can kiss your brother and Luca goodbye forever.”
My jaw dropped open. His declaration of love had always been a lie, an unadulterated lie. What he was in love with was the power he’d get from marrying me.
Snapping my mouth shut, I crossed my arms over my chest and fumed while he rambled on, “I know you think you’re in love with him, but you’re not.” Oh, I am, you fucker. The gall to think you know how I feel. Unbelievable.
“You’re young and inexperienced. Not only is Luca handsome, dressed to the nines, and charming as fuck, but he seduced you.” Ha! Shows how much you know. I seduced him first.
“Yet, you don’t really know him. Not like you know me. You’ve known me your entire life. I’m giving you a chance to have a full life. Even if you graduated college and became a professional, you’d never have a normal life. You’d live with your parents until they died, and then you’d move in with Cristo and his family.” Better than you, you manipulative little prick.
“Or your father takes pity on you and marries you off to a low-level soldier. You will have no power to deny him. Instead, you can marry me,” he finished smugly. Gag, I’d rather do anything but that.
Ugh, I could vomit from disgust.
“I won’t let you ruin your good name for me,” I argued, grasping for any reason to dissuade him while clenching my shirt to stop from choking him. The man was a callous, power-hungry asshole. He’d go to any lengths to get what he wanted, the rat bastard. I had to stop him, but first, I had to get him to save Cristo. I had no choice but to marry him. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs and cut his black heart out of his chest.
“Don’t worry about me. I can handle anything thrown my way. I’ve wanted you since before you were legal. You’ve known that. I didn’t think I’d have to convince you, much less blackmail you to marry me, but whatever,” he claimed.
After the debacle with Luca, the only reason a proud aristocrat like him would put up with the whispers, sly comments, and insinuations that would dog me for years, maybe decades, was a power grab.
God, this was exhausting. Not only did I lose the only man I ever loved, not only would I beat myself up for eternity for breaking his trust, but I couldn’t even be left alone to lick my wounds. I was being bullied into a marriage with a selfish, heartless man, and I couldn’t do anything about it. But I was going to at least extract an oath from him. He wanted it bad enough that it was worth a try.
Simu was a Cantacuzino, an aristocratic family that could trace their line back to Byzantine imperial families. They were no joke. I’d never heard Simu’s story, other than that my father pulled him out of the street and gave him a place with our clan, but I knew his oath was serious.
“If you want me, then swear that you will leave Luca alone. You won’t touch him. Not you yourself, not through someone else. Not now, not later, not ever,” I intoned. “And you will help Cristo. If you don’t, all of this goes to hell.”
His eye twitched and he slammed the heel of his hand against the steering wheel, but he spat out, “Fine, I swear on the name of my family, the Cantacuzino. I don’t know why you feel the need to protect him, but if you marry me, I will let him live. As for Cristo, that’s without saying.”
My back teeth ground together. Pretending he cared about Cristo was too much. Grrr. What an asshole.
“Fine, I accept it. I will marry you.” I had no intention of ever having this discussion again. “From here on out, I don’t want to hear his name again. Understood?”
“Understood, baby,” he crooned. A satisfied grin spread across his lips.
My spine hit the back of the seat. There, it was done. I’d sacrificed myself for Cristo’s life and Luca’s safety. Hopefully, I’d redeemed myself, at least a little. Luca would never know, and I was fine with that. It was small compensation after what I had done, but now that a whole part of my life—love, passion…delicious sex—had been hacked away, I’d better get used to lowering my expectations on all fronts.
His hand landed on my knee. My gut churned, and I gritted my teeth to stop myself from ripping it off me. Now that I was his, his hand on my knee took on a completely different meaning. It felt heavier. Weightier. Horrible. My back stooped forward as his grip clamped around my knee. I had exhausted what little leverage I had making sure he wouldn’t take Luca out, so I had to grin and bear it.
“I want to go to college, Simu. I’m going to be shunned from society and need to get my mind off everything that happened.”
“No one will hurt you if they know what’s good for them,” he threatened.
“Oh, please. I’m not talking about the men. I’m talking about the women. What I did violated a primal rule, and they’re going to get their pound of flesh. You can threaten their fathers and husbands all you want, but that will only drive them underground. They’ll do it behind the men’s backs and make sure they never get caught. I won’t have you fighting a battle that you can’t win. It will undermine your authority,” I reasoned.
His fingertips dug into my knee, but then he eased up and patted it condescendingly. It took everything in my power not to hiss at him.
“Let me think about it,” he said.
