Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 88153 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88153 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“What does that mean?” I ask as she comes to a stop in front of me.
“Well, we usually have dinner and then you disappear for a few weeks. Never have we seen one another three evenings in a row. That leaves me wondering if you’re dying or something.”
I school my features. I mean, I’m here to go over a contract with her. I touched base with her last night after our kiss, but she didn’t want to hear it. She even went so far as to ask me not to ruin the night. That led me to believe that she was having fun. So, I got her to agree to read over everything and we’d talk about it another day. That meant I got to spend the night dancing with her instead. I need her protected, but spending the night holding her in my arms and kissing her was more than worth the small delay.
“Is that your way of telling me you read the contract?”
“I did,” she responds as she walks around me, leading me into her father’s office.
When we get there, she reaches across the desk and grabs the manila folder that I gave her yesterday. She hands it to me, her face giving nothing away. That surprises me. It seems that Emilia might be a good poker player. I open it up and thumb through the pages, frowning as I discover it is unsigned.
“You didn’t sign it,” I point out unnecessarily.
“I’m not signing that, Niko.”
“Why the hell not?”
“Why?”
“That’s what I asked.”
“How about the fact that it’s morbid?”
“It’s a contract where you agree to push up our marriage if something happens to me.”
“If you die, you mean. No one can control if they live or die. What you’re doing is wanting me to agree to marry a man—a man I’m not even sure I want to marry—even if he’s technically not breathing.”
I growl under my breath. Who knew women could be so frustrating? It must be because Emilia is so young. Dealing with her is completely different than what I was expecting. The strange thing is that I find it exhilarating most of the time.
It’s damn confusing.
“You want to marry me, Emilia.”
“So you keep telling me. Have you ever considered the fact that I just…”
“Just what?”
“You keep kissing and touching me. Maybe it’s not marriage I want with you, Niko, perhaps it’s just to experiment.”
“Experiment?” I cock an eyebrow up when I realize what she is saying. Emilia isn’t used to the real world. She can be naïve at times. If she wasn’t, she wouldn’t have just handed me a weapon to use against her.
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m twenty. All my friends have had sex. I haven’t.”
I smile. “Why haven’t you, Em? Tell me.”
“We’ve already had this conversation. Even if our engagement was against my will and you didn’t bother being faithful, it felt wrong to be with another man when—”
“When you belong to me?”
“When a contract had been made to marry you,” she qualifies.
“You’re mine,” I insist.
“I barely know you, Niko.”
I turn the chair in front of Maxwell’s desk, then maneuver so she sits in it as I sink down on my knees in front of her. “You will get to know me,” I murmur.
“Niko,” she breathes, shrugging her shoulders as if she can’t figure out what she wants to say. That’s fine. She gave me my way in. I’m not above being inventive to get what I want. It’s how I’ve risen in the ranks of the family—despite being an outsider in the beginning.
“You’re going to like being married to me, Em,” I promise, lowering my voice as I lean into her.
“And you, Niko? Will you like being married to a woman you barely know and have nothing in common with? Or will you grow to resent me because you had to give up the women in your past?”
“Some people are married and still have others in their life,” I explain, wanting her reaction. There’s no way in fuck she’s ever going to have another man other than me. That would be a requirement even if I didn’t want to bury myself between her legs—which I am dying to do.
“If that’s what you’re planning, we should forget this. That’s not how I’m spending my life. My mother and father were faithful to one another. I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I may never experience the love they shared for one another with my husband, but there’s no way in hell that infidelity is going to be a part of my marriage.”
“Agreed. Now, sign the papers. We can begin planning our wedding today.”
“You’re delusional,” she says, laughing softly and shaking her head no.
“You want me to be faithful, I’ve agreed. Do you have other terms?”
“Terms?”
“To put in the contract, Emilia.”
“Do you realize you call me Em when you’re trying to get me to soften toward you and Emilia when you are in business mode?”