Page 16 of His Wild Seduction

Had she purposefully neglected to tell me Franklin was her stepfather? Why? There was a time I would have sworn I knew everything about her.

Including how sweet she tasted.

Fuck.

Yeah, I’d crossed lines. I tried to resist the pull I felt towards her. God knows I did. But it was difficult.

Maybe I should have tried harder to stay away from her. But from the very first moment we met, with her stomping her feet the entire way down the spiral staircase to the foyer in her stepfather’s house, I’d been inexplicably drawn to her.

Like a moth to a flame.

I knew the fire was going to fucking hurt. That it would burn me alive. But at the time, I just didn’t care.

I wanted her so badly.

I’d just taken a side job as a bodyguard for the Gray heiress after the company had received some threats.

Seeing her for the first time, all soft, pale skin and wildfire hair, was like a sucker punch to the gut.

She was beautiful then. And I hated to admit it, but she was even more beautiful now.

Meredith had been in her senior year at a private high school for stuck up millionaire brats. And she was pissed I’d been assigned to protect her.

She’d tried to make my life hell those first few weeks. And she very nearly succeeded, but not for the reasons she thought.

She had a fiery nature that matched her gorgeous flaming mane of hair.

“Are you going to lurk behind me while I study?” she snapped one afternoon when we’d arrived at the old library in town.

“Sure am, Little Red.”

“Little Red? Does that make you the Big Bad Wolf?”

I remembered freezing at her correct guess at the nickname I’d earned while working as an enforcer for Adrik Volkov. But I said nothing about that.

I didn’t want to mar the pretty princess in her ivory tower with any of my darkness.

“Anyway, might as well grab a book then. If you can read,” she’d muttered.

“Got a recommendation?” I asked, not able to stop myself from goading the razor tongued beauty.

“Sure. How about this?” she’d said, flinging a copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude at me.

“I’ve read it. In English and Spanish. Got any other recommendations?”

“You can read in Spanish?” she asked, curiosity flaring in her green irises.

After that, we talked about everything. I fell for her like a ton of bricks, but I never crossed the line. Not until her eighteenth birthday, and no, it shouldn’t have fucking mattered.

It wasn’t like hours or minutes or seconds suddenly made her an adult, but Meredith was unlike anyone I’d ever met. Maybe it was that fancy school or her sheltered upbringing.

We spent weeks together. And in those weeks, I’d shared more about my personal life with her than I ever had with anyone else.

That was still true today.

And that was why I was about to do the unthinkable.

I’m going to marry my enemy.

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