Page 28 of Blackmailed Marriage

Aria looked at him. She knew her brother had a hard time. It wasn’t the same for boys and girls within their world. There were always different expectations from them.

“What was it like for you?” Aria asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, for me, I know I was a disappointment. For Isabella, my sister, she was the good daughter. She’d been born beautiful, blonde hair, blue eyes. Everyone marveled at how pretty she was. Men and women would say she was going to be a star. For me, I was this brown-haired, brown-eyed dump, and trust me, they said I may be the ugly duckling that somehowmiraculously turns into a swan.”

“People said that?” Dante asked.

She nodded. “All the time. Trust me, I’ve been called ugly so many times, it doesn’t even make me sad anymore. I know my brother had it rough, I was just wondering if it was the same for all the boys.”

Dante sighed. “I wouldn’t call it rough. I would say we were being prepared from an early age. We have to be. Our enemies don’t believe in an age restriction for their victims. They’ll kill anyone—men, women, children, babies. I’ve seen it all. They only care about winning.”

Aria reached out and put a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be. I don’t imagine being constantly prepared to be married off is easy.”

She laughed. “It does suck. It is never about love, is it? It’s always about power, and who will make the better suitor.” She shrugged.

“You believe in love?” Dante asked.

She ran fingers through her hair and frowned. “I don’t know. I think I used to, but life kind of gets in the way. Our world doesn’t allow for love.”

“That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.”

She licked her lips. “Do you know of any couple that have fallen in love from an arranged marriage?”

“My parents,” Dante said.

“Oh.”

“Trust me, it wasn’t always easy for them. Far from it, but something happened, and my dad changed. Mom did as well, and they are very much in love. They have each other’s back, you know.”

“That must be nice,” Aria said.

She was surprised as Dante reached out and took hold of her hand.

“If we can’t get that evidence, Aria, we’ll be together, forever.”

“Wow, it sounds kind of scary, doesn’t it?” Aria said. She wasn’t quite so scared or upset at the prospect of being married to Dante for a long time. He wasn’t so bad, not the past couple of months. She found herself growing fond of him, which was a surprise.

“It’s not scary. We can make this work. I know it’s not what we both wanted, but we could, you know, have what my parents have.”

“But your parents love each other.”

“They didn’t always, and love might come into it.”

Aria sighed and squeezed his hand. “Yeah, but your mother’s father didn’t exactly blackmail him into the situation. Do you think you could ever … feel that way about me without thinking about why my father did it?”

“I am right now.”

This surprised her.

“Aria, you’re not your father. I see that now. I fucked up big time. I know that, and I promise you, I am going to make it up to you.” He reached out and pushed a curl behind her ear. “I’m not saying this is going to be easy. We can take it one day at a time, but we’ve already been married a year. I think if we wanted to, we could make this work.”

She loved the thought of making it work.

Before she got a chance to respond, Dante reached for her, hurling her up onto his lap. She released a giggle, but then gasped as she felt the hard ridge of his cock pressing against her core.

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