Page 45 of Priceless

Frank looked at me and he looked afraid. Good. I wanted him to be afraid of me. “Let me go, Cam.”

“Are you sure?”

“Let me go,” I repeated.

He stepped away, and I slid my hands into the pockets of my tux, just in case. I approached Frank slowly. “Listen to me very closely, Frank. If I ever hear you, or your wife, ever say anything of the kind about Ocean again, it will not go well for you. Do you understand?”

Swallowing, he stuttered. “The agreement’s been made. You can’t back out.”

“No,” I said. “We can’t. Nor will we. But let me make myself clear. Business is not the only way we can destroy you, and if you ever insult our wife again, I will make sure of it. The only thing Ocean needs to be thankful for is to be free of the two of you and your poisonous outlook.”

He looked confused. “But you can’t possibly want that.”

This time it was Micah who spoke while the hands in my pockets curled into fists. “I suggest you don’t try to tell us what we do and do not want. It’s none of your business. Nor is how we conduct our marriage. The paperwork will be signed on Monday, so unless you have something of substance to tell us, see yourself out. We have a wedding to get ready for.”

I suppressed a smirk. We were already good to go. Had been ready for a while. But he didn’t need to know that.

Frank cleared his throat. “I guess I’ll see you at the reception.”

As soon as the door closed, Cameron groaned. “Any way we could kick him out of the reception? Because I would really, really love not to kill him.”

“I would love to kill him,” I said. “Slowly. With my bare hands.”

The look on Micah’s face stopped me in my tracks. “What?”

I didn’t recall a time ever seeing this kind of grief in his eyes. “Does Ocean think we don’t want her? Because they’ve been saying things like that?”

The words punched me in the gut. No, Ocean wasn’t thin. She wasn’t what most of the world would call a ‘normal,’ Omega. What did I care about that? I couldn’t remember a time when I didn’t find women like Ocean beautiful. The idea that someone could look at her and deem her lesser simply because of her size made me want to burn the world to the ground.

“I hope not,” Cam whispered. “But if that’s true, we’ll fix it. We’ll show her it’s the opposite.”

All I wanted to do was sweep her away to our house and pin her to the mattress until she was screaming our names. But if she didn’t think we wanted her? If she thought this truly was only convenience and not an intentional choice, she would be miserable, and the self-worth they’d already shattered would crumble in front of our eyes.

I wasn’t going to let that happen.

Oren, Cameron’s assistant, poked his head in the door and looked at the three of us. “They’re ready for you.”

Blowing out a breath, I shook every other thought out of my head. Fluttering jitters flowed back in. But excitement was there too. I smiled. “Let’s go marry our Omega.”

17

POMEGRANATE

(GARNET APPLE, GRENADIER)

MEANING: ELEGANCE; GOOD LUCK; GOOD THINGS; MARRIAGE; PARADISE; PROSPERITY

OCEAN

________

“Fuck.” The word came out as a whimper.

“You’ll thank me later,” Laura said, pulling the corset laces so tightly I was practically seeing stars. Not to mention I’d barely eaten anything, so I was already lightheaded.

“No,” I rasped out. “I don’t think I will. I don’t think I’ll thank you for anything ever again.”

Her only answer was to tighten the laces again before tying them off, and for a moment, the pain was blinding. Still, I recovered enough to stand and face her. “Half the reason I’m doing this is to get away from you. I hope you know that, and I hope you know that my mother would be ashamed of you and how you’ve treated me.”

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