Page 13 of Resisting Royal

“Earth to Royal. I’m betting the ball and chain is starting to hit home right now.” He still had a smile plastered on his face.

“Do I love her? Nope. But I do like her. I think I can manage to be a one-woman type guy, at least I know she isn’t using me. Not for my money at least, anyway.”

Troy leaned forward, placing his crystal glass next to my hip. “I think you’re going soft for this girl and it's only been . . . what? Twelve hours? Am I going to have little black-haired, green-eyed rugrats running circles at my feet soon?”

God, why did I like the sound of that? “It would make my mother happy, but it’s what Bianca wants that counts. She’s the one with the final say whether we have children or not.”

I'd respect whatever decision she made. But if she read the contract, she would know any birth control was up to her. I didn’t give a fuck either way. Hell, I even told her to take care of everything she had to before moving in.

He rubbed his jaw. “I see. You’re giving a lot of money for a girl to have whatever freedoms she wants.”

“You can’t own people, Troy. Only tie them to you and hope the tether doesn’t break.”

He looked thoughtful. “Well, if that’s the case, you better hope you have a strong rope because your new wife is bound to have some strong pulls.”

He wasn’t wrong. Bianca definitely had a strong pull, one that would no doubt drive me insane. Hell, from the second I first met her, standing over me with that insanely long needle, the woman has given me nothing but attitude and stress. But, I couldn’t even fucking lie and say that it wasn’t the strong-willed, bull-headed attitude that drew me to her and only sealed the deal that this was for keeps. It’s like taming a stallion, I told myself.

I picked up both glasses to bring to the sink. “That she does. That. She. Does.”

---