Page 52 of Inevitable

“Ashlynn darling, what a lovely surprise,” Andrew calls out, sauntering over to us with a leggy brunette on his arm.

She has a vacant look on her face underneath her million-tooth smile with her breasts that are practically pushed up to her chin. He must take my acknowledgement of her as jealousy because he looks to her and smiles before back at me.

“Don’t worry darling, Elise and I here are just friends. She understands my affections are only for you.”

Gag me.

I hear Luca make a low growl under his breath as he snakes an arm around my waist possessively, hauling me into his side. Andrew’s gaze flicks down to the contact and he pushes his nose higher in the air at Luca. Any higher and the chandelier would graze his face.

“Ashlynn, may I have a word? Privately of course,” Andrew asks.

I go to tell him there is no chance in hell I would ever willingly be alone with him again when Luca snarls at him.

“Fuck no. You will never be alone with my fiancé ever again and if you were a smart man, you would never even look her way again.”

Fiancé? I guess he technically is my fiancé. The papers he forced my father to sign were for my hand so that does make us engaged. Last time we spoke about it he said he would not be marrying me because he didn’t want this life for me. But so much has changed since then and we have not revisited the topic. It hadn’t really crossed my mind since now. Being engaged to Luca Mariano, it would be like all of my childhood dreams coming true.

Andrew looks confused. “Fiancé? Who the hell do you think you are? William what is the meaning of this!”

Luca gives that evil smile once more. He looks practically feral as he locks eyes with Andrew. “Luca Mariano.”

Andrew visibly pales at his name, I guess he has heard of him. How did everyone know about this powerful man that practically runs this city except for me?

“Now, I suggest you walk away while you are still able to,” Luca says, his tone calm and deadly.

Andrew scoffs but the big lump he just swallowed over proves he is intimidated. He quickly scurries away with his date in tow until they are at the opposite side of the ballroom. Luca doesn’t spare my father a second glance as we walk away and over to our table to take our seats. I wonder if he knew my father was going to be here. Knowing Luca, I am sure he got a copy of the entire guest list, especially if he feels something is going to happen tonight.

Realizing there is a more important point to discuss I turn to him and whisper in his ear, “So, fiancé huh?”

My smile is slow and mischievous. He looks at me like I have just asked the silliest question in the world. “Of course. You have always been mine and one day you will be my wife. I already asked you to marry me once.”

“But I turned you down,” I remind him.

He nods slowly. “That you did. But you also said the next time I asked, you would say yes. Be thankful I haven’t asked yet or you would be obligated to say yes,” he teases.

“I wouldn’t mind that,” I blurt.

I instantly cringe, why the hell did I just say that? My face flushes at the fact that I basically just asked him to propose to me. He cocks his head to the side curiously and studies me as if to see whether I am telling the truth or not. Before he can respond someone comes up to the microphone and the event begins. At that, Luca is instantly alert, constantly scanning the crowd waiting for the attack while trying to remain aloof.

The longer the night goes on the tenser Luca becomes. He is getting jumpy, and I notice so are Michael and Freddy. I assume they all thought something would have happened by now. I find myself getting nervous as well as more time passes, glancing around trying to see if I can find anyone suspicious. Something is just not right.

The dinner was some fancy meal that I couldn’t even really eat because I was so damn nervous. Now when I look around, I see everyone is starting to dance while the band plays some upbeat jazz song.

“Would you like to dance, Angel?” Luca asks.

“I would love to.”

As we are swaying on the dance floor, I catch Andrew out of the corner of my eye watching us. He makes a come here gesture and I shake my head and roll my eyes. The pansy is so afraid of Luca he can’t even come up to me for whatever he wants to talk about. Luca seems to notice where my gaze is and sends Andrew a deadly look. His scowl is still in place when he looks back at me.

“Oh, don’t be that way. You have met him. He is so ridiculous you can’t possibly feel threatened. Besides, thanks to Giovanni he didn’t even get a chance to finish his proposal.”

“What?” He asks harshly. “He had already proposed to you?”

The anger blazing in his eyes might have intimidated me in the past but now I just laugh lightly. “Well, he tried. The whole me being kidnapped thing kind of threw a wrench in his plans,” I say with a wink.

He does not seem to return my amusement on the subject. He looks to Andrew again and then to one of his men on the perimeter while he makes some kind of hand gesture. Soon 2 men flank either side of Andrew and escort him out of the ball room. Of course, he is throwing a larger fit than a 3-year-old in a toy store and shouting his outrage.

“What did you just do?” I ask

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