Page 12 of Maximus

My stomach growls, but I push hunger aside. Breakfast must wait today because this is a busy one. We have a wedding to attend.

I pull on my jeans and a baggy sweater and arrange my hair in a messy bun. As I join my friends, Carly groans. “Whose idea was it to have the hen night on the actual night before the wedding?”

“It was the only chance we had.” I remind her, and she nods dolefully.

“I guess, but why didn’t you stop me drinking all of our body weight in champagne? I’m seriously hanging right now and the bags under my eyes are grocery ones rather than the cute designer ones I usually have.”

I shake my head as Adele says angrily. “Then you should have had more self control. I had the standard one glass and feel fine.”

She turns to me. “Mind you, Sierra, you look as if you hardly slept and I’m not surprised, really.”

I hate the pity in her eyes as she says sadly, “I wish it was different.”

Carly reaches for my hand. “We all do.”

Shrugging off their pity, I say with a deep sigh. “Lets get this show on the road before we draw attention to ourselves.”

As we head to the reception, my heart sinks when I see them waiting for us. So much for freedom, it was great while it lasted, but one night will now have to last for an eternity.

The flight was a short one,and I tried to calm the nerves raging through me at the thought of what I did last night. I slept with a stranger, multiple times, and I am no longer innocent in the eyes of God. My parents may guess as soon as I step foot outside the car and even Dimitri is directing hostile glances my way as if he knows.

Dimitri is my assigned guard who was supposed to be watching out for me last night, which is why I chose Vegas, because it’s where Dimitri’s girlfriend lives. He sees her on his days off and I knew he hadn’t had one of those for several weeks, so it was the perfect place to stage a night of freedom I rarely see. I knew he would sneak off to spend time with her while trusting my friends to have my back.

It’s almost as if he knows and I shift awkwardly on my seat and choose to ignore him.

What happened in Vegas stays in Vegas and I am never going to tell a soul about what happened last night, even my friends. This secret is a ticking time bomb that could blow up in my face, and I’m not about to pull the detonator.

The house is a hive of activity as we head through the gates in convoy, three cars containing me and my friends and the subsequent protection.

This is my life, and it’s all I have ever known—until last night.Until him.

Mom is waiting with a tense smile and she throws up her hands and screeches. “You’re late. Hair and makeup—immediately.”

I’m pushed toward the staircase along with my friends and as we head up to be ridiculously pampered, Adele groans. “And it begins.”

“I’ll send up some food!” Mom shouts, and that surprises me more than anything. Mom rarely raises her voice. Dad does enough of that for both of us. Once again, I’m struck by the guilty expression in her eye as she attempts to distract us from the elephant in the room.

Today I am marrying the man my parents chose for me and I have never met him in my life. Last night was my last one of freedom and I made it count. I wonder what my new husband will think when he discovers his virgin bride is here under false pretenses. It’s my revenge against him, my parents, and the entire situation. I am not a commodity. I’m a person with feelings and last night was an expression of that.

Somehow,I get through the morning being pampered, poked and prodded into my parent’s version of a virgin bride. I’ve had no say in this marriage or the wedding preparations. My dress was designed from my mother’s vision and the flowers are her favorite ones. The bridesmaids will be dressed in blue silk, much like my dress from last night, and the lingerie I am wearing is embroidered with blue silk. Something borrowed, something blue, and the borrowed item is my mother’s necklace from her own wedding day. It feels wrong, almost as if history is repeating itself because mom was married to my father under much the same arrangement.

It’s what we do. What will always happen, I’m guessing, until somebody breaks free from the chains that bind us and alters centuries of tradition.

As we wait pampered to perfection, my two friends grasp a hand each and we huddle in a tight circle for the last time.

Carly says sadly, “This is our final hour together. Sierra will soon become a mafia wife and my fate will be to marry the next bastard who shows an interest.”

Adele hisses. “I won’t be part of that, thank God. My father can’t make up his mind whether to employ me or send me away.”

We all laugh because of the three of us Adele is the fiercest one and extremely clever with it. She is a match for any man and helps her father run his business with an iron hand. It would take a great deal for him to send her somewhere else and I’m not sure whether to envy her or pity her because she could end up alone and destined to live out her days at her father’s beck and call.

“We won’t let them break us.” I say with steely determination and my friends nod emphatically. “We will find a way.” Carly adds with grim determination and as we share a moment, I only hope she’s right.

CHAPTER 10

MAXIMUS

Iwoke up, and she was gone. That alone surprises me because I usually wake to a feather falling. However, I entered a deep, blissful sleep with her in my arms and I was pissed to find she’d left when I opened my eyes.

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