Page 4 of Rough Riding Orc Cowboy

My father droned on. “He’s agreed to take you as his wife, despite your shortcomings. He’s made me a generous offer, really. Quite lucrative.”

He wassellingme to Bradley?

My belly pitched. I knew Bradley—vaguely. He’d come for dinners, sitting at my father’s right while I sat silent, forgotten, at the other end of the long dining room table. He never spoke to me. He never looked at me. Yet he must've, right?

As if on cue, Bradley opened the study door and strolled inside, dressed in a black suit with a red tie that should brighten his appearance. Instead, it reminded meof blood. My virgin blood this man would spill on our marriage bed.

He strolled right over and squatted onto his heels in front of me, separating my clenched hands on my lap and lightly holding them. Squeezing them. Looking into my eyes with a touch of a sneer in his own. His smile came out polite, though slick. “Elizabeth.”

No one ever called me that.

His graying hair had been slicked back with too much gel, and his sharp brown eyes glimmered with something cold and hungry. “Fiancée,” he said with grim satisfaction in his voice. “Soon you'll be my wife. All mine to do with as I please.”

A possession then, passed from my father's hands to this man's.

“You’ll be well cared for, Elizabeth,” he said with a toothy smile. “In time, you’ll see how lucky you are.”

I didn't feel lucky. I felt trapped. “I—I don’t want to marry you.”

Bradley's sneer deepened, and his low voice came out in a growl. “I don't care.”

My father’s hand slammed onto the smooth surface of the desk, the bang making me flinch. “You’ll do this, daughter. Or else.”

Or else he'd lock me up in the dark room in the basement, something he'd done when I'd run away at fifteen. He caught me too fast. Penned me. After three days, he'd allowed me water and food. And after a month, he'd let me back out with a stern warning. In the twelve years since, I hadn't tried to run again.

Now I felt desperate to flee. But I was trapped once more with no hope of ever escaping the latest version of that dark room.

My shoulders curled forward and it was all I could do not to cry.

“This family has given you everything,” Father said, his voice edged with iron. “You will do this for us in exchange. That’s the end of it.”

The final weight dropped into place, shackling me to his will like every other moment of my life.

Bradley stood, brushing nonexistent dust off the shoulder of his crisp suit.

My father rose as well and strode to the door. “I'll leave you two alone to celebrate the wonderful news.” The door snicked closed behind him.

“Come.” Oh, how suave Bradley sounded as he took my hand and forced me to stand. “Let’s get to know each other better.”

I let him lead me through the double French doors and out into the pretty garden. Over to an iron bench where he made me sit close enough beside him our legs brushed together. My throat burned. My spine twitched.

Did I dare leap up and run into the sea? I could swim forever. Find a deserted island and hide in a shack I’d build myself. Fish and hunt and survive. Anything would be better than marrying Bradley.

His hands snapped out, gripping my waist, dragging me back from my island dream. He turned me on the bench to face him before leaning toward me, pressing me against the hard metal armrest, crowding too close,boxing me in with his hands braced on either side of my shoulders.

I gasped but couldn’t break free. It was all I could do to breathe.

“You will be quiet. You will be obedient. And you will deliver me two children,” he said, his breath hot and sour on my cheek. “That’s what I require. That’s what you’ll give.”

Give implied consent, but there’d be no consent in this “agreement”.

My belly gnawed on my spine, and my skin crawled, but I didn’t dare say a thing.

“I know you understand.” His eyes darkened. “Be ready when the time comes,darling.”

Backing away, he rose and strolled toward the study as if nothing had happened.

I remained on the bench, shaking, my fingers pressed to the pulse fluttering frantically in my throat.

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