Page 22 of Ties That Bind Us

I grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward her car. “Would you keep your voice down, please? I’m not the one you should be yelling at. I had nothing to do with this and am being forced into it too.”

“And you expect me to believe that after you’ve just miraculously showed up at different places I’ve been the last few weeks?” She folded her arms over her chest, a deep scowl on her face. “How long have you known?”

“Ava, I swear to you. I had no idea about this marriage until this afternoon, and I had no idea who you were until I saw you with your dad earlier.” I put my palm to her cheek and rubbed my thumb along her skin. I expected her to flinch but she softened just slightly under my touch. “I know these aren’t the most ideal circumstances . . .”

She scoffed and rolled her eyes dramatically. Anything I said right now would fall on deaf ears.

“Why don’t we just take this day by day and see where it goes?” I suggested, hoping to ease her mind just a little bit.

“There is no seeing how it goes, Nick. My dad isn’t going to change his mind.” A few tears trickled down her face, and the pain in her voice stung us both.

She was right, of course. There was no backing out or changing the plan. We were going to be married and there was no changing that. She had even less choice in it than I did.

“Why don’t you go back in there and tell him you want one of his other daughters? You could have Angie. She’s already married but she’ll do whatever my father tells her. Or you could have the beautiful and charming Bella, but instead you get Ava, the wild child. The one who can’t do anything right. They’re both much more suitable to be wives than me.” Ava’s eyes welled with heavy tears. Her vulnerability broke my heart, and I hated the way she was talking about herself as if she was some sort of consolation prize, never quite measuring up.

I put my hand to her chin, lifting gently so she had no choice but to look at me. “Ava, this is ridiculous. You’re the one I want, I think I’ve made that pretty clear over the last few weeks.”

“You want me for the chase.” She folded her arms over her chest, clenching her jaw.

“Let me prove you wrong.”

She sighed heavily, her resolve breaking just enough to give me a window of opportunity.

“I want to take you out tomorrow,” I said

“Nick, I—” She began to protest but I wasn’t going to give her the opportunity.

I kissed her before she could say another word. My tongue glided across her lips and I felt her moan into the kiss as I softly bit her bottom lip. My fingers twined in her hair, pulling her closer to me, and I had to stop myself from letting this go any further. If we had sex tonight, it would only exacerbate things, but I wanted to reignite at least a portion of the flame we’d both felt that first night.

“Let me make this up to you. We completely started out on the wrong foot and I, at the very least, owe you a proper date.”

“Fine,” she agreed somewhat reluctantly. “Just one date. That’s it, and I want you to keep your hands and your lips to yourself.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I can’t think straight when you touch me and I need to be able to sort this shit out,” she said exasperatedly.

“Deal,” I conceded, already plotting ways to get her to change that stance. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.”

I began to walk away with my hands in my pockets. “Oh, and Ava?”

“Hmm?” She arched her eyebrow at me.

“It isn’t polite for women to say shit.” I smirked, and continued back to the restaurant, knowing I was antagonizing her. I wasn’t quite that old fashioned, but I enjoyed getting a rise out of her and seeing her true colors show through.

She let out a sharp laugh. “Sounds like you haven’t been hanging around the right kind of women.” And with that, she slammed the car door.

I was going to have my hands full with this one, but I was looking forward to every second of it.

Chapter 8

Ava

When I left the restaurant, I must have blacked out. Somehow I made it back to my house in one piece, but I didn’t remember actually driving there. It was like I was moving in some sort of trance, just trying to go through the motions, surviving. As soon as I walked in the door, I made a beeline for my room. The last thing I wanted to do was run into one of my siblings and have to talk, because I wasn’t sure I could face anyone right now without breaking down. Did they all know about this? My mother? Vince? What about my sisters? Was I the only one in the dark about my fate to be some kind of treaty bride? This was bullshit.

It was only a few weeks ago my dad told me that as long as I got my act together, he wouldn’t do something like this. I had been busting my ass ever since then proving to him that I could do it. That I could grow up, ditch the late nights and partying, and settle down. That I could be useful to him, that I could be the perfect daughter that he wanted me to be. And now here I was, worse off than I probably would have been if I had continued partying.

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