Page 56 of Devious Kingpin
“Your aunt should have been there for you,” I hissed, but Juliette’s eyes darted away from me and locked on the dark window. The flurries had turned into snowflakes and brightened the night.
“I promise I’ll make him pay,” I vowed softly. She didn’t need to know how he’d beg for mercy and never get it.
A shudder rolled over her, making her look so vulnerable. It was hard to come to grips with this Juliette, so different from the reckless one I’d gotten to know over the years.
She nodded, her eyes darting past me and looking out the large window, staring at snowflakes, falling harder by the minute. I didn’t think she’d say anything else on the matter when her small voice broke the silence.
“It was my first year of high school,” she whispered in a rough voice. Her fingers trembled and she interlocked them as if she wanted to lock down any sign of her weakness. “There were parties and older boys seemed to make prey out of us younger girls.” She swallowed hard, her pale neck bobbing. “A friend of ours from school was hosting this party. Usually Wynter and I tag-teamed and went everywhere together. That night, I went alone.” She let out a rough sound. “I didn’t drink alcohol—I was too young. So nobody could blame that on my bad choices. I did everything right. Kept my soda with me. I didn’t flirt. I stuck to people I knew. And I avoided drunks.”
She took a deep breath in and reached for her glass of water. She had to grip it with two hands to stop it from spilling. After taking a sip, she lowered it back onto the tray that sat between us.
“I don’t know,” she muttered. “One second I was dancing, the next I was in the room. And Travis was—”
She was drugged!
Fuck, fuck, fuck. It was at that exact moment I realized how badly I’d fucked up. I slipped her a drug to get her compliant. So I could marry her without her permission. Revealing the truth was off the table now. Goddamn it, I had never miscalculated so badly before. Why did I feel like I had already lost her?
Her breathing was labored and shudders rolled down her body. Her eyes met mine, anguish and pain so fucking raw that it stole my breath. The fierce, reckless woman reduced to feeling such pain. I couldn’t stand it.
She shrugged and the robe slipped off her slim shoulder. “Anyhow, it didn’t end well. Just the idea of someone on top of me now—” She swallowed, wrapping her arms around herself. “It takes me back to that night. Even just the thought of it makes me claustrophobic.”
An idea came to my mind but it wasn’t the right time to discuss it. I’d table it for another day. I wanted Juliette for my wife from the moment I saw her. Now she was and we’d get through her trauma together. As long as she never found out what I did to get her to marry me.
But first, I’d make the fucker suffer.
“He will pay,” I assured her in a cold voice.
There was a flash of satisfaction in her eyes, then it was gone. Her eyes flickered around us. “Now what about the sleeping arrangements?”
My lips twitched. “What about them? It’s the only bed in the entire home.”
“Well, there are couches,” she suggested. Fuck, I should have made them burn all the furniture in this place before we arrived.
“No,” I stated, calmly. “You’ll sleep here, next to me. See this,” I said, pointing to the middle of the bed. She nodded. “This is Switzerland. The neutral zone.”
“A neutral zone?” she repeated in disbelief.
I nodded. “Yes. I’m not saying we’ll never have sex, but we have the rest of our lives to get there.”
Juliette narrowed her eyes. “You seem confident.”
I smiled. “You’ll learn one thing about me, Juliette. I always keep my word, and I always get what I want.”
I wasn’t sure if it registered or not, but I knew there was no dissolving this marriage. Not when she learned how I’d trapped her. And not when her brother and father got wind of it. I was a fucked-up person with fucked-up morals. My miscalculation when I drugged her might backfire. I’d repent. I’d grovel. I’d crawl. And it would all lead me back to her.
Because I’d be a good husband. I’d be a good father—eventually.
Better than our parents were to us.
CHAPTER26
Juliette
When I woke, warmth and a clean, fresh scent surrounded me. Light poured through the windows. I blinked my eyes, the soft white landscape greeting me. Then slowly, events of the last few days came rushing in and I remembered where I was. Who I was!
Juliette DiLustro.
My pulse quickened, registering a heavy arm around my waist and a hard, warm chest pressed against my back.
