Page 68 of Cruelest Contract
“And how did that work out? Changing your name. Occasionally dating tedious losers. Sitting in a soulless grey cubicle from eight to five, choking down a gummy microwave lunch in the break room and then breathing traffic fumes while you inch through freeway gridlock with a hundred thousand other hopeless office bots, all while knowing you get to repeat the same exact cycle tomorrow.”
“Damn.” She slumps against the wall and blows out a breath of frustration. “When you put it that way, commuter life sounds pitiful.”
“You deserve so much better, Cecilia. Let me give it to you. Like I said, I can’t be chased away by anyone. Once you’re mine, that status becomes permanent.”
She cocks her head, appraising me more sharply. “Tell me something.”
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
“This entire trip was sort of a charade, wasn’t it? I was never supposed to pick from among the four of you. You knew what my choice would be before my plane landed. Otherwise you wouldn’t have invited me. This wasn’t an offer. It was an audition.”
“And you’ve been nothing but perfect. I needed to see proof that you could adjust to life here. You’re correct to seek answers about what you can expect from me.”
“And what is that?”
“A marriage vow is irrevocable. As my wife, you’ll get my protection, my loyalty and my dick. I think you’ve got more intelligence than to consider this a fairy tale. Am I wrong?”
“No.” A wrinkle of deep thought cuts into her forehead. “You’re not wrong. I like you very much, Julian. But I’m not in love with you.”
“Smart girl. We’ll be good together, Cecilia.”
She primly clears her throat. “And you’ll expect us to sleep in the same bed from the beginning, right?”
I bust up laughing because I can’t help it but I try to smother the laughter when her mouth flattens in an angry line.
“Are you done?” she sniffs.
“I thought we were being straightforward,” I say.
“I think that question was as straightforward as it gets.”
“Cecilia, I’ve been dying to fuck you since you stepped off the plane. I know you feel the same way.”
Her eyebrows arch. “Your level of arrogance is a little tough to take.”
“Honesty isn’t arrogance. Admit it.”
One of this girl’s best qualities is that she’s not immune to common sense. Rather than buckling under conflicting emotions she carefully weighs her options.
She’s weighing those options right now.
The flush beneath her neck and the journey her eyes take across my chest before straying lower tells a story that requires no words.
I’ll wait her out.
The gears in her head are still turning. If she needs some persuasion, I’m ready to get more physical and I’m hard enough to break the seam of my shorts.
Everything I’ve said to Cecilia is true. This marriage proposal is absolutely practical. We’re a good match and we’ll both get what we want. But I never would have given the matter a second thought if I didn’t want to screw the daylights out of her from the second I laid eyes on her photo.
She raises her chin and the willful spark briefly returns. “I’m not interested in sharing,” she says. “And I never will be. Fidelity is nonnegotiable.”
“Then we’re on the same page. While we’re both living you’ll be the only woman in my bed and I’ll be the only man who touches you. I promise.”
She nods and nibbles at her lip again, suddenly shy. “Do you want children? Because I do. Maybe not right away but I do want them.”
“Of course. Anytime you’re ready we’ll start a family of our own.”
Family.Another word that holds immense power over her.
