Page 2 of Show Me How
I stomp down my true feelings and slip on the mask I’ve grown used to wearing over the last twenty-six years. Smiling, I let him take my hand without smacking him away.
“Thank you.”
He turns me to face him fully before grabbing a long look at my body. I swallow, keeping my chin up as his eyes linger on my breasts. It’s no surprise that’s where he’s gotten lost. Not when my mother’s tightening of my corset has them one wrong move from spilling out of my dress. I’m still surprised she didn’t choose a dress more modest for me, considering how much she’s always complaining about my heavy chest. It makes shopping for me that much harder, she says.
The only reasoning I have for her choice of dress is that Chadwick had something positive to say about it when she showed him the options. Which, I knew she did.
Chadwick brings his knuckles to my shoulder, tracing the curve of it as he meets my gaze and smirks. “The dress looks better on you than I imagined it would.”
Bingo.
“It’s beautiful,” I say.
“And one of a kind. I had the designer change a few things, and I’m pleased to see they paid off.”
“Did you want to speak about anything specific?”
His eyes flare at my tone, and the gross smirk on his lips stretches. “No, Millicent. I just wanted a moment alone with you.”
Dread rains down on me. “Well, we’ve had that. We don’t want to risk bad luck with us being together so long before the ceremony, do we?”
“Not so quick.”
It was only a matter of time before he did this. He never approved of our parents’ decision for us to wait until our sham of a wedding night for the physical aspect of a marriage to begin. Besides a kiss on the cheek, I’ve gotten away without feeling his lips on mine or his hands drifting anywhere lower than my shoulders for ten years now.
Ever since we were introduced at sixteen, he’s been too desperate for my father’s approval to risk a quick peck or grope. That’s the only reason I’ve been okay with being alone with him thus far. But today, it seems he believes he’s waited long enough. We’ll be husband and wife in only a few hours, after all.
“My father could come in any minute,” I warn him, beginning to fidget.
“No, he won’t. He’s too busy with mine. Their lawyer is here preparing the paperwork for the merger. That’s where their heads are at today. We’ve got a few more minutes. Don’t make me beg you, Millicent,” he groans.
My stomach swirls, the thought of kissing this man entirely unappealing. “Chadwick?—”
He cuts me off with his mouth. His lips push against mine with a rough pressure that makes them throb. The hand he uses to paw at my waist is overly hot, but it’s nothing compared to the one he uses to claw at the hair at my nape.
I clamp my teeth together when he tries to slip his tongue into my mouth and push a hand against his chest. He curls his fingers in my hair, effectively pulling them from the intricate updo that took hours for the stylist to complete this morning. My lipstick smears across my mouth, and the thick foundation rubs off my nose.
“Chadwick,” I say, giving him a firm but restrained shove. “My makeup.”
He pulls back, brows slanted together to expose his frustration before he looks at my ruined mouth, nodding. “Right. You need that fixed immediately.”
“Yes, I should get on that. My mom will bring everyone back in.”
“I’ll be thinking about this all today, Millicent. Once we’re alone, you’re mine. You’ll finally be my wife,” he says excitedly, as if any of this should be celebrated. With hooded eyes, he steps back and looks me over once more. “Soon.”
My lungs constrict to the point of pain as I avoid rubbing my lips together. “Yes.”
“I also hope you’ve thought about what I proposed last night. There’s no reason to wait once we’re married. You don’t have anything to lose, and I would hate for you to grow bored in our home when we return. At least you could keep busy with doctor appointments and preparing a nursery. Without a career, you’ll need something to keep yourself busy, and a baby is the perfect thing for that. The last thing I’d want is for you to become needy for my attention while I’m busy with your father’s company.”
My breath catches on the massive stone in my throat. Chadwick doesn’t wait for me to collect myself and respond before turning on the heels of his expensive shoes. He stalks through the suite and lets my mother back inside. She immediately stares at his mouth, no doubt catching the nude lipstick left there before shooting me a furious look. It’s there and gone in a blink, because when she gazes back at Chadwick, she’s smiling and offering him a silk handkerchief from her clutch. The words she whispers don’t reach me, but I can only imagine what they were.
She ushers the team of women she brought with us this morning past her and toward me once he’s gone. I prepare for the lash of her voice yet still flinch when it reaches me.
“You just couldn’t help yourself! You know your father’s rules, and now look at you. You’re a mess. We don’t have time for this, but here we are. You’ll keep your hands to yourself at the ceremony until they’ve declared you husband and wife. And when you see your father, you won’t mention this. It never happened.”
I simply nod, taking it on the chin because there’s no point in telling her it wasn’t me that initiated what happened. She’d never believe me, and even if she did, she both fears and admires Chadwick too much to mention it to him.
The makeup artist gets to work with fixing me up, and I close my eyes, falling into the endless halls of my mind. Where I can be alone.
