Page 23

Reluctantly, I let her go and stepped back, but not before tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear.
I knew she wanted to hit me. I watched her fist ball up, but she was smart. She knew that hitting me would be trouble for her.
“I dare you.”
We locked eyes, and I waited patiently for the slap that never came.
Finally, she looked away and whispered, “I’ll do it. I’ll marry you.”
The joyousness I felt shocked me. She had agreed.
I made myself move away from her, but not before I stole a quick, hard kiss from her. She seemed startled by it, and I felt her relax against me before she stiffened and pulled away.
When she looked at me again, I saw resentment mixed with hate in her gaze. I couldn’t tell who she was mad at, me or her body, for giving in to what it ultimately wanted. I could take her hate. That was okay if it meant that she married me.
There would come a time when she would beg me to take her, to love her, in every possible way. Until that day came, I would accept her hate.
“I’ll be in touch.”
I walked out her door and shut it behind me. As my driver stepped out of the car to open the door for me, I looked back at her apartment. She peered at me through the window, her eyes searching.
I knew she was buying time, thinking of her next move. I was curious what it would be, but also confident in the fact that I had never, and never would be outmaneuvered.
I slid into the car. It was done. Mya would be mine.
CHAPTER NINE
Mya
I feltas if I were floating, detached from everything around me.
Was this my real life? The people around me seemed to pass by in a blur, an endless stream of faces that I didn’t recognize or acknowledge.
Their voices overlapped with each other. There was so much noise, so much activity. I wanted it all to just stop. It was all too much, too soon.
My chest felt tight, and I shut my eyes. I needed to shut the world out.
But that was how I had felt every day since Dario took over my life.Or what used to be my life.
It wasn’t mine anymore. It didn’t make any sense. I wanted to shake myself awake, pretend none of this was real, but it was.
I opened my eyes and forced myself to face the reality of my situation. I was in a bridal suite preparing to get married…to Dario. How could I marry Dario? How could I marry the man whose brother killed Jason?
My mind drifted to Nico. Would he show his face at the wedding? My stomach turned at the idea, but part of me hoped that he would. Part of me still wanted him to pay.
If I hadn’t been so exhausted from the mental drain of knowing I was about to exchange vows with a dangerous stranger, perhaps I would have had revenge on my mind.
As luck would have it, I couldn’t just think about myself and my pain anymore. Things had changed.
I was pregnant.
I still couldn’t believe it. I’d always been pretty regular. And once I wasn’t, I assumed my period was late because of stress. And then a second month had passed and still nothing. I had tried to pretend that night with Dario hadn’t happened, which meant that pregnancy was the furthest thing on my mind.
However, one fateful day, I was waiting in the checkout line at one of the local dollar stores and saw a display full of pregnancy tests. Something told me to grab one.
I took one home and used it. It was positive. I went back to the store and bought five more. They were all positive, too.
Then I proceeded to get violently sick. It was like all my body needed was confirmation that I was pregnant to suddenly experience pregnancy symptoms. The nausea had been the worst.