Page 15

damian

There was a knock on the door, and I stared at it, not moving from my spot at the kitchen island as I sipped my coffee.

I had a rush order of clothes delivered, hoping it was enough to hold me over until Talie gave me my clothes back.

Unless she destroyed them. My jaw ticked as my eyes wandered to the bed where she was still sleeping peacefully.

All my business suits were tailor-made. It was going to take a while and a whole lot of money if I had to replace them.

Though I had to give it to her, I wasn’t expecting this.

I knew she was going to throw fits about being here.

But pulling pranks on me? It was like we were teens again.

Like all those years ago, it felt freeing.

She had always been a breath of fresh air in this stuffy life.

She was the most outgoing in our group of friends, always finding a way to make the boring moments fun.

This time was different. She was doing all this to piss me off.

While she succeeded, she was also sparking a fire in me that had burned out after she fled town.

The last five years had been all about building my club, and while I enjoyed what I did there, the stress of balancing everything on top of working with my father had left little time for fun.

“Who is that?” Talie asked groggily, rolling onto her stomach, her eyes opening into slits as she looked at the door. “What time is it?”

“My clothes being delivered,” I answered. “It’s five. We’re going to Connecticut today.”

Her eyes grew stormy, and she threw off the blanket. I froze, my dick hardening in an instant. Either she forgot she was wearing dead ass sexy lingerie, or she was purposely trying to give me permanent fucking blue balls.

“I’ll stay here,” she bit out, her breasts getting pushed together when she crossed her arms. “I can stay in the city while you go. This marriage will be much more tolerable if we stay away from each other, don’t you think?”

“That’s not an option. I have to go into the office tomorrow. We’re staying in Connecticut for the week. It’s our home, Natalia.”

Her nails dug into her arm as she listened to me. “At least your house is larger than this. I want my own bedroom.”

“We’ll talk about it later.”

She muttered curses at me under her breath, but didn’t go off like I thought she would. It took everything to keep my eyes on her face as she stalked closer. Fucking hell. She was practically naked, and my mind was going places I couldn’t entertain. Sex was just another way she’d fuck with me.

With a wicked grin, she stopped inches from me.

The soft fabric which barely covered her breasts grazed my bare chest as she reached around me to grab the cup of coffee I’d poured for her.

Once it was in her grasp, she turned around, raising the mug while walking to the bathroom.

I lost the fight when my eyes dropped to her nearly bare ass.

“Thanks for this,” she sang out.

When she slammed the bathroom door shut, I leaned back against the counter. It shouldn’t have been that easy. No way she would back down. No . She was plotting something. But I could worry about it later.

“Shotgun chooses the music.” She swatted my hand away when I reached for the radio in my own car.

I threw her a look before focusing back on the road. We’d only left twenty minutes ago and still had over an hour before we’d get back to North Oaks. Talie was acting…fine. Happy. Which meant she was up to something. My gut knotted as I kept driving.

Talie finally found a radio station she wanted, then leaned back, keeping her head turned toward the passenger window.

Her leg bounced to the beat of the club music, and flashbacks of our childhood flooded me.

She used to get so lost in the music that she wouldn’t even notice things around her.

Music was her escape, like dancing was for me.

“I want my own car,” she announced. “We’re going to figure things out because if you keep trying to control my life, I’ll do worse than steal your clothes.”

I chuckled. “I’m well aware you want to make my life hell, Natalia.”

She stayed silent, the tension slowly filling my sedan. Three songs played on the radio before she spoke up again.

“When we got married, I thought it would be different.” Her voice was soft, and I barely heard her words over the music. “You promised you wouldn’t follow in your dad’s footsteps. Or my father’s. I believed you. And you lied.”

My fingers tightened on the steering wheel. I wondered when we were going to bring up the past. Being trapped in a car for the next hour seemed like a horrible time to rehash everything because both of us were going to end up in a bad mood over it.

“I didn’t lie,” I murmured tightly. “Things changed.”

“In the four months we planned the wedding?”

No, it all changed the day before the wedding. I gritted my teeth, debating on how to answer.

“You were one of my friends. We grew up together. You knew how much I hated the life my father forced on me.” Her voice grew hard.

“Our marriage was great for our parents. You were supposed to be better than any of the other men my father chose for me. But honestly? You’re worse than them all. Because I never expected it from you.”

Damn . That stabbed me in the chest more than I thought it would.

“If you would have given me a chance to talk to you, then maybe we could have worked through it,” I muttered darkly. “But no. You decided to steal from me and leave without so much as a word.”

“Talk?” she spat out, whipping her head around to finally look at me. “What would you have said? I heard what your father said, Damian. You agreed with every fucking thing.”

“What did you want me to do?” I shot back.

She scoffed. “I don’t know. Maybe tell him it was our marriage, and he had no bearing in it.”

“You only listened to half of the conversation. You have no idea what else was said.”

She paused. “Enlighten me, then.”

I could feel her stare burning the side of my face, but I kept my eyes on the road as the wedding night raced through my mind.

“You’re a married man,” my dad said, his hand landing on my shoulder as he offered me a glass of whiskey. It didn’t matter that I was only twenty. In this world, I became an adult as soon as I joined him in the family business at eighteen.

The reception only ended an hour ago, and instead of spending the wedding night with my wife, my father had instead demanded a meeting. Not that I’d be doing anything with Talie if I was with her. She didn’t want love from me. She wanted freedom, and I was the way to get it.

“I know,” I muttered, twisting the new ring on my finger. “It doesn’t feel real.”

“It’s very real,” he said firmly. “The contracts are on my desk, already signed.”

I barely refrained from rolling my eyes.

Both mine and Talie’s father were far from happy when we’d told them we wanted to get married.

Jude and Christian did not get along. They never had.

Like me and Talie, they grew up in the same friend circle, but their competitive natures and egos drove a wedge between them.

But when talk of marriage began, so did the business discussion. The two men didn’t trust each other for anything. But they were both smart enough to know if they partnered up, then their fortune and companies would be some of the biggest on the East Coast.

Our nuptials became the center of it all.

Marriage would permanently join our families, and in return, their companies.

They decided to split everything. Both of their names would be on all the companies, making sure one didn’t have power over the other.

They were so happy with it, the marriage was set in stone, even if Talie and I changed our minds.

“We have high expectations for both of you.” He lowered his voice; threat laced in his next words. “Do not disappoint us. You know what happens if you do.”

He’d told me last week what would happen if this marriage failed. If Talie or I stepped out of line. My mouth grew dry. “We won’t.”

“I know Natalia can be…headstrong.” He sighed. “It’s your job to keep her in line. We don’t need bad press on our families.”

My eyes cut to his, keeping my demeanor calm while my heart sank. “I understand.”

“You will be taking over the business when I retire, Damian. Natalia will stand behind you as the perfect wife.” He picked up the picture frame on his desk. “Just like your mother.”

My teeth clenched, and I sucked in a breath through my nose. I loved my mom. But her entire personality centered around pleasing my father. That was one reason we got married. So Talie didn’t have to be stuck with an asshole who treated her badly.

“I’ll give you one year before we expect a child.”

Shock engulfed me. “She’s only eighteen.”

“Then you can hire a nanny,” he snapped. “I don’t care. This marriage is good. But a child shared between the families? That will make sure Jude doesn’t do any backdoor deals. He wouldn’t chance anything if he had a grandson to run his empire someday.”

I didn’t mention how our future children could be all girls. Jude only had daughters. He always wanted a son to take over everything. I guessed now he was hoping for a grandson.

“Natalia is rebellious. She always has been,” he continued as he opened the laptop on his desk. “I don’t want her to step a foot out of line. No jobs. No need for college. She’ll get used to her life.”

I knew this was coming. I promised Talie I’d stand up to him and tell him she would be free to do what she wanted. But as I met my father’s eye, my pulse thudded. He was dead serious about this. If I argued, it wouldn’t go well at all.

“Here.” He typed before turning the laptop until the screen was facing me. “Send it.”

I crept closer, dropping my gaze to read the small text. Dread slithered through me when I realized what it was.

“That’s her scholarship,” I said in a low voice.

“I want you to finish the email and type her name.”