Eighteen
Camille
Wasit the wedding a little girl dreamed of?
No.
There was no wedding dress, no cake, no family, no party, no games, no gifts, and no big meal.
Nothing.
I wore what I’d arrived in last night, with another borrowed pair of boxers and a cum-covered pussy that was decidedly uncomfortable by this point in the day.
I stood in a living room that, while pleasant enough, was no church, and certainly had no atmosphere—neither grave and serious, nor joyous or otherwise.
But for all that, I was glad. I was even happy because the relief was so acute, I couldn’t be anything other than incandescent with it.
Truly.
In the grand scheme of things, I’d prefer a small non-affair for an occasion that tied me to a man who’d keep me safe than a massive reception that celebrated my marriage to a sadistic bastard who’d rape me until the day his cock stopped working.
What I got were three guys showing up at the door at three that afternoon, two of whom I recognized, the other I didn’t. That one had a discussion with Brennan, while the others drifted into the living room, settling down to watch a show Victoria had on as she stared blindly into the ether. I couldn’t blame her—in the space of an evening, her entire life had changed.
Because of me.
After Brennan’s conversation with the one man on his crew I didn’t know, he’d tugged me into the kitchen and placed a ring on my finger.
“With this ring, I thee wed,” he’d murmured, with the dirty oatmeal dishes still on the counter, a mocking twist to his lips as I stared down in surprise at the large ruby I was now wearing. Shaped into a princess cut, it was elegant and sharp, like blood. Too like it, if I were being honest.
Still, it hadn’t stopped me from retorting, “With this body, I thee worship,” and satisfaction had filled me to see that gleam in his eyes once more. A gleam that had chills running up and down my spine, that made me think of the mess he’d left me in this morning.
He’d reached up, cupped my cheek, and with his thumb against my bottom lip, he’d murmured, “Be careful what you promise. That’s what got us into this mess in the first place.”
I’d never know what made me do it, but I let my tongue flutter out to rub over the tip of his thumb. An expletive escaped him, bursting free from him like it was beyond his control, but it didn’t make him move back, didn’t make him drop his hand.
The promise in his eyes told me that the second this apartment was empty, I’d be a married woman in all the ways the law required.
Maybe that sense of security gave me the balls to do it, to whisper, “You have no reason to believe me, Brennan, no reason whatsoever. You’ve been a gentleman, and you’ve gone above and beyond whatever my mother could possibly have expected, but...” I’d sucked in a breath. “I’ll do my best to be a good wife to you. To make you not regret what you’re doing. To change this ‘mess’ into something good, great, even.”
His mouth curved into a smile that might have been cynical, but equally, might have been genuine. “Don’t worry, Camille. I’ll lead the way.”
As I promised myself to him, and as he did the same to me, with a man called Tinker overseeing the vows, those words haunted me.
‘I’ll lead the way.’
He was bossy, dominant. A little too like my father. By reputation, I knew he was quick to temper, and was aware that he was even quicker to commit violence. But he’d been kind to Victoria this morning. He’d been patient as the hours passed and she watched cartoons on the TV, little sniffles escaping her every now and then that I knew came not from grief but from a selfish concern for herself—who could blame her?
But she didn’t have to worry.
I’d protect her, and I knew,now, that Brennan would too.
I’d seen his relief when she’d said that she wanted to live with Inessa, which had told me one very important thing—he’d have let her live here if she’d wished it.
Which led me to another important fact—family really was everything to him.
And that meantIhad to become family. Not just in name, but in deed.
I’d find out over the upcoming weeks if being married to him was enough to join that lofty group, or if it required something else of me, but it gave me hope.