“You’re testing my patience, Arabelle,” he said darkly, his gaze remaining fixed on her only. The dim lighting did nothing to diminish the perfection of his face. Heat shrouded her at the dominance in his voice, adding to the displacement he had already created inside her.
But maybe it was the cocktails she had before because surely one human man couldn’t possibly have that effect on her? Right? She unequivocally blamed the alcohol and a sigh of relief settled around her. She wasn’t losing her mind, her body wasn’t reacting to him as if she were attracted to him, because she wasn’t. Not at all.
He was just the man she had been forced to marry and she would appreciate it if he’d left her alone for tonight at least.
“I think it would be better if you leave, or we’re going to call security and have them throw your ass out of here, no matter how fucking hot you are.”
She should stop her friends. She should own up and tell them the truth. She opened her mouth to speak but was stunned into silence when he reached for her arm and pulled her toward him and that was how the chaos ensued.
She tried so desperately hard to remain in the reality around her. Her friends were going off at him, that he was going to take her against her will, but the only thing that consumed her was his hand curled around her bare arm and the way his gaze flitted over her bare shoulder to her clavicle. She was sure he could see her bleating pulse galloping under her skin at her throat.
His touch ignited an unquenchable fire in her for something she couldn’t name. And there she was getting ahead of herself again. It was the alcohol that was making her feel that way. Not him.
“Hey, you take your hands off her,” Sharon shouted, bringing Arabelle’s attention back to the crazy situation in which she now found herself. Louise screamed for security and had already attracted curious interest from people around them. And Monique issued a threatening warning to him.
“I have pepper spray and I’m not afraid to use it,” Monique said rummaging inside her gigantic handbag. She was always prepared for any situation, thanks to the size of her handbag.
He didn’t blink and remained unfazed at the idea of being pepper-sprayed. Perhaps because he knew and Arabelle knew innately for that matter, he could disarm Monique in a matter of seconds. He seemed to be that kind of man.
Oh no.
She didn’t want to start a bigger scene and she knew how trigger-happy Monique was. She had to tell them the truth,
But her world was turned upside down as he bent, gripped her behind the knees, and tossed her over his shoulder. By the time her brain had registered her new circumstances, from her upside periphery, a trio of barmen who acted as security, with muscles bigger than her head approached. She screamed and yelled at him to put her down, banged her fists against his back and thighs, and at one point tried to bite off his ear if only she could have reached it.
Not only had he placed her in a humiliating position in front of an entire bar of people, her skirt, already ridiculously short, to begin with, was on the verge of showing everyone her panties.
“Silas Knight,” he said, and she couldn’t have imagined it, but the barmen immediately stepped back. What the fuck.
“Sir,” they said respectfully.
“Stop him. That’s kidnapping,” her friends cried but the bouncers merely held them back, contained them, and kept them away from Silas and her.
Arabelle didn’t stop her struggles to be set free, but she was also aware her skirt would soon no longer be offering her any kind of protection, yet could she stop and go quietly with him or fight him even if it meant putting her underwear on display.
“She’s my wife,” he added, then strode away with her still draped over his shoulder.
Arabelle wished she had chosen a better moment to unveil her new marital status since her friends looked at her dumbfounded as she was carried away. Their response to the revelation was the same as if she had sprouted a unicorn’s horn from her nose, they were so stunned. And she couldn’t even deny it.
Her wretchedness increased with each passing moment as the beast of a man continued to ignore her instructions to be put down. He barely registered her pounding fists and her knuckles had actually started to hurt from hitting his brick-like muscles.
She had confided in her friends once before, so they had been aware that an arranged marriage was in her future, but certainly not this soon. Still, she should have told them earlier.
“I hate you,” she screeched, pouring all her frustration into one source, and renewing her fight to be released. Except for this time her skirt slid up enough that the warm air from the bar whispered against her panty-covered pussy.
Oh damn.
But nothing could prepare her for when Silas placed his huge hand over her ass, essentially covering her exposed pussy from anyone trying to get a peak.
She stopped wriggling. She stopped breathing. She stopped thinking. The only thing that played in her mind was the fact that he was touching her so intimately that she was sure she could feel a callous on his palm brush the strip of her pussy through the thin fabric of her panties. And with that one single thought came the devastating knowledge that the flimsy material was never going to be enough to conceal her wetness. Wetness he would undoubtedly feel on his hand.
That alone made her want to drown in her tears of utter humiliation, damaging mortification, and mostly of sheer unadulterated shame that she couldn’t control her body’s reaction to a stranger, she had met not even minutes ago and this time she couldn’t blame the alcohol. It was all her. And all because of him. Her unwanted husband.
He walked out of the bar the same way he had come in. People parted for him without question and soon they were out in the cold night air.
Without bothering to set her down, he stopped in front of a car, unlocked it, and then bundled her inside the passenger seat as easily as if she were a doll despite her fighting him every step of the way.
Once he shut the door, her opportunity to open it again and escape was short-lived when the lock automatically clicked into place, and she couldn’t find a single button that would open it from the inside.