Chapter Four
Arabelle tried to be unimpressed by what she saw of his house. It was exactly what she expected of him.
The glass structure. lit up like a beacon took her breath away for its clean and minimal architectural design. It was sleek and sexy,modern, and geometrically appealing. It annoyed her that she loved it at first sight. Pity the same couldn’t be said for its owner.
As they drove up through the driveway, white lights reflected off the almost silky-smooth manicured lawns. There wasn’t a flower in sight, and it seemed the most fitting thing for the man she had just met.
The delicate, fragile petals of a rose didn’t match his beast-like demeanor. Oh, who was she kidding, she knew exactly why there were no flowers in his garden, and she would bet her favorite pair of shoes, there were equally zero flowers in his house too.
“Nice house. But no flowers. Make sense actually,” she said aloud.
“Why is that?”
“Because they would wilt if you so much as looked their way.”
“But not you?” he asked softly.
“I’m not… a flower. I don’t wilt and I most certainly won’t be getting on my knees and obeying you as if you were some god, so you better think twice if you think that’s what I’m going to do,” she replied and wondered why she couldn’t inject more confidence into her voice. She came off whispery and a bit out of breath.
“We’ll see about that.”
He turned off his rock star car, and the full effect of his warning registered loud and clear inside her head. She had no idea of his full meaning or the consequences that would follow, but the man expected her to obey him. And honestly, he could take a leap off his jawline… since his jaw disturbingly had more structure than his house, into a pile of… of something not nice.
She wasn’t going to obey him. If he wanted a puppet as a wife, he should have paid some other father for his daughter.
She had been so deep in thought reiterating her stance to never obey him while also trying to erase the heat flush he evoked in her at his words, that she didn’t pay attention to him leaving the car, rounding it, and then opening her door for her.
The blast of his nearness catapulted her back into space. It seemed every time he was near enough that she could breathe in his cologne, an electrical charge surged through her body, hardened her nipples, and made her uncomfortable and achingly wet. What in heaven’s name was wrong with her?
She couldn’t go into his house with him. As his wife. Instinctively she knew her whole life would change yet again, and she would never be able to salvage her old self ever again.
Silas Knight had the most devastating, the most uniquely unsettling hold on her and again for the millionth time, she didn’t know him at all. He could be a serial killer. A psycho.
She had been too numb to stand up to her father. How could she when he had said he needed the money? He had made a bad business decision with bad people and had put their lives in danger. After he had told her it was her duty, he had begged her to do as he asked. She, in turn, worried for his life, had made him promise that once she married Silas Knight and he got the money he would pay his debt and cut all ties with those people.
She knew her father’s motive, but now she needed to know Silas’ motive for marrying her.
He opened the passenger door for her.
“I’m not moving from this car until you tell me why you chose me. Why would you want to marry someone like me? Not just that, but you paid my father for me. Why? And again I’m not leaving this car until you tell me the reason.”
“Arabelle, get out of the damn car right now.”
“No. I don’t understand why you would want to marry me when you didn’t even want me there for my wedding,” she air-quoted the word wedding because it was hardly a wedding at all. “It was a cold, calculated contract. And I have the right to know why you married me if you don’t like me.”
Her chin started to quiver as tears pierced her eyes. It was so amply obvious he didn’t like her at all.
“Will we ever be friends at least?” She had no idea where that pathetic question came from. No, she knew. She was married to the guy. If they couldn’t be civil to each other then they had no business being together whether their marriage was arranged or not.
“No. Now get out of the car. I’m not going to ask you again.”
“I want a divorce. And… unfortunately, my father needed the money, but I will find a way to pay it back to you.”
“How?” he asked. She tilted her head up and looked at him. His jaw was so severely clenched now, that she thought he might break his face.
“I don’t know,” she said softly. She’d need to work a few lifetimes over before she could cover even a third of the amount. “I’ll… I’ll sell my virginity if I have to—”
The rest of her words were drowned in an astonished gasp as Silas reached for her, lifted her out of the seat, and tossed her over his shoulder… again.