Her face is tear-streaked and pale, but it doesn’t matter. She’s still achingly beautiful to me. I nuzzle my face against her neck and breathe in her scent. “Wear your hair down for me.” I don’t bother saying please. It’s nothing less than an order, and if she doesn’t release it before I watch her walk down the aisle, I’ll do it myself.
I leave her with Andrea and go to my office to get ready. It doesn’t take me long to put on the tuxedo and dig out the ring box from my bottom desk drawer. As I walk out to the command center, I wonder if I should feel nervous. I don’t. From the second I saw her, I knew she belonged to me. A wedding will give her a certain level of protection from society. It will also ensure Sal or her father don’t try to claim her once they realize I have her.
The ceremony is small; Kai and my five plus the minister are all that’s necessary. I watch her walk down the aisle, a white silk dress hugging every inch of her body. Her hair is unbound but pushed away from her face by some kind of sparkly hair accessory.
She’s wearing makeup now, but it doesn’t hide the red rim of her eyes nor the wet sheen on her cheeks. But she walks down the aisle of her own volition and makes her vows without any prompting. She knows this is her best shot at staying safe. I only hope I can convince her that in time, things will be different between us.
We eat dinner alone in the dining room, and she barely pushes food around her plate. This I can’t have. I pull a chair beside her and take her fork. She doesn’t even protest, as if all the fight has gone out of her.
“Look at me,” I snap.
Her red eyes lock on mine.
“You’ve endured everything they put you through. Don’t let them break you now that you’re free.”
She stares down at her plate again. “Am I, though? I’ve traded one kind of captivity for another.”
I grab her chin hard and force her to look at me. “I won’t tolerate talk like that. We made a deal, and I expect you to honor it. As I will honor my side. You agreed to this. I didn’t force you for a single moment.”
She blinks a few times, and her shoulders slump. “You’re right. I know. But I can’t stop seeing Rose’s eyes in my head now that I remember. They won’t go away, and I don’t know if it’s better to have just forgotten her death.” She sighs and tucks her fist against her chest like she’s trying to hold her heart inside. “It certainly hurt less.”
The image of my father’s vacant eyes hits me, but I shove it away, the same as I always do. “If you aren’t going to eat, then we should go to bed.”
She nods, and I pick her up before she can inch out of her chair. When we reach the bedroom, I set her on the side of the bed and find the zipper of her dress to help her out of it.
“It was a pretty dress,” she whispers. “Thank you for thinking of it. The flowers and the minister were also nice. I know you didn’t have a lot of time to prepare.”
I don’t respond to her thank you because I’m too busy staring down at all the pinky pale skin revealed after removing the dress. She’s only wearing a scrap of lace for panties and nothing else. Her breasts are full enough that I can fill my palms, and I do it since I can’t stop thinking about touching more of her.
I thumb her nipple with one hand while I rip my bow tie off with the other. Then I shrug out of my jacket, kick off my shoes, and finish undressing in seconds. Her eyes are wide and scared as I crawl onto the bed naked. She’s so small compared to me, and I don’t want to hurt her.
She lies back on the pillows, and tears start sliding down her cheeks again. I lean over her, propped on my elbow, and slide my hand over her smooth belly. Soon, my child will grow there, and I can’t wait to see if my son has curls like hers.
Her hard sniffle makes me scan her face again. Seeing her cry does something to me. I hate it more than anything. Each sob wrenches a tiny bit of my sanity loose until I can’t take not touching her, comforting her.
I drag her into my arms and curl around her back. “Calm down, Angel. I’m not going to force you. We’ll keep things slow, but understand, we will keep moving forward. You belong to me now, and I want everything from you.”