My God, did I even need to be here? What was the point? I just had to keep the smile on my face and act like I wasn’t screaming inside about this wedding. As long as I kept a smile on my face that was all that mattered.
“Ooh, soon we will be talking about grandchildren.”
Oh no. Now we were on to the other conversation I wasn’t happy about. The expectation that I would have a bunch of children as soon as I had a wedding ring on my finger was one that made my blood run cold. Vanderbilt children at that. I would never be able to be a painter with kids running around at my feet, kids that I would be expected to parent in a certain way. I’d been told how way too many times for my liking, but I couldn’t recall any of it.
“Hey there.” Oh God, now he was here too. Diego winked at me, creeping me out all over again. My tongue hit the roof of my mouth, blocking any words of horror from spilling past my lips. “I’ve been sent to check in on the drink situation.”
“Oh, we are on the way.” Victoria snapped into action, knowing what was expected of her. “We were just talking about the wedding.”
“Mm, and the wedding night.” Diego knew he could get away with saying this because everyone would just treat him like this was cute, which they did. “That’s what I can’t wait for.”
To say that I didn’t exactly feel the same way would be an understatement, but I didn’t let my smile falter. I pushed down any revulsion I felt for anyone, including my mother at this point.
After finishing college, I was told I could go to art school in Europe if I worked at the oil company for a few years and didn’t find that satisfying. I already knew I wasn’t going to enjoy it, but I figured it was just a hoop I had to jump through to get to where I wanted to be in life. I assumed that even if my dad didn’t follow through on this promise, because he wasn’t always the most reliable, I would at least have Mom on my side. That had all gone out the window with the Vanderbilt merger centered on me becoming a wife.
“Hey, Renee, can you remind me where the bathroom is?” Diego asked in a low drawl. “I know I have been here before, but I am struggling to recall.”
It was too late for anyone to help me. Mom and Victoria were already halfway outside, so it was time to grin and bear it once more. “Sure thing.”
“You know, you look really beautiful today, Renee. I haven’t had a chance to say that to you yet. It’s hard in front of our parents.”
I wasn’t quite sure how he expected me to respond to that. This was the problem with Diego. Every so often he would do something sweet that would make me feel like maybe, just maybe, there was a good guy inside him who might come out when we were married. But it didn’t happen as often as I would like. “Thank you?”
“You’re cute, aren’t you?” he chuckled as we reached my father’s library, sandwiched in between the bathroom and Dad’s office. “I like that about you. You’re nothing like the women I meet in New York. It’s the Southern girl in you.”
The way he said that was a little like it was a kink. But that was derailed by the gentle touch of him stroking his finger down my cheek. I looked up at him through my eyelashes, wondering if I would ever get to know the real him. Which version of Diego was the real one?
“Too cute.”
All of a sudden, his eyes changed. His whole face darkened, and the softness of his touch became harder as he shoved me inside the library and up against the wall. My heart hammered against my ribcage as he pressed himself against me, crushing my body.
“So cute I think I might have to corrupt you even before our wedding day,” he growled as his hands slipped down my body. “I think I’d like to see what you’re hiding away under these formal knee-length skirts and conservative knit sweaters.”
He was trying to edge up my skirt while I was trying desperately to get away from him. If this was the real him, I needed to escape right now. He was acting like I was his property and he could do whatever the hell he wanted with me.
“Stop it.” I wanted to say this with strength and conviction, but I was weak and whimpering. Pathetic. “Diego, no…”
“You won’t be able to refuse me soon.” He laughed, but this was a nasty sound, not a little chuckle. “When you’re my wife, I can have you wherever and whenever I want.” He licked my earlobe, before biting down on it hard. “Even if I have to take you by force.”
It would be much harder for me to keep his slimy body off of mine once we were married in just under a month. But for now, I had to keep trying to fight as much as I possibly could. Although petite, slim, and only five foot four didn’t give me as much hope to shove him off as I wished. If it wasn’t for someone coming in and pulling him off me, there was no telling what might have happened.
“Hey. Stop this.”
Diego was pulled away from me and I lurched forward, hands on my knees, as I got my breath back. There were two giant guys in my father’s library now, looking at Diego like he was a cockroach they wanted to stomp on. Thank God they got here when they did; that was a nightmare.
“Who the hell are you?” Diego snapped, trying to sound as forceful as he did with me, but somehow, he couldn’t quite manage it. “I’m trying to have a conversation here.”
“Didn’t look much like a conversation to me.”
Wait. That was a voice I knew. One I hadn’t heard in a very long time, but I had heard it so many times I would know it anywhere. My blood ran ice cold as I felt myself leap out of the frying pan and straight into the fire. This wasn’t much better than the nightmare I was already in the middle of. I almost didn’t want to look up, but there was a magnetic pull yanking me upright.
“What is going on here?” Oh God, now it was my father. Great. “Toby, Lucky, can you please step outside? I would like to deal with my daughter and Diego alone.”
What the hell? That wasn’t the name I was expecting to hear. That made me much more confident to finally drag my eyes up to see who it was, but it was the face I thought I was going to see. The same long golden hair tied back, even the same unique, intense red-brown eyes. I knew that face. It was a face from my past. I could almost feel all the color draining from my body as I tried to work out what the hell he was doing here. The sight of him, the blast from my past, was almost enough to have me forgetting all about Diego and his transgression.
Almost.