“We need to talk,” he demanded. He was always making demands but never giving in to them.
“We have nothing to talk about.”
He ran his fingers through his hair. “You tried to kill me.”
“And sadly, you aren’t dead.” His eyes narrowed as his hand fell to his side. He didn’t move or speak after that. I don’t even think he breathed.
“Do you want to do this, Sprite?”
“We’re not doing anything because we’re done. Didn’t your little henchman give you the message? You can’t protect me.”
“The senator would have found you. I did, and he has even more resources at his disposal.”
“Why do you care? I tried to kill you, remember?”
His smile was lethal. “Because you’re my wife… didn’t you know?”
I laughed even as I felt his poison percolating in my veins. “I’m done playing your games, Knight.”
He didn’t respond. With confidence, he walked to his suit jacket crumpled on the thick carpet. I couldn’t hear the warning not to panic over the rapid beat of my heat as he pulled out a piece of paper. He moved in closer than he had been before until he towered over me. “I think you should see something.” He lifted the paper for me to take. I didn’t.
“What is it?”
“The last gift your father gave you. Your future.”
I took the neatly folded paper from his hand with shaking fingers. Curiosity killed the cat. Breaking the red wax seal, I unfolded the cream parchment to reveal a marriage certificate. I felt punched in the gut when I read our names in a scrawl that didn’t belong to either of us. The certificate was dated three years ago. Two days before my life changed forever.
“This is impossible. I was sixteen!”
“Your father signed the consent form and mine generously padded the clerk’s retirement fund since neither of us could attend our own wedding. I imagine he retired early to spend the rest of his years traveling with his wife and taking couple’s painting lessons.”
“You didn’t know?”
He shook his head slowly. “I didn’t just inherit money and land the day I buried my grandfather.”
The meeting after the funeral…
“We’ve been married all this time,” I whispered in disbelief. Rage made me ball up the paper and toss it across the room. Angel’s gaze never left me, even when the lie that was our marriage sailed past his head. “What they did isn’t legal, which means we aren’t married.”
“Maybe not… but who is going to contest it?” he questioned calmly.
“I will,” I growled.
He turned his back on me and walked deeper into the room. “Afraid not, Mrs. Knight. Legally, you are mine. And so is Caylen.”
“His father is alive.”
His chuckle sent chills down my spine. “Not for long.”
“I’ll file for divorce.”
He watched me as he pushed his unbuttoned pants down his legs. “Hidden on every acre of land is a man who will drag you back to me dead or alive at my command. You aren’t going anywhere.”
His cock was impossibly hard as he closed the distance between us. I tried to keep a grasp on reality, but the desire was waging war with my head. “Victor said I wasn’t supposed to marry you until I was eighteen. Why didn’t he know about the marriage?”
“My father stopped trusting Victor long before he died.” I felt as if I were going to drown when he crowded his large body in my space so I sucked in as much air as I could and held it. “He only told Victor what he trusted him to know, which wasn’t much.”
“But the contract said—”
He snorted as he lifted my sweater over my head. “Our fathers, on the other hand, trusted each other implicitly. There was no contract in the written sense. They gave their word that I would have you and you would have my protection when you turned eighteen. To them, it was more than any legal contract.” His hands fell to my jeans and with skillful fingers, slid the button free.
“Something happened to make them marry us sooner than they had planned. You aren’t curious to know what it was?” He pushed my jeans down my legs as he’d done his.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s done. We’re married, and nothing but death can reverse it.” He pushed his chest against me until my back hit the wall. Without warning, his hand slid inside my cotton panties, and I gasped when his skilled fingers skimmed my clit. “You’ve always been mine. I just wish I hadn’t lost three years,” he whispered against my lips. I shuddered as he pushed his finger inside me. “You’ll always be ready for daddy, won’t you?” I was so goddamn wet. His thumb brushed against my clit as he added a second finger, and I learned it wasn’t by accident when he circled my clit and drove his fingers deep. Wrapping a hand around his neck, I rode his fingers. “So sweet and so willing.”