The Marriage Debt (Underworld Kings)

“You cheated? What do you mean?”

He grabs a champagne bottle sitting in ice and pours it into two glasses. “This was all planned ahead of time. Back when I was first supposed to marry you.”

I look up and stop eating. “Wait, you mean you were planning on bringing my sister here?” I almost get jealous at the thought, but then I remember that I took her place. And I’m sure glad that I did now that I’m here.

“No,” Luca responds, taking the date from my hand and stuffing it into his mouth. “Three years ago.”

My lips part, but I don’t know what to say.

He planned all this three years ago?

All this time, when his family tried to get me on a plane, and I escaped, I thought they’d only planned on marrying us there. Not that we’d actually get a …

“Oh,” I mutter, my eyes widening as the realization hits me. “This is—”

“Our honeymoon,” Luca fills in for me as he hands me a glass of champagne and holds it out for a toast. “The one I wanted to give to you.” He lowers his eyes at me in that same way he always does just before he’s about to chase me around the penthouse. And the mere sight of those eyes makes me want to flee. “Before you decided to run away from me.”

I swallow and take the glass from his hand. We toast. The air is crackling with tension.

I bring the glass to my lips and take a sip while sweat drops roll down my back.

Right as I put it down on the table, he grabs my wrist. “Don’t run just yet, bunny.”

My whole body freezes as he fishes something from his pocket. A letter.

“This is for you,” he says.

With a frown, I take it and open the envelope. I don’t know what I’m expecting, but it’s definitely not a love letter, knowing Luca.

But when my eyes read the words on the paper, I gasp in shock and almost drop the paper.

It’s a proof of purchase of a building in the city where we live with my name on it.

“What is this?” I mutter.

“Consider it a late wedding gift.”

Why would he buy me property unless—

“For your new business,” he says as he puts down his glass and steps closer, a key dangling between his fingers. “Where you can create all the dresses and outfits you ever dreamed of.”

Oh, my God. I can’t believe it.

I choke up at the thought.

He’d really do this for me?

He holds up the key in front of my face so daringly close like a piece of candy that I want to snatch it away just because I can.

But the moment I do, he pulls back, and that familiar smirk appears again. The same one he had on his face when he first stole my crown when I was only a little girl and ran away with it.

Back then, I didn’t know how far boys like him would go to get what they wanted.

“What’s the catch?” I ask, putting down the paper.

“Saying thank you is a start,” he muses, narrowing the gap between us.

“Well, thank you,” I say.

He shakes his head a little. “Not enough, bunny.”

“What more do you want?”

But I already know the answer, and the thought fills me with exhilaration.

He leans in, chest pressed up against mine, his cock hardening against my thighs. “That your heart and body only bleed for me.”

He pulls the knife out of his pocket, caressing my cheek with it, and it feels like my whole body ignites in flames.

“It’s about time we fixed that name scar and made it whole again,” he says.

I hold my breath as the knife slowly travels down to my navel. “The doors are open. What if I scream? What if someone catches us?”

His tongue darts out to wet those delicious lips of his. “This is a private beach, so the only one catching you will be me.”

He really thought of everything.

Fuck.

I swallow, but I still can’t stop myself from taunting the wolf. “And what if I decide to give my heart to someone else?”

I know what it does to him when I say that.

How possessive it makes him.

It’s exactly what I want.

He looks me dead in the eyes as he says, “Then I suggest you start running … now.”

Now.

My feet are lightning fast as they move across the wood.

He’s mere inches away, but I escape his grasp.

On the beach, my feet dig into the sand.

One glance over my shoulder.

There he is, right in my footsteps, in one hand a knife, the other a chain.

If there’s anyone else on this beach right now, they’d call the police.

But we’re all alone, and there’s no one here to rescue me, the damsel in distress, the little bunny darting away from the wolf himself.

And when he suddenly lunges forward and catches me, I fall headfirst into the sand.