His voice turns ice cold. “Because, you should know, it’ll be worse when you’re my wife.”
I shove him off me. I am not turned on because he is threatening to kill people. I’m better than that.
But I can’t help the hot chill that runs down my spine when he continues talking, deep in thought.
“I think I’d start with the parts of them that have touched you. Obviously, the cock, but I think that should be the finale, don’t you?”
He rolls over, propping himself up on one hand as he looks at me coolly. “The fingers are where I would begin,” Art says finally, his face dark. “One by one, starting with the tips, or maybe even just the skin. Then the tongue, so they can’t even scream properly. I would eradicate every part of them that knows you, Nina.”
A ridiculous notion, given he’s the only man who’s been inside me.
“You’re absurd. I’m going to the bathroom to throw up now,” I announce.
“No, you’re not,” he says with a smirk. His eyes pierce me like a needle, like he’s taking a biopsy of my every thought.
I growl with frustration as I leave the room to take a shower, and he just chuckles.
23
NINA
“This one's pretty,” says Lily, holding up the glossy magazine to show me a dress. It’s simple, with off-the-shoulder sleeves and intricate lace that falls in a waterfall style to the ground. She calls over the shop attendant and points at the page. “Can we get that one too?”
“Of course, Ms. Adams.”
The shop attendant clicks her fingers and shows the dress to her assistant, who rushes away as though it’s an emergency and not the twentieth dress I’ll be trying on today.
This place is a whole new world. Every surface is pale pink or cream, with thick brocaded drapes and plush carpet. Soft instrumental music plays in the background, and everything smells like an expensive floral arrangement.
But it also feels as sterile as a dentist’s office. There is not a singleother customer in the building, because you have to book a personal appointment to get in. Normally, you have to queue up years in advance to get a spot, so I’ve got no idea how Art or his people arranged this so quickly.
I sincerely hope there weren’t any threats of violence involved, but I suspect that’s wishful thinking. Art has enough money to make anyone open their doors and welcome me in, so this appointment may have been a matter of greasing the right palms.
The wedding is a lot. Art got everything arranged in record time, but I don’t understand the rush.
Still, it’s hard not to be swept up in it. Especially when Ava is as excited to be a flower girl and a ring-bearer as she is. She’s already started referring to Art and me as the prince and princess, and it makes my heart flutter to think that this really might be a fairytale ending.
If I ignore the bloodshed, the manipulation, he’s done so much to sweep me off my feet.
I can’t believe it’s real.
But while I drown in designer fabric in the fanciest shop I’ve ever entered, it definitely feels pretty damn real.
Lily and I have been going through a catalog of wedding dresses all morning, debating the difference between ivory and white. Ava is bouncing off the walls, helped along by the generous servings of high-tea style cakes on offer.
The attendants in the shop are crazy helpful, asking for my makeup palette — not sure — and even offering to do a color analysis for me. The fitting room is so big and comfortable thatit could be a bedroom — which feels appropriate, because after trying on 15 dresses, I do want to take a nap.
“Can I get you anything else?” the shop attendant asks smoothly. “Tea, coffee, cakes?”
I shake my head. “No, thank you.”
Any more cake and I won’t be able to fit into any of the dresses in this shop. I smooth my hands over the thick silk of the dress I’m currently wearing, the luxe fabric sliding beneath my hands.
This one is far too wedding-cake-shaped for my taste, but Lily insisted I try it on because it’s the most expensive thing in the entire catalog.
“And where is?—?”
“Ava?” It hits me at the exact same time as the shop attendant’s eyebrows rise up, her gaze turning out to survey the shop as though my daughter is going to be running wild amongst the crisp, untouched ivory fabric of the dresses lining the shop floor.
