“Figures. I remember that deal. We were on the periphery, ready to give Stavros his due, but he made a call, pulling out hours before we came on board with the Volkovs. We actually took a loss at first,” he admits.
“Yes,” Adrik continues the tale, “but we moved on. Shame about your father. Would’ve made a hell of a partnership.”
Luc doesn’t say anything. His knuckles are white on the glass.
“I was manipulated,” I say. “But I fixed it. I’ve already told my wife everything. There are no secrets between us. She knows who I was when we met. She knows who I am now. And the only thing I care about anymore is Cecilia. Being with her, loving her, protecting her. She’s my whole world.”
I stand.
The quiet rage inside me simmering just beneath the surface, but my voice stays low, deadly honest.
“No one is taking her from me. Ever again. She is worth more than any deal, any crown, anything I’ve ever known or heard of. She is everything.”
For a moment, the room is dead silent.
Then Nico Sr. smirks and lifts his glass.
“Amen, brother.”
“Agreed,” Luc mutters, finally sitting back in his chair, tension bleeding out of his shoulders like he’s decided not to kill me. Today.
I’ll take it.
I exhale.
Only slightly.
Because I may have just won over her family.
But the real prize will be waiting for me at the altar later this evening.
And I’m not going to be satisfied until I claim my bride, and her me, in front of all and sundry.
Hell, I’ll never be satisfied until Cecilia Stavros is mine in every possible way.
And I plan to have her.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Till death do us part, and maybe not even then.
Chapter Thirty-Eight-Atlas
The room glows like something out of a fever dream.
Not a nightmare.
The other kind.
The one you wake from with your heart racing and a smile on your face, praying to every god in existence that it was real.
We’re standing in the castle’s indoor arboretum, transformed for the ceremony.
Thousands of tiny white lights drip like icicles from the vaulted glass ceiling, reflecting off frosted panes and making the whole place shimmer like fresh snowfall.
