I escaped this world to avoid a forced marriage. The room spun around me. A band of iron tightened around my chest, crushing, constricting. The wordmarriageechoed in my skull like a death knell.
“I—I can’t—” My voice emerged as a wheeze. My fingers clawed at the crimson skirt, desperate for something to anchor me as vertigo tilted the world sideways. Cold sweat broke out across my skin while a wave of nausea rolled through my stomach. The candlelight suddenly seemed too bright, the shadows too dark, everything intensified to an unbearable degree.
“You would have status, protection,” Ivan continued, seemingly oblivious to my distress as he sipped his wine. “Brady would have his father’s name. Histruename.”
Silence ticked by with a crushing finality. Ivan’s brows knit together, his frown intensified as he watched me. Clearly, he’d expected a different reaction to this proposal.
Oh, shit…a proposal. That was what this was. It made sense now. The gown, the dinner, the detail of it being in a fancy, opulent bookstore. Ivan had outdone himself to make it special for me.
But if he knew me at all, he would never have attempted such a move.
I was only ever going to marry for love. It was my creed; the declaration etched into my heart. I cut ties to my father and brother to carve those words.
I will not let this monster force my hand.Clearing my throat, I gathered every drop of strength and sat straight. “No, Ivan. I will not marry you.”
He jerked back. Something glint in the candlelight. I looked at his hands. There it was, the final piece. A brilliant diamond set in a band with smaller stones decorating the metal. He bought a ring. He bought a freaking gorgeous ring! The kind any woman would kill to wear.
Anyone but me.
Thunderclouds formed in his dark features. “No?”
It was as if he couldn’t fathom this going any other way than his plan.
“No,” I repeated. “Thank you for this beautiful dinner, but I’m unable to accept your solution.”
There. That was tactful and polite. The kind of answer a debutant of old would have given.
Ivan fisted his hands. “You realize this is the best thing for you?”
In terms of my circumstances? Sure. I could see that. I was an outsider, and his men no doubt considered me a threat. Hell, he probably did too.
But if he really wanted what was best for me…. I sighed.
“Let’s go back to the house now. Arguing over this is pointless,” I offered.
Ivan opened his mouth as if to argue. Then he closed it.
I rose, cupped my hand behind the shortened tapered candles, and blew them out. “For what it’s worth, this was by far the best proposal.”
“You’ve had others?” There was a slight sneer behind his words.
“Mhmm, and when you aren’t quite so angry—” he scoffed, but I ignored him “—you’ll realize that there’s probably a reason I’m still single.”
Turning, I moved through the first row of shelves, seeking a moment of privacy before we left together. I didn’t hear him approach. Didn’t sense him until a whisper of mint tickled my nose.
His hard grasp snaked around to catch my throat. Ivan snatched me back, bringing me flush against my body. A band of iron muscle wrapped around my waist.
“No one refuses me,” he growled against my ear.
Shivers skated over my frame. His fingers squeezed around my throat. My lungs seized, refusing to draw breath. Not that they could.
“You will marry me.”
With the last burst of carbon dioxide, I managed to choke out one word. “No.”
His grip tightened.
Stars danced across my vision, the edges going black.
