Nodding to Wayne as I passed, I carried my bride inside the building with Abel close on my heels. The building was quiet, save for the sound of one of the night janitors pushing a mop across the lobby floor. As the owner of Glainne, I had a file of all the tower’s employees, so I didn’t spare him more than a passing glance as I carried my prize to my private elevator.
Abel scanned the key card, and the black, ornate doors, surrounded by white marble, opened. Abel and I stepped inside, and the doors shut firmly behind us before jolting into motion. It was a long and uninterrupted ride up to the fortieth floor, and Coby didn’t so much as twitch through it all, so I finally allowed myself to relax.
That’s when the strangest fucking thing happened.
The elevator slowed, stopped, and then announced our arrival with a chime.
Coby’s eyes flew open just as the doors parted. Feeling my hands all over her, her confused gaze slowly met mine. I was searching for the right words to put her mind at ease when it all came rushing back, and a horrified gasp left her lips. She pushed away from my shoulder and then hauled off, slapping the ever-loving shit out of me.
Caught off guard, I could do nothing as this damn girl jumped out of my fucking arms, stumbled to the ground when she lost her balance, and then shot back to her feet before darting inside my apartment as fast as her heels would allow.
I watched, dumfounded and pissed the fuck off with ringing ears and a burning cheek as Coby quickly disappeared from the darkened foyer and out of sight.
OCEAN
Abel was bent over, clutching his stomach, and howling louder than the wind outside. The windows were tinted to look black from the outside, but I could still see the city clearly from here. If we’d been at Glamis, where my entire family gathered like members of a royal court, his loud ass would have woken everyone, but here at Glainne, it was just us.
Exactly how I fucking liked it.
A few of my cousins owned apartments in the tower, but I only trusted a couple of them around Coby.
Regardless, my mom and pops were out of the country celebrating their anniversary. They’d be back in a couple of weeks, which meant I had less than a month to make Coby understand that she’d be living on a knife’s edge from here on. If my father had witnessed Coby slapping me, he would have executed her on the spot. Unwavering obedience and fear were law under Malcolm Kilpatrick’s reign.
“Aye,” Abel struggled to get out between laughs. “Ole girl said I don’t know what youthoughtwas about to happen, but not today, partna’!” More roaring from Abel followed as I seriously considered shooting my head of security. “Bruh, I think I saw a little spit fly when she slapped you, real talk.” Noticing my glare, Abel straightened and wiped the tears from his eyes before shaking his head. “I don’t know why you’re standing there mugging me. On my life, you better go get her ass before you never see her again. We ain’t at Glamis, but this apartment isstill a maze. She’s already skinny as hell. By the time you find her little ass, you’ll be marrying a damn corpse.”
Responding with only a grunt, I walked off, the sound of Abel’s laughter following me as I pulled out my phone and used the security feed to track down my wife. After flipping through countless screens, I finally found her wandering one of the dead-end halls on the second floor.
I watched as she reached the end of the dark hall and then whirled around with panic all over her beautiful face that told me she was already lost. Tiptoeing back the way she came, she eventually noticed a cracked door sandwiched between two statues. There was only a moment of indecision before she hurried inside for the only semblance of safety she could find, as trapped prey often do.
Closing the app, I pocketed my phone.
A few minutes later, I strolled inside the library, and I didn’t bother to hide the fact that I was on her ass.
“Coby,” I called out calmly.
It took a minute more before she tiptoed from behind one of the massive twenty-foot shelves. I didn’t miss the pepper spray she had clutched in her hand as she timidly came into view.
“I don’t want to marry you,” she confessed quietly.
Rolling my shoulders to chase away my rising aggravation, I turned and leaned against the wall. The moon was shining through the paneled windows on my left, creating moonbeams across the twenty feet of marble floor between us. Coby hovered in the shadows on the edge of the moonlight, but I’d know the gentle curve of her silhouette anywhere.
Physically, she wasn’t my usual type, but my dick, head, and heart didn’t seem to notice.
I’d spent years wanting her from across a dark club. And even if I’d done the right thing and left her alone to marry some simp and havehisbabies instead, she would have still been mine.Unfortunately for her, I was too damn selfish to let anyone else have her. “I know.”
“I want to go home.”
“I know that too,” I said while my tone conveyed that I wasn’t going to do anything about it.
Coby scowled at me from her side of the moonbeam, and the light that captured her glare made her brown eyes glow a little. Cute. “Hunter won’t let you keep me,” she whispered into the dark like a warning.
Pushing against the wall, I stalked her across the darkened library while Coby stumbled backward until her back was pressed against the bookcases I had built for her. I wondered if she noticed that all the shelves were empty, waiting for her to fill them.
Towering over her, I two-handed one of the shelves high above her head while staring down at her. Because of our height difference, her head was tipped so far back that I could see the strain it cost her lovely neck to hold my gaze. “Would that be the girl you claim is just a roommate?”
“She is my roommate.”
“Oh, is that all?” I drawled sarcastically. A roommate wouldn’t have emptied the clip and tried to turn my car into Swiss cheese, but okay.
