“I must have imagined your bedroom a hundred times,” she said softly while looking around the room in both awe and agony. “But I got to admit this isn’t even close to what I pictured.”
“Disappointed?” I asked rather than put her out of her misery by correcting her. My teeth sank into my bottom lip to keep from laughing when she kept side-eying the hell out of me.
“No, it’s…it’s beautiful. You might not believe me, but I’ve always dreamed of having an apartment just like this. I even made a Pinterest board,” she said with a weak chuckle.
I know.
I wasn’t one for social apps, but I always did my homework, and I was shamelesslythorough.Luckily, Coby seemed addicted to social media, giving me an unobstructed insight into my future wife without her being aware.
“So what’s the problem?” I questioned teasingly.
“I guess I didn’t realize we had so much in common,” she grumbled.
“Mhm,” I hummed.
Exhaling heavily, Coby squeezed her eyes closed and then opened them again before whirling toward me. “Ocean, please tell me you have a daughter or a sister who stays here,” she begged, whimpering.
“Sorry. No kids and no sister.” Coby’s gaze widened before letting out another distressed whimper, and I burst out laughing. “The room is not mine,you brat. It’s yours.”
“Mine?” Her head snapped back. “But where do you sleep?”
“I have a suite on the west side of the second floor. The sunsets are amazing if you ever want to pay me a visit.”
Coby, who was unused to wondering how her emotions could be used against her, didn’t bother hiding her hurt feelings. “You want me to marry you, but you don’t want me to sleep in your bed?”
Pushing away from the door because I couldn’t stand how far away she was from me, I took her chin in my hand and tilted her head back to see a sheen in her brown eyes.
“I want more than just you in my bed,mo aingeal. I want to hold you in my bed, fuck you in my bed, tie you to my bed so that you can never leave it, and if I’m being real, I wanted to raze this room to the ground the moment it was completed because I knew it meant I would have to wait a little while longer.”
“Wait? Wait for what?”
“For you to accept that you’re mine. I know you feel some type of way about what I did to your brother, and I’m not going to say I’m sorry because I’d do it again. I don’t like that it’s pushed you away from me, though. Just when I finally let myself get close.”
“Ocean…” I stopped breathing as I waited for her to tell me that I was wrong. That she wasn’t holding the situation with her brother against me, and that she was ready. Instead, she said, “Thank you for the room.”
I stared into her eyes for a little while longer before I kissed her forehead and forced myself to back away toward the door. “You’re welcome.”
COBY
The door closed behind Ocean again with a beep that had me immediately rushing over to it to test the handle. I yanked repeatedly, but it wouldn’t budge.
Locked.
Finding the square black pad on the wall next to the door, I stared at the green light indicating it was armed and punched the door. “Ocean! Ocean, I know you hear me, you psycho! Let me out!” I punched and kicked the door, but no matter how much noise I made, silence always answered back.
Defeated, I turned and leaned against the double doors and took another look around the room.
A princess palace.
Ocean had gifted me one of my wildest dreams as a clever disguise to hide what this room truly represented.
A pretty prison.
It wasn’t a show of wealth but rather a flex of how closely he was paying attention and his willingness to give me my heart’s desires if only I looked past all the red flags warning me to run the other way.
I’d be a fool to fall for it, but tell my foolish heart that.
I’d already spotted the cameras that he hadn’t bothered to hide and wondered if he was watching me now. I extended my middle finger toward the camera above the fireplace and went in search of the bathroom.
