The princess might do anything for her daddy, but I don’t fuck with innocent or unwilling creatures. Too many complications.
Sex is a mutual agreement. It has always been, and it’ll always be that for me. I don’t seek love or attachment. The idea is laughable.
I’m a beast, but even I draw the line in accepting such propositions from desperate men. If he wants to whore out his daughter, then I’m not the intended audience for this kind of shit.
I’m about to tell him he can go fuck himself when my gaze falls on the white envelope delivered to me earlier.
The final instructions in my father’s will regarding our oldest property, which holds a rich family history.
Our most prized possession, which has collectors salivating to get their hands on it once I turn thirty-six in exactly one month.
Because Father dearest stipulated that his son can inherit the property only if he is married, otherwise it will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
And the funniest part?
He forbade me from bidding on it.
The old fucker manages to fuck up my plans even from the grave.
I have money to last me several lifetimes, but that particular property…my mother loved it with all her heart.
“Promise, Orion. Promise me that when you grow up, you will take it away from him. I made a mistake, love clouded my judgment, and I paid for it. I can’t live with the knowledge that he would take it away from me too. Promise me, Orion.” Her cold hand touches my cheek as she struggles to breathe through the oxygen mask, her skin turning so pale I can see all her veins. “If you don’t…he wins, and he won his whole life. Please don’t let him win from the grave.”
At the age of ten, I had given my mother a promise I fully intended to keep: find a good actress to play her part right, and be rewarded for it accordingly. Destiny, though, has a nice sense of humor and timing because it worked even better by presenting me with an intriguing opportunity.
No one would question my marriage to Jones’s daughter, as arranged marriages are still a common practice in our world because it’s easier and mutually beneficial to marry within our own circle.
If she is indeed as beautiful as he claims—I’ve never found or seen photos of her online—then everyone would assume I fell into her charms and decided to save her old man.
And in this, she can become a perfect weapon to send a giant “fuck you” to my father in hell and get the property my mother so loved.
Jones watches me, hope lighting up his whole face as I reply. “You’ve got yourself a deal.” I take a deep breath. “Under certain conditions.”
“Name them. I’ll do anything.”
Desperate times call for desperate measures, but I wonder how one raises a daughter to be so sure she’d agree to play the part and sign up for “anything.”
That’s a level of sacrifice I will never understand, but it doesn’t matter on the grand scale of things.
The beauty will marry the beast and give him what he wants until we can go our separate ways.
Because we aren’t living in a fairy tale, and I don’t need her love to cure me.
My soul and heart were soaked in sin and hell a long time ago, and no one could ever break this curse.
CHAPTER TWO
“My favorite fairy tale was alwaysBeauty and the Beast.
Because he didn’t expect her to change and loved her just the way she was.
And isn’t that the biggest gift of all?
But also…
What a beautiful lie.
As love is always conditional.
