Worry surges across her face and I make a guess at what she’s thinking. “Your bedroom will be the one we were in earlier.”
Instead of relief, her expression turns to confusion. “Why do I have my own room?”
That wasn’t the question I thought was going to pop out of her mouth and I struggle to answer. I just assumed she’d prefer her own space. “Until the wedding.”
Her frown turns so deep it seems like her face is about to collapse inwards. “The one we’re having in four days?”
Oh, shit. I forgot I told her dad that.
I tug out my phone and type a reminder. The licence will need to be ordered tomorrow morning to get here in time. There’ll be other things to organise as well.
The back of my brain tots up a list while I tell her, “You might want it after, as well. I don’t know. I keep weird hours a lot of the time so if you’re spending your days at school, we mightn’t see a lot of each other.”
The spill of words takes me by surprise as much as they do her. It’s like I’m trying to use my absence as a selling point. Why? It’s not like she’s weighing up a dozen other options.
She’s here. She’s already mine. She doesn’t know there was ever another plan.
“We’ll have the ceremony on Friday,” I say, calculating the earliest that everything can happen. Now that the decision’s been made, I don’t want to hang about. Leaving things in the balance makes me restless. “I don’t want a big ceremony, so I’ll just invite my parents as witnesses.”
“Ourparents,” she stresses. “I want my dad there.” Crimson frowns up at me as I continue typing reminders on my phone.
I want to say no. My anger hasn’t abated. But her eyes are so large and pleading. She’s biting so deeply on her lower lip.
It would be weird not to have someone there from her side of the family.
“Sure.” The surrender puts an instant smile on her face, so the capitulation was worth it. I can put him in one of the empty staff apartments. Keep them from meeting unless someone else is supervising. Task my bodyguard with kicking the shit out of him if he puts one step out of line.
Keep her safe.
“You’ll need a lift code before you’re able to come and go,” I say aloud, but more to cement the reminder in my head than to her. “I’ll get Sebastian to issue you one. You’ll also have a bodyguard.”
Her face is shellshocked. I don’t need to tell her any of this. And even the things I do need to tell her, she doesn’t need to know right now. I pull her towards me to give her a warm hug. “Happy birthday.”
A sad expression plays around the edges of her forced smile as I pull away. Crimson hesitates for a moment longer, then moves a step towards the hallway. “Okay. Goodnight.”
CHAPTERNINE
MICAH
I lie awake most of the night, tossing and turning. My mind swings between self-recrimination at the horrible mess I’ve just created and continued fury at the list of Crimson’s childhood injuries.
The scotch I drank earlier doesn’t help, instead stoking my anger. Then, after it wears off, the mounting restlessness and foggy thinking conspire to keep me awake.
Finally, I’m so sick of my dozy overthinking that I tumble out of bed and walk to my office. If I’m not going to sleep, I should catch up on work. That way, at least I get something of value from the passing hours.
Instead, I tap into the security camera footage, bringing up the frames from earlier in the evening. Feeding my new obsession.
Even in black and white, Crimson’s naked body looks incredible. I toggle between the different camera angles, some capturing her face, others her delicious rear end.
I think of that beautiful body laying asleep just down the hall and my prick roars into life. Daydreams of every possible sexual activity I could introduce her to float behind my closed eyes.
My last ‘girlfriend’ absconded while I was inside. Not that I’d devoted much attention to her before the arrest. She was there for my convenience and those conveniences had become few and far between.
Even after knowing her just a few hours, I can’t imagine losing interest in Crimson the same way.
She’s perfect.
I think of her poise when her father announced the altered engagement. Apart from a slight stiffening of her chin, she’d caged her reaction. Performed as she was meant to until my attempts at banter broke through the fog of duty, and she tried too late to recant.
