Page 120 of Captive Ruin

I pause, taking this moment of relative solitude, holding her left hand and letting my thumb brush against the ring she now wears. “I will never let anything happen to you,” I tell her. “You were mine from the first day I set eyes on you, and I’ll keep you safe with my last breath.”

She bats her eyes at me, dripping with insincerity. “So charming. Tell me, what of love in a marriage? Is it overrated in comparison to obedience and a good spanking?”

“I know this is… unorthodox,” I say carefully, “but love can develop once we’re married.”

Amelia pulls back her hand. “Usually it happens the other way around.”

“For centuries, women have married for reasons other than love. Status, money, protection.” I incline my head. “My offer isn’t without merit.”

She pats my chest condescendingly. “I know you’re about a million years older than me, but I didn’t know you were still living in the dark ages. Such a fossil.”

I clench my jaw, wanting to grab her by her slender neck, push her against the wall and pull that dress up, showing her here and now what it means to be married to me.

But instead, I straighten my suit jacket and clear my throat. “We should go,” I say, with a gentle tug in the direction of the door. “Bastien’s waiting.”

“And all my guests, too,” she adds airily. “You did send the invitations, right?”

She knows full well it’ll just be the three of us.

“You can tell your sister when this is all done.”

“Oh, my gosh, you shouldn’t have!” she cries in mock delight. “Is that my wedding present? A phone call?”

I clench my jaw as we walk outside into the chill, but she’s not finished needling.

“So thoughtful, such a nuanced choice,” she says as I open the car for her. “You take every opportunity to make my life seem like a prison.”

It’s an effort to shut the door carefully and not slam it.

I take a breath as I walk around to my side. It’s just her way, I remind myself. She only pushes because she yearns to see my dominance.

Though that’s more convincing when she’s aroused and naked, and less so when it’s in the cold light of day.

Once this is done, we’ll be married, and she’ll be mine in name as well as body. In time, she’ll come to love me.

And if she doesn’t? asks the voice of doubt in my head.

She will.

I climb in beside her, giving Tony the go-ahead. He peels out down the drive, Bastien following in his armored Rolls.

I’ve heard the way she whimpers my name. I’ve seen the unguarded look in her eyes when she comes. She needs a protector, I need a wife.

No, not even need. Want. And not just any wife, either.

Her.

I glance across at her and she’s looking straight ahead, feigning ignoring me. But I don’t mind; it allows me a moment to enjoy her profile. This woman is my obsession. She has been since that first night. I thought I was punishing her because I could, because it amused me to, and because she so badly needed to be fucked. But in truth, she was punishing me, showing me the loneliness and emptiness of my life.

Not anymore. Not after today.

“Stop staring at me,” she mutters.

“I’m admiring you,” I reply, meaning it.

She almost glances at me, a hint of color tingeing her cheeks, then she calls forward.

“Tony, how long until we reach the church?” A breathless little laugh. “Oh, how silly of me. The clerk’s office. So romantic.”