Page 63 of In the Dark

Lena had plans, though. She chirped out loudly, “Perfect!” as she fluffed my curls forward. “You’ll have every man wishing they were marrying you, if I do say so myself.”

I tilted my head, examining the result and willing myself not to check on Callahan’s reaction. Instead, I studied how my facial features seemed to be framed in a way that my eyes appeared bigger, the angle of my cheekbones more pronounced.

“You like?” she asked me, not Callahan, who I saw from the corner of my eye finally look away from the beautiful woman.

I smiled at Lena. “I love it. Thank you. For everything today. This will be perfect for the wedding.”

“Good.” She took out her phone. “Put in the dates you’ll need me, and if you or your family need hair done in the meantime—”

“It’ll just be me for the wedding day,” I made clear, aware that I would never be able to afford whatever she was about to charge me more than once.

Callahan kissed the woman’s cheek and told her to call him before he started to walk toward the front with us. It was wildly clear that’s what he’d said. I didn’t mishear it or imagine it.

And recalling the conversation we’d had right before we’d gotten here made his blatant planning of sleeping around even more rude. So, I couldn’t be at all held accountable for the attitude I knew I was about to have with him.

We all walked to the front together. Lena clicked a few buttons, telling us she just wanted to put in the wedding date before looking up and smiling. “You’re all set.”

“Oh, I didn’t pay you—”

She tilted her head slightly and smirked at Callahan.

He leaned on the counter. “Of course I’m taking care of my future bride. Lena, please keep an account open for the future Mrs. Knight, and hold a weekly spot for her on your calendar whenever she wants.”

“That’s not necessary—”

“It’s not about necessity when you’re with me, though. It’s about what you want from now on.” His gaze held mine, steady and unreadable.

And my body, stupid as it was, reacted. Something twisted uncomfortably in my chest like he was moving things around that he shouldn’t be.

Lena patted my hand over the counter. “I think your future husband can manage covering it, Jas.”

I heard a sound of disgust from behind me, and then Demi blurted out, “So you’re really going to do it, Cally. Marry her?”

A long silence stretched between all of us. Callahan seemed like he wanted to make something clear, though, because his hand went to the small of my back before he pulled me close. “Problem with Jasmina, Demi?”

The way he asked the question made about ten things clear all at once. Callahan wasn’t afraid to declare our relationship, he wasn’t afraid to flaunt his indiscretions, and he also was going to make it clear to everyone that he had every right to do what he wanted with all of us.

The absolutely disgusting thing was that Demi caught onto all this, searched his gaze, and immediately shook her head. “No problem at all.” She put her hand on his arm. “I’ll call you tonight.”

I hummed at her brazenness. I knew I was supposed to agree to this, was supposed to roll over and take it, and probably should have if I didn’t want to ruffle feathers. But the words that left my lips couldn’t be held back. “Plan on calling my future husband and plan on me answering the call, Demi.”

“Viper,” Callahan warned.

“He’s right. I am a viper. And my venom is much worse than my bite.”

I couldn’t stop the smirk that crept across my face as I saw both Demi and Lena’s mouths drop. I didn’t give Callahan the satisfaction of a glance. I turned on my heel and strode out, leaving them all behind me.

My stupidly infuriating future husband had better be following me too, or I was going to try to kill him in the car on the way home.

Welcome to life with a Ruiz.

I got to the car door again on my own. Probably because Callahan had decided he was going to kill me from afar. He was surely pulling his pistol and contemplating how to not make a scene, but as I yanked at the handle, there was that palm of his. It slammed into the doorframe right above my head, the force vibrating through the glass. His chest crushed against my back, a wall of solid, radiating heat. This time, the restraint was gone. He didn’t just turn me; he reached around, his fingers curling firmly around the column of my throat, and then he yanked me by my neck to spin me around, slamming my back against the car door with enough force to steal my breath.

Rough. Vicious. Terrifying.

The way I liked him.

He turned to a monster just the way I did when he’d had enough, but God help me, I wanted to climb him like a tree. My pulse hammered against his palm, a frantic rhythm that betrayed every ounce of my defiance. It was wrong, it was toxic, and it was completely inevitable.