Chapter 6

6

Arya

The next morning, I get to take puppies for a walk! For the first time!

Damian follows me with his hands clasped behind his back, a smile tipping up the edges of his mouth while I giggle my way along the grounds, watching the pups nip at each other’s ears and roll around in the grass. When they’ve been fed and their business is complete, Damian brings me to the kitchen where I’m surprised to find a middle-aged woman named Josephine making us omelets. She’s warm and kind and I like her instantly. Over breakfast, Damian explains she’s a woman from his old neighborhood who let him sleep in her enclosed porch on nights his father kicked him out for not bringing home enough money.

I decide to love her.

After Josephine leaves, Damian pushes back his chair at the table and crooks his finger at me. I ride him while he grips my butt cheeks, directing me, bouncing me, uttering filth against my mouth and by the time we’re finished I’m slumped and sated against my future husband, a thousand times happier than I’ve ever been in my life.

On the way to the city, I find myself straddling Damian’s lap once again, writhing up and back on what he now makes me call his cock. This time we go slowly, exploring each other’s mouths thoroughly, groaning, my hips grinding up and back, circling in teasing patterns, Damian’s teeth biting at my nipples, suckling reverently, leaving more and more marks on me…and I start to love it. I start to pull at his hair and beg to be marked and that’s when he throws me down on the seat and takes me hard, our flesh slapping together, his mouth suctioned to my neck, the windows fogging up around us.

We pull up outside of the Long Island courthouse and I do my best to fix the lacey, cream-colored dress I picked for the occasion, though my panties are ruined from being ripped off. Note to self: start traveling with an extra pair. Damian wears black slacks, a blue-gray button, a black tie and sunglasses. So. Insanely. Sexy. And in charge. And all mine. We haven’t even gotten out of the SUV yet and I’m already excited for the ride home.

I’m excited about the whole life ahead of us.

Me and my guardian angel.

“You stay here for a few minutes,” he murmurs, kissing my mouth, tucking some sex mussed hair behind my ears. I’m sitting on the edge of the backseat and he’s standing in the open door, his hard body wedged between my legs. “I want to go check it out, make sure it’s safe enough to bring you in.”

“Why wouldn’t it be safe?”

His eyes darken. “I have a lot of enemies, sweetheart. Your father is one of them now, too. I was discreet about getting the marriage license and I purposely applied for it outside of his jurisdiction, but there’s always a chance he could find out I’m about to marry his little girl and try to stop it. I’m willing to bet he spent the night finding out everything there is to know about me and…” I hear him swallow. “If he even has an inkling of my past, he might be regretting letting you leave with me.”

“No one is going to take me away,” I say, smiling to reassure him. “We’re getting married today. Try to look less terrified.”

“I just want the ring on your finger,” he breathes. “I want it official so I can bring you back inside my walls where it’s safe.”

“What about a honeymoon?” I tease him.

“Don’t start, Arya. All those fucking people around my girl…”

“Eventually you’ll have to let me out, Damian.” I brush my fingertips up and down on the back of his neck. “I lived in a glass prison before. I love our house, but I want to see the world.” I kiss his nose. “Or even just the Hamptons.”

He seems to be taking my words to heart. “I’ll work on it.”

“We’ll work on it.” Emotion tickles my throat and my chest suddenly feels like a tight-packed chamber. “I love you.”

His breath releases in a rush, his eyes taking on a beautiful sheen. “That’s the first time you’ve said it.”

“It is? But I’ve loved you for so long.”

“Say it more often then,” he rasps, taking my face in his hands and kissing me hard. Kissing me until I’m whimpering and trying to wrap my legs around his hips. “Please.”

I nod, breathless as he pulls away. “I will. I promise.”

He shoves away from the SUV, seeming torn over leaving me, even though there are two guards in the front seat, on the other side of the partition. “Stay here. I’m leaving two men. The doors are locked and the vehicle is armored. Nothing can touch you if you just stay inside.”

“Okay.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

The door closes and locks. Damian tests the handles. Three times.

He’s only leaving me for a few minutes, but the bright anxiety in his eyes tells me he’s already on the edge and I hope he gets back soon. I don’t like him being worried.

Through the windshield, I watch Damian and a group of his men move toward the courthouse and up the steps, where they disappear inside. I lean back against the seat and sigh, dreaming up names for our puppies. Maybe we can name them after the four seasons or the Beatles. I’ll have to ask Damian what he thinks after the ceremony—

A flash of black in my periphery captures my attention.

I sit forward, staring dumbfounded at the man who moves at a fast clip on the sidewalk. The sun catches a gleam of metal inside his suit coat. He’s sweating and staggering a little bit, like he’s had too much to drink—and I know full well what that looks like.

Because it’s my father.

“No,” I cry out in the silent car when he pulls the gun out of his jacket. “No, no, no…”

He’s going to shoot Damian. I know it with every fiber of my being.

Somebody has to warn him.

I bang on the partition but my fists are muffled. Is it soundproof? It stands to reason that it must be after everything we’ve been doing back here. If the guards aren’t already out of the SUV, they must not have noticed my father pass with the gun.

Do I have time to get out and explain it to them? They might refuse to leave me and save Damian, as per their boss’s instructions.

I have to warn him. There’s no other choice.

If I had a cell phone, I would call him, but I can’t even remember if I packed it and anyway, I don’t have his number.

My father has too far of a head start now. I have to move.

Pain grabs onto my lungs like tentacles and won’t let go even as I break Damian’s rule and throw open the back door, hurtling myself out into the parking lot. I run at breakneck speed toward the courthouse, my father having disappeared inside only a few seconds before. My pulse is going a thousand miles an hour in my temples and my breath is emerging like winded sobs, but I have to reach Damian.

He’s been my guardian angel so many times. Now it’s my turn to be his.

I can’t let him down and I can’t let him die.

“Hey!” one of the guards yells from the SUV, doors being thrown open. “Arya! Get back here!”

No. No, I can’t stop. When I enter the courthouse, I’m not sure which direction to go, but I see a few people staring down a back hallway and know they must be wondering about the lumbering drunk man. So I sprint in that direction, fear clogging my throat.

I catch the very tail end of my father’s foot as he steps into a room labeled “county clerk” and I run for everything I’m worth. Because I know Damian is inside that room. Male voices rise ominously just as I round the corner, my gaze searching frantically for Damian among the black suits, and there he is. There he is.

I hear my father say, “She found the pictures. My wife. She knew I wouldn’t have let Arya leave without a good reason. So you got what you wanted in the end, didn’t you? I’m fucking ruined! I’m not going down alone, though.”

Damian is looking at my father, but his gaze travels to me and fills with stark fear. Denial. And in rushes the madness, turning his eyes all but black. “Arya!” Damian bellows. “Get out of here. No. NO!”

But I can’t stop running.

I would have died when I was fourteen if it wasn’t for this man.

Or when I was fifteen. Sixteen.

He’s devoted his whole life to protecting me, giving me a place to call home, and I love him. I’ve loved him since I was six, even if that love has evolved drastically over time. I wish I had time to tell him all of this, but my father is already raising the gun, pointing it at Damian. His men are too confused by his yell to notice my father, though some of them are becoming aware and drawing their own weapons, too slowly, though. Too slow.

Thank God I came and didn’t wait.

I take the final step and throw myself across Damian’s chest, wrapping my arms around his neck and squeezing my eyes closed. The gun goes off, loud and jarring. Women scream, men shout, an alarm peals and suddenly I’m on my back on the floor, Damian covering me with his body, his mouth moving, but I don’t hear any sound. Am I shot? There’s no pain.

Maybe I’m in shock.

My head turns to the right in slow motion and there’s my father, lying on the ground with a bullet wound in his head. An armed guard stands in the distance, still holding the gun, his expression stunned.

But I have no time to process what happened because my fiancé turns those black, mad eyes on me, shaking me on the ground and his voice finally overcomes my temporary deafness from the gunshot.

“What were you thinking? My girl. My sweet, sweet girl. What were you trying to do?” I can barely recognize his tone, it’s so steeped in anguish, cracking around the edges. His eyes are now red rimmed and delirious, his shaking hands traveling over every inch of my body. “You could have been killed. You knew you were going to be killed! How dare you. How dare you almost fucking die, Arya! You think my life for yours is an even trade? It’s not! It’s not. Do you think I’d want to live after you died in my arms? DO YOU?”

His obvious torment causes tears to stream down my cheeks. “You’ve saved me so many times. It was my turn. I don’t want to live without you, either.” I start to hiccup, the adrenaline deserting me. “S-stop yelling at me.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” He drags me into his arms and rocks me back and forth in his lap, his movements compulsive. “Goddammit. I’m going to have nightmares for the rest of my life. You ran. You ran in front of the gun. Don’t you ever put me through this again. You are my life, Arya. Please. My fucking life.”

I nod into his neck and make the promise.

“Get the court officer in here now!” Damian roars over my head, still rocking me in his arms. “I’m not moving until she’s my wife. Get it done. I need to bring her home.”

Everyone scrambles to do his bidding and someone throws a sheet over the body of my father. A minute later, the court officer runs out and has us repeat our vows on the floor, his nervous gaze lighting on Damian every two seconds, as if worried my almost-husband will strike. I’m shaken by so many emotions at once. Joy that I’m marrying the love of my life, sadness that I never truly knew my father and now he’s gone. But mostly, I feel relief that Damian is alive. Our union might be forged in today’s fire, but we’re strong enough to face anything. We’re beginning our forever together.

When we’re finally pronounced man and wife, Damian lets out the breath he seems to have been holding, his mouth landing on mine, hard and desperate, kissing me until I run out of air. Then he stands with me in his arms and walks out of the courthouse.

“Mine,” he breathes into the dusk.

And I am. Completely and always.