Chapter Eight

Cia.

December 24th

Iliked being married…and worse, I liked being married to Nex Barrett. Embracing a union with Nex contradicted everything I had been fighting against my entire life, a connection to the world my father and brother embraced.

A dark, twisted, and morally gray world.

Nex was the darkest, most twisted part of that world and now he was my husband.

As much as we agreed this union would be in name and his bed only, that line had been crossed, demolished, no longer existing because he and I wanted more. What was I supposed to do with these treacherous and overwhelming feelings of wanting him? My father and brother were going to feel betrayed but this was all their fault. Had Merrick not promised me to Warren, I would have never married Nex in the first place.

My eyes darted over to the man lying next to me in bed. After he’d fucked me several more times last night, we showered and climbed in bed together. I fully intended to escape the intimate position, but he had other plans, which meant keeping me locked in place against his hard firm body with a muscled arm draped over my waist all night. I’d managed to escape this morning with the plea of needing to use the bathroom. He turned over onto his back, throwing one arm above his head and the other rested on his chest.

Such a perfect visual I felt compelled to get more of, so after I emptied my bladder, I climbed back in bed with him and sat against the headboard with my knees drawn into my chest while I rested my head on folded arms, admiring the beauty of my new husband.

He is so damn sexy and this is all too good to be true…

But what was good about a man like Nex Barrett who promised death? He killed people for a living. Only because men like my father, brother, and Warren paid him well to do so. Was the person who placed the order any worse than the person who handled the execution?

Can I still love my father and brother and not love Nex?

My eyes went wide with the thought at the same time I sucked in a sharp breath of realization. Love Nex?

“Do I want to love him?”

I whispered lowly.

There were so many overwhelming emotions suffocating me and sitting next to the source of the problem wasn’t helping. I slowly eased to the side of the bed to escape but before I could lower my legs over the edge, the deep rumble of his voice had my spine stiffening.

“Let’s talk about it, Little Flame.”

I swung my head, narrowing my eyes at him over my shoulder. “Talk about what?”

“All the reasons you are second guessing your decision to become my wife. Because let's be clear, you are my wife, Cia. No matter what regrets you have, I’m not changing my mind, which means you don’t have the option of changing yours.”

My mouth gaped open as I watched him brush both palms down his face, throw the covers back, and move with a dominant gait to the bathroom with a slow, confident stride that allowed me time to admire more of the insanely tempting body I had been ogling for the past hour.

While Nex spent time in the bathroom, I tracked his movements. First, the sound of him using the bathroom, then the sink running. After what felt like an eternity, I had a visual of my new husband. He leaned against the doorframe looking every bit of the sex god I’d been lusting over. Tight black briefs hugged his upper thighs and sat low on his waist, exposing the reason for the soreness between my thighs.

“What has that pretty little head of yours overthinking?”

“Who says I’m overthinking?”

I set my jaw and slowly raised a brow. Nex smiled beautifully and my God…

“I can feel your thoughts as intensely as I felt your orgasms.”

He pushed away from the wall. “Speaking of, we should eat. We had a busy night and morning.” The smugness of his voice had me glaring. I could hear the fucking smirk in his tone and it grated my nerves but had my pussy pulsing with need at the same time.

“I’m going to order breakfast. Is there anything you object to?”

He was almost out of the room before I found my voice.

“Yes, there is. All of this. I object to everything that has happened in the past twenty-four hours.”

He turned, locking his arms over his chest. His gaze was intense and had my stomach twisting but then that cocky grin surfaced. Barely there but oh so lethal. “Not everything,”

he rasped as his eyes slowly traveled the length of my body to my bare legs and back up to the place where my pussy was hidden beneath a t-shirt. His t-shirt.

“Asshole,” I hissed.

“Asshole, husband, to my understanding they’re interchangeable. Let’s go, you need to eat. We have plans today.”

Plans?

I watched him disappear into the hallway before I headed to the bathroom to wash my face, brush my teeth, and rake my fingers through my sex mussed hair. When I made it to the living room, I found Nex standing in front of the paneled glass, his massive back to me, finely carved with muscles and decorated with art. He held a cellphone to his ear. I frowned and listened, realizing he wasn’t ordering food.

“Let me be clear, you never had a vote. Regardless of what you believed to be true, the decision was always mine. I allowed you the illusion that you had some type of control but that no longer exists. I’m moving forward. If you don’t like it, do something about it, and please understand, taking your life won’t cost me any sleep.”

Nex’s tone was dominant, eerily calm but assertive. He spoke with assurance that whoever was on the other end had to be insane to challenge. And if they did, they would fail.

He ended the call and his eyes met mine through the glass briefly before he murmured, “Breakfast is on the way.”

“That wasn’t room service.”

With a smirk he turned to face me and stalked across the room. One hand landed at my hip, the other gripped the back of my neck seconds before his mouth crashed against mine. When he pulled back and dropped his forehead to mine, I hated how easily this man could persuade me to submit.

“That was our plans for today but we’ll discuss the call later. Right now we’re going to circle back to what’s going on in that pretty little head of yours. Come sit down.”

“You just threatened someone. That’s far more important than my regrets about marrying you.”

“You don’t regret marrying me. You regret that you like the idea of being married to me.”

Nex stepped around me, heading to the sofa. Once he was seated—legs spread wide, one arm extended across the back—he patted the space beside him, summoning me.

I grunted my annoyance and made my way to the sofa but elected to sit as close to the opposite side as possible. Nex grabbed me by the waist and yanked me into his lap. I shifted and squirmed, attempting to break free, but his hold prevented my escape. So I got as comfortable as I could and glared at his handsome face.

“What’s the problem, Little Flame?”

“You, this. It won’t work.”

“It’s barely been twenty-four hours, and as far as I can tell, it’s working very fucking nicely.”

I felt his dick pulse beneath me which caused me to groan. “This has been sex. Really great sex. I’ll give you that, but marriage extends beyond orgasms. Being married to you is a mess. You do what you do, my family does what they do, and I want no parts of the doing on either side.”

“I have no intention of involving you in that side of my life, Little Flame. What I do doesn’t exactly leave space for ‘bring your wife to work’ moments.”

I frowned and his sexy smile expanded. “You’re awfully comfortable tossing around marriage and wife.”

“I am, aren’t I? Which, by the way, is a bit surprising considering I never desired either, but you as my wife has become very appealing.”

He buried his face in my neck, delivering a trail of enticing kisses. I barely found the strength to pull away but managed to press my palm into his chest to create some space. “Again, that’s sex. You’re focusing on the wrong thing. Marriage is…”

“Whatever we want it to be,”

he asserted, cutting me off.

“Would you stop that?!”

I argued and jumped up from his lap. He let me and I stepped away, locking my arms over my chest. He sat patiently and seemingly unbothered by my reaction.

“Stop what?”

“Acting like what we did is perfectly normal.”

“It’s very fucking normal, Little Flame. People get married all the time. I bet there are hundreds of weddings happening right now, some probably in this same hotel.”

I growled. “But ours isn’t normal. I didn’t marry you because I wanted a husband and you didn’t marry me because you wanted a wife. In fact, I married you because I didn’t want a husband.”

“You didn’t want the husband your brother selected for you.”

“Exactly.”

I threw my hands up, feeling frustrated while he was the epitome of calm.

“You’re conflicted and I understand why. I’m not the man you envisioned yourself with. But regardless of how we got here, we’re here. You and I are in this, Little Flame.”

He lifted from the sofa and stalked toward me, slowly and predatorily. “You’re mine. My wife and there are no fucking outs.” He softly touched my hip and moved me forward. “And considering you don’t want an out, I think we’ll be just fine.”

His mouth was on mine then my feet left the floor. My legs wrapped around his waist and his massive hands palmed my ass. I sighed into the kiss and my pussy purred with a nice warm welcome but unfortunately the knock at the door shut down whatever thoughts I was having.

“That’s breakfast. Let me feed you; then I’ll make up for the interruption.”

He pressed his forehead to mine and smiled smugly as if sensing my disappointment and assessing my needs. After I was on my feet again, he crossed the room and I watched from the living room while he received our breakfast but didn’t allow them to enter the suite.

He moved two rolling carts to the dining area and summoned me. My belly betrayed me by growling in approval of the savory aroma from something baked and buttery.

My feet followed suit by carrying me across the room where I began lifting the silver cloches. Nex filled one end of the rectangular table, setting the expectation that he wanted me near, and again my stomach betrayed me, desperate to be filled. I settled into the chair next to him and pulled a dish filled with a stack of fluffy, steamy pancakes toward me.

The display brought a smile to my face because they were decorated with strawberries topped with whipped cream emulating Santa hats. I pinched a piece from the stack and let it melt on my tongue, moaning in approval. Nex placed a small glass pitcher holding what my nose recognized as maple syrup next to my plate.

For the first few minutes, my time was spent drenching my pancakes, stabbing into them, and moaning through the happiness they brought my mouth and belly. In my peripheral, I could see my new husband watching me with a pleased grin on his face. After I was a quarter of the way through my stack of eight, I lifted the linen napkin, wiped my mouth, and guzzled half a glass of orange juice before I gave in and handed over my attention.

His grin expanded and his left brow lifted ever so slowly. “You approve?”

I shrugged and shoved another forkful of pancakes in my mouth, making sure to stab a strawberry in the process. “Yep, they’re good,”

I admitted with a mouthful. “And I was starving.”

He chuckled and his eyes lowered to my plate. “I’m glad you’re enjoying them, however that’s a double stack, meant for two people.”

I cringed with my fork millimeters from my mouth with another layer of fluffy goodness and turned my eyes on him when he added, “That we were supposed to share.”

“Order more. You can afford to.”

I shoved them in my mouth and he threw his head back and laughed.

“Not shy at all about testing the marriage theory, are you?”

I frowned and lowered my fork. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“My father didn’t offer much by way of experience when it comes to what a good marriage looks like but I’ve witnessed a few things in my line of work. What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine. Isn’t that how most wives think?”

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been a wife before and I’m forced to be yours. My experience is limited but I like the sound of what’s mine remaining mine and what’s yours also being mine.”

He nodded and sliced into the steak he claimed. It was sitting next to a pile of perfectly scrambled and fluffy eggs that looked appetizing. I lifted my fork again and scooped some from his plate. When they met my tongue, I nodded in approval, dragging his plate to mine and scraping half of them, then returning what was left.

“You also like proving points I see.”

“You don’t want to share, then divorce me. Simple fix.”

I shrugged again.

“I’m not divorcing you. No matter how annoying you try your hand at being. I meant what I said, no outs. You’re mine.”

I exhaled a sigh, then reached for the plate of sausage and bacon. I moved it across the table, and after I loaded several pieces of both onto my plate, I turned back to him. “Merrick is pissed and he’s going to seriously complicate your life. Am I really worth the trouble?”

Something shifted in his eyes and I felt the air thicken around us…

Oh fuck, this doesn’t feel good.