Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 83430 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83430 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 417(@200wpm)___ 334(@250wpm)___ 278(@300wpm)
What arrangement? What could Patron Arsen possibly want from me? He’s the leader of the Armenian Brotherhood, nephew of Papa, my cousin, and I barely ever see or hear from the man. Why would I get anywhere near Brotherhood business?
“Hello, Talin, it’s really good to see you again.” Riley would normally come give me a hug, but she stays on her side of some invisible line.
Cousin Alexan only nods. He studies me intently and I don’t know what he’s looking for, but I’m positive he’s not finding it.
Papa finally speaks into the excruciating awkwardness. “Tallie jan, I want you to meet someone important. His name is Brenden McGrath, and if everything goes as planned, you two are going to get married.”
That name.
It strikes me like a kick to the spine.
I look at the third member of their group, a man standing off to the side, so easy to miss the way he holds himself with quiet confidence, like he was built to be overlooked and hard to stare at. But the moment I realize he’s there, all I can think is his mouth, his taste, his lips between my legs, my orgasm tearing my body to pieces, and the stolen lighter between my tits, still cool on my skin.
Brenden’s smile is guarded as he nods, and I think there’s a warning in the way he tilts his chin. There’s definitely a cheeky sparkle in his eyes.
This can’t be happening.
“I know it’s a lot and it’s sudden,” Riley says into the quiet. Annie appears at my elbow, lacing her fingers through the crook of my arm. I lean on her, breathing hard. “I’m sorry we didn’t do this a better way, but it was only decided recently… and oh… you don’t look so good. Are you feeling okay?”
My head swims and my vision goes blurry. Sweat pours down my face. “Your cheeks are really red, Tallie jan,” Papa points out.
Then Brenden’s moving. He sweeps aside Annie, tugs me toward a chair in the shade, and sits me down. He fans my face with a stack of napkins and orders Papa to get me cold water. “You’re alright, darling,” he whispers, standing much too close while Annie and Riley fret around me. Cousin Alexan lurks, watching, curiously detached. “I’ve got you now.”
I groan because yes, yes, that’s the exact problem: there’s an arrangement, there’s a plan I wasn’t a part of, one that involves my fucking future, and I am going to be his, and he’s got me, whether I want him to or not, this thieving stranger, and apparently my future husband.
CHAPTER 3
BRENDEN
“I’ve never made a woman faint before.” I flick open a gold lighter, snap the flame into life, and close it again with a sharp click. “I’m not sure it happened how I would’ve liked though.”
My sister snorts and pours two glasses of wine. I flick the lighter, close it again, over and over. These days I’m never comfortable unless my fingers are moving. I hate sitting still, despise the thought of spending my days hanging around quietly reading or shuffling through parties shaking hands and making small talk. I need motion, some goal, something to aim myself toward like an arrow.
“I don’t think it was your charm that did it.” Riley hands me the glass of wine and sits heavily on my sofa. She sighs, stretching her legs.
“No, it was probably the Davis’s freaking heat running in August. Poor girl looked like she was melting.”
“I felt like I was going to come unglued.” Riley gestures for me to join her. “You’re making me uncomfortable. Sit down at least.”
I ignore my dear sister. Flick, click, snap. Over and over. “She didn’t seem to like our plan.”
“We didn’t get to talk to her about it. Her sister and father rushed her out of there.”
“They were worried about heat stroke.”
“Can’t blame them. Her face was bright red.”
I don’t bother mentioning that her cheeks were that same color after she came on my tongue.
Riley would not approve.
Frankly, I wouldn’t blame her.
I wasn’t in that office to meet my future wife for the first time. It only happened to work out that way. Flick, click, snap.
“How are you feeling about all this?” Riley acts like she’s not interested in the question, like she’s only being polite, but I know my sister better than that. She’s probing. It’s what I’d do in her position.
“Honest truth?”
“I prefer the dishonest kind. Yes, Brenden, honest truth please.”
“I don’t want this.”
She tilts her glass in a slow circle. “But?”
“No but. That’s it.”
“Come on, you know why it’s happening. Maybe this is going to be good for you.” Riley’s face brightens. “She’s really pretty, right?”
“If you’re into that sort of thing.”
“Beautiful women?”
Flick, click, snap. I don’t bother answering. Tallie’s been stuck in my head since I kissed her in the office on a whim after brushing her perfect, olive-toned skin with a priceless lighter. I hope she’s still got her matching pair. Flick, click, snap. Maybe her fingers are touching it right now and she’s remembering the way my mouth felt between her legs and she’s thinking maybe it won’t be so bad marrying a twisted, failed, broken man like Brenden McGrath—