Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96742 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Yet I don’t know where this possessive need to have her comes from.
None of this is real, this engagement is a sham, and I still need to take all of her.
“Sorry to tell you, but it’ll have to be.” His smile is apologetic as he puffs on his cigar. “For now, at least. If you want to marry her sooner, you could always kill her ex-husband.” He grins at me like he’s joking, but I stare back at him, not smiling.
“I will gladly end that fucker’s life. Murder is certainly not off the table.”
He sighs and shakes his head. “Well, if you get caught, give me a call.”
“Find a loophole, Gareth. Find a way for me to make her my wife tomorrow. Find me something.”
He ashes his cigar and considers me for a moment. “Evander, if this is just about making sure your family will accept her, do you really need to make it legal? Go through with the ceremony. Sign the papers. Do everything except, you know, actually file with the state. The moment her divorce goes through, you can get the legalities squared away, but what does a guy like you give a shit about the law? Besides, by the time she’s officially back on the market, I bet your little problem will be long gone. This way, you won’t have to worry about a messy separation when it’s said and done.”
I grind my jaw and throw back my drink. Gareth’s got a point—my whole life exists outside of the law. Why the hell do I care now?
But I do care.
For some reason, the idea of making her my wife without making it legally binding drives me absolutely insane. I hate the idea of putting my ring on her finger, calling her my wife, treating her as my woman, but not actually being legally bound to her.
And if anyone in the family found out the truth, they’d cut my throat for it. My men will put up with a lot, but they won’t accept a lie of that size.
I need that contract, that damn piece of paper, even if it doesn’t really mean anything.
But there’s nothing else I can do for now, and I’m not going to wait around and hope Gareth figures something out.
“Set it up,” I say. “Get all the papers ready. We’ll sign, make it all look official, and you’ll hold off on filing.” The words taste sour on my tongue. I hate this, but I don’t see any other way.
“That works for me.” He puffs his cigar some more and waves the smoke away. “But what do we tell your wife-to-be?”
I consider for a moment.
If I tell Camille the truth, and she knows that she’s not really my wife, that will force her to lie to my family.
But Camille is a terrible liar, and I don’t want to put her in that position.
“Tell her nothing. Let me handle that.”
“Fine,” Gareth says, and it doesn’t surprise me that he has no qualms about misleading Camille. He’s a lot of things, but he’s mostly a very good lawyer. “And you don’t mind keeping this secret?”
“I’m not going to keep it from her. Even if it makes our life harder, I won’t lie to my wife.”
“Look at you,” he says, grinning. “Since when did you have a moral code?”
“Don’t be a bastard.” I glare hard at him. “This plan stays between us, do you understand? Not even Lycus will know. Only Camille. To everyone outside of this room, our marriage will be real and binding. You need to make it official as quickly as you can.”
“Understood.” He grins at me. “I guess I should say congratulations then, but maybe I’ll save it for a little over a year from now.”
“I swear, I’m going to break your knees one of these days.” I sit back down and drink my whiskey, glaring at the floor.
This feels wrong. A sick, ugly anxiety sits in my stomach, twisting my guts. I hate the idea of going through with all this paperwork but being unable to take her as my bride. If she remains my fiancée, it will be much, much harder to keep her safe from Sophia and Aunt Anissa and any of the captains foolish enough to take their side.
If she’s my wife then I can convince those captains to accept her for the good of the family.
I can spin this as a modern Kazan organization moving into the future.
This isn’t what I want. If I could choose, I’d end her pathetic marriage to that bastard Conti and take her as my own, fully and legally, this instant, but that’s not possible. Not for eighteen months at least.
And I won’t lie to her—especially not when her safety depends on it.
Maybe if I get lucky, Conti will eat the barrel of my gun, and all of this will have been for nothing.