Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
At my outburst, my father’s fingers stopped moving over his keyboard as he looked at me. The anger and disbelief reflected in his eyes made me wish he’d go back to his computer screen.
Every single time I’d wished that he would actually just stop and look at me when I spoke came crashing down on me. This was a prime example of the phrase ‘be careful what you wish for.’
His gaze narrowed. “I have made you a baroness. You will be responsible for elevating our family from a disrespected, tiny Irish village to a county seat in Windermere, England. And you question my motives?”
My fingers twisted in my lap. “I’m twenty-four, father. I deserve to pick the man I marry. Someone I could love, like you loved mother.”
The moment I said it, the blood drained from my head so quickly, I almost teetered out of my chair.
He stood from his desk, towering over me even from across the large carpet.
My father was a powerful and intimidating man. It was no wonder no one dared go against him in business.
“Don’t you dare bring your mother’s memory into this. I’m setting you up to fulfill your duty to this family. Love has nothing to do with it.”
I knew I was tempting fate, but this was my future on the line. I stiffened my arms against my ribcage as I whispered, “But didn’t you and mother marry for love?”
His fists slammed into the wood top of his desk hard enough to make me jump and stayed there as he leaned forward on his knuckles. “Enough!” he roared.
“I…” I started to say something, my voice shaking, but it didn’t matter.
He talked over me.
“No, you don’t get to speak right now. You need to listen. I have spent my life working to provide this level of luxury and comfort for you and your siblings. Your sister should have been the one to garner a title in our family, but she went against my wishes and chose another path. So that leaves you. Your siblings selfishly married for love and did not improve our standing. You will not do the same. Is that understood?”
“But I…” The tears burned at the back of my eyes, and a lump formed in my throat, making it difficult to swallow.
“You will do what is required of you, without any further argument. This marriage and your children will make our family a part of the aristocracy. I will not allow your childish notions of romance to interfere with that. I know what is best for you.”
“Yes, sir. But…”
“You are dismissed,” he said, retaking his seat and focusing on his computer.
And that was it, the end of the conversation.
He would hear nothing else.
The choice had been made.
I was to marry a man I had never met, and there wasn’t a single thing I could do to stop it.
CHAPTER 15
REID
“Did you hear Miss Charlotte’s going to be a baroness?”
“No! Spill!”
Two of the upstairs maids were gossiping in the corner as they stocked their baskets with cleaning supplies.
“I overheard them shouting at one another in Mr. Manwarring’s office. He’s marrying her off to a British baron. And she was all like—it’s my life, and I’ll do what I want, you can’t make me!”
“She didn’t! To Mr. Manwarring? Can you imagine?”
The first one nudged her with her shoulder and giggled. “I can imagine him getting all growly and domineering as he made me obey.”
The second one giggled. “You’re terrible.”
“Like you haven’t thought about it. The man’s a freaking daddy. I’d fuck that man sideways if he looked twice at me.”
“Who would you rather be, the new Mrs. Manwarring or a baroness?”
“That’s a tough one. One is dirty hot sex and gobs of money, the other is an English title and people bowing and curtsying to you.”
Then at once, they both said, “Hello, Daddy.”
After their laughter abated, the one shook her head as she reached over the other for a stack of white rags. “All the same. I like Miss Charlotte well enough, but can you imagine being so spoiled you’d turn down marrying a freaking British lord?”
The one sighed. “She’s literally living a freaking Downton Abbey episode, even if the man winds up being pasty and boring in bed.”
“True.”
I’d been sitting in the Manwarring kitchen, drinking a cup of coffee.
Having gotten shit for sleep, the caffeine was badly needed.
With my expression neutral, I waited until they’d left the room.
Then calmly stood… and hurled my mug against the exposed brick wall. Shattered pieces of white porcelain littered the coffee-stained floor.
My phone lit up.
Lucian Manwarring
Change of plans.
Need you to run point coordinating security with Zeigler’s head of security.
They will be taking over some duties regarding Charlotte.
And there it was.
God fucking dammit.
My body hummed with the conquering instinct to just march upstairs, snatch Charlotte to me, and claim her for my own.