Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 110771 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110771 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“I made it my business to know everything about your father, Ena. I can destroy him with one call.”
To accentuate my ultimatum, I reach across the table and pick up my cell. I look at her. Her beautiful face is full of fear. I don’t like it, but at the same time, it makes my cock even harder than it already was. She’s at my mercy.
“You’d be blackmailing me into marrying you. I’d be marrying you against my will,” she breathes, talking more to herself than me, but I heard her, so I respond.
“It didn’t have to go this way, but you gave me no choice, Ena. If I have to force you,” I shrug, “so be it.”
“You do this and anything I’ve ever felt for you will turn to hate, Marco.”
I take her hand. She tries to jerk it away from me, but I don’t let her. I slide the ring on her finger and keep her still with a firm grip.
“I can take your hate better than I can take you leaving,” I respond, and God help me, it’s the truth. If she left, I’d be completely alone in the darkness.
I need her.
Chapter 26
Helena
My heart is going crazy. It’s pounding so hard against my chest that I can feel each beat vibrate through my body. I look up at Marco like he’s a complete stranger, because at this moment, he is.
He’s actually going to blackmail me into marrying him. I don’t know what to do. Hell, I don’t know what to think. I heard what his brother’s said. They’re not wrong. Marco does have a hero complex. I thought he cared for me, though. I was sure of it, and I even convinced myself to go back because I was happy. Then I realized I didn’t want to be a responsibility to any man. I wanted what Melina had. I wanted to be Marco’s world. Less than that would probably kill me eventually. I’d rather be alone than face that. So, I pushed my father to end the agreement. He ignored me until I broke down. I hated him seeing me so weak, but I couldn’t help it.
I was terrified of marrying Marco and never having his heart.
Suddenly, I’m realizing he doesn’t have a heart.
“You can’t be serious about this,” I murmur, looking down at our joined hands and the ring on my finger.
I remember the day he gave me this ring. I thought all my dreams were coming true. Now, I realize it was nightmares.
“I think I’ve already established that I am.”
“Even if I agreed to marry you, Marco, I can’t stay in Greece. My boss transferred me to their American store, and I start work there tomorrow. I’m there for two months.”
“Quit.”
“I can’t! I love what I do. She only gave me the transfer because I told her I needed a break. I can’t leave them in the lurch. Your reputation is everything in this business.”
“I’m not living apart from you Ena. It’s not happening. Tell them you quit.”
“You waltz in here and threaten my father, tell me you’re going to force me into marriage and now you’re trying to ruin my career. You’re asking too much! When you tire of me, I will need my career to fall back on. I can’t give up my job.”
“I don’t think you’re grasping the fact that our marriage is till death do us part.”
“I get it, but with the sweetheart of a guy you are, you’ll be dead in a week.”
I see the shock on his face. I’m worried that I said too much, pushed him too far. Obviously, this Marco is not the man I’ve been sharing a bed with. I’m not sure who this man is at all. I just know that I don’t like him.
“I’m not giving you two months. That’s out of the question,” he insists stubbornly.
“What do you care? You don’t even have a house. Melina said you had a party celebrating its destruction.”
“How nice to learn that my fiancée could stay in touch with my sister, but not me.”
“You should use that to help you realize forcing me into a marriage that I don’t want isn’t good for either one of us. Let me go, Marco. Find a woman that is better suited to you. Maybe you’ll get lucky, and the former stable groomer is available for a position at the new house. Then, perhaps you can reconnect with his daughter.”
I thought Marco was angry when he first came in here. I had no idea. With my words, His face is washed of any emotion. His face is a stark white, devoid of color—except for the molten fury that I can see in his eyes. My breath stalls in my chest. Fear begins moving through me. Marco’s hands come around me and he spins me around, before backing me up against the stone wall of my father’s conference room. “I get you heard shit out of my brother’s mouths. What you need to understand is that is exactly what it is. Shit!” he hisses that word in a way that makes my entire body flinch and tighten. “Paulina was a childhood crush. I was too fucking stupid to know anything. The last time I saw that bitch she was begging for my father’s cock as he was offering to let me share her.”