CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Ava
G riffin gave me an out. A way out of this marriage in six months.
Before I can negotiate any further, he gets a call and turns to have a conversation in another language.
Gaelic, I think. And damn, if I thought his accent was sexy before...
Facing me a moment later, he says, “Get some sleep, it looks like I’ll be out all night.”
He goes into his closet and comes back out wearing a pair of black cargo pants that hug his ass, a black T-shirt that shows every ridge of abs, and a leather jacket that smells as rich as he looks lethal.
“I have to go kill the last two guards who helped keep you in that cage.” The visceral tone shocks me. How he’s seeking revenge for a wife he doesn’t want.
“Okay, then,” I whisper.
“Remember, there are plenty of guards downstairs and outside.” He mocks me, sauntering out of the bedroom.
“They’re no match for me,” I singsong under my breath.
“Stop looking at my ass,” he taunts me back.
Huffing, I bolt into the bathroom to take another shower. I wash my hair with real shampoo, mine that someone packed into my bags. Aunt Helena has house staff as well.
I brush my teeth and moisturize for the first time...ever with all the products I ignored months ago. I catch myself in the mirror and drop the tube, gasping. I’m trying to look good for him . For a husband who agreed to divorce me.
I can’t digest any of that, and I’m too exhausted to go through the suitcases except for the makeup bag I grabbed before my shower. I peek into a dresser and take out one of Griffin’s T-shirts. Bringing it to my face, waiting for the scent that already drives me crazy, I keep sniffing, noting I only smell the fresh scent of a dryer sheet.
I get under the covers and sigh. Griffin was right, this damn bed is absurdly big.
I absentmindedly reach for my phone, something I haven’t done for months. Yet, it came back to me. But I don’t have a phone anymore. My old one wasn’t in any of the smaller bags. Ares had restricted my use of it anyway, which is why I didn’t go through withdrawal, I guess.
But alone in the dark, all I hear is the beating of my heart and blood rushing in my ears. I can’t take it, so I push out of the big bed and slog into the sitting room. I practically melt into the plush sofa. It takes a few minutes, but I find the remote and the television program menu. Seeing a different remote for streaming, I grab it to open Netflix.
Worst Roommate Ever.
I laugh, and click it on wishing I had some paper to take notes.
But out of sheer exhaustion, I fall asleep even though my head is about to explode from everything that happened to me today.
***
I WAKE UP WITH GRIFFIN hovering over me.
“Didn’t want to sleep without me?” He smiles wickedly at me.
I stretch and notice it’s light out. “You’re just getting home?”
“Aye.” He straddles me, wearing the same clothes he left in.
They’re just as molded to his body as when he left. There’s no trace of perfume, only his cologne and natural male heat.
Oh, and blood.
“I need to brush my teeth,” I say, trying to sit up.
“No, you don’t.” He laughs but gets off me.
I miss his weight instantly. “Were you up all night?” I ask to keep his attention on me because I kind of like it. I like him.
Damn it.
“Aye.”
“You must be tired.” I get to my feet. “I’ll let you get some sleep.”
Griffin’s eyes wander to my bare legs, and he says, “Where did you get that T-shirt?”
I freeze, knowing how anal men get about their clothes. “The dresser.”
He storms up to me and grabs it by the hem. Next, he roughly lifts it off me and grabs me by the waist. Holding it under my nose, he says, “That’s Shane’s T-shirt from a trip we took. It got accidentally packed in my bag. I’d been meaning to give it back to him. But the guy’s a clothes horse and probably doesn’t know it’s missing.”
“Then why am I standing here naked with your fingers digging into my back?”
“Seeing you wearing another man’s shirt can make me want to strangle my own blood.” He breathes heavily, keeping our mouths close together.
Possessive much?
“Noted. Can I have something else to wear?” I cover my boobs and cross my legs.
He lets me go to reach into his closet and takes out a black and white plaid button-down. “Here, wear this.”
I turn around to slip it on, but I feel his eyes on my back. When I face him again, I hold my hands out because it’s like a tent on me. “How do I look?”
“Adorable. Your new guard is downstairs, by the way. If you go anywhere, he goes with.”
I roll my eyes, but this isn’t negotiable. When a chiming rings out from downstairs, I look around. “What’s that?”
“My doorbell.” Griffin sounds perplexed. “I think.”
“Expecting someone?”
“No.” He looks at his phone.
A moment later, there’s a knock on the bedroom door and I jump, but it’s Bridget who walks into the sitting room.
“Morning, Ma’am, your aunt is downstairs.”
A burst of joy hits me, and I practically run from the bedroom, but Griffin gently grabs my waist from behind. “You should get dressed first.”
“Why? My aunt is here!”
“Offer her coffee, Bridget. Ava will be down in a few minutes.”
Bridget leaves, and I try to wiggle out of Griffin’s hold. “Let me go.”
“I’m not too exhausted to get hard if you keep pushing your ass into my cock.” He spins me around, bringing our chests together. “Something tells me you need a good fucking.”
Especially since I hadn’t been laid since him.
“Will that make you behave?” he growls. “My cock?”
I hate that those needs are coming back. No, they’re roaring back. “Can I get dressed, please?”
“That wasn’t a no. And you’ll not leave this bedroom dressed inappropriately. My brothers, cousins, and guards are in and out of the house. You are mine, Ava.” He pulls at his shirt, which now hammers that point home. “No one fucking sees what’s mine.”
“Caveman,” I hiss. “Summer is coming. What if I want to sunbathe in the yard?”
“Let me guess, in a bikini?” He licks his swollen lip from when I punched him.
“I’m from a country where topless sunbathing for women is normal.” I cross my arms, knowing I’m playing with fire. But the warmth feels so delicious. “But I’d never do that. A few of my bottoms are thongs, though.”
Griffin’s eyes turn murderous. “If I catch you in the yard or anywhere with your ass cheeks hanging out, I will hold you down, pull that thong aside and fuck your back hole.”
The blatant threat should scare me. Sicken me. But it doesn’t. It sends warm shivers down my spine. And, fuck, my back hole just throbbed.
“Careful with your threats, fiancé.” I poke his chest.
“These are not threats.” He reaches around and grabs my ass. “My only regret is that I didn’t take you here that night.” A finger sinks into my panty, searching, and then...
“Uhhhh,” I gasp, pressed harder against his chest.
“Fuck,” he mutters, his finger circling my hole. “Christ, I want to fuck you again so bad. Now you’re mine, you belong to me.”
This is insane. I want him inside me just as much. It feels so damn good. My clit throbs, but I can’t give in. Not yet.
I know once we’re married, I’ll have no recourse to say no.
Heart pounding, I remember something he said earlier.
Pacify me. With his cock. He’ll use my need for hot, dirty, primal sex to control me.
I go to kiss him, but push away and fake him out.
Griffin steps back, rubbing his hard-on. “Minx.”
That’s what cold showers are for...
“Remind me to order some embroidered Q’s, and I’ll have Bridget sew them on all my new clothes.”
“I have a better way to mark you as mine without looking like you’re in a cult.” He reaches into a tall bachelor chest in the corner, and from the top drawer, takes out a black velvet cube. “Wear this.”
I eye it like it’s a hand grenade. “What is this?”
He tilts his head and looks down at the box. “You have no idea what this is?”
“An engagement ring?” I fold my arms to hide my raging nipples.
Griffin can talk me into getting his name tattooed on my clit right now, I’m so turned on.
“That’s exactly what it is.” He opens the box and shows me. “We’re engaged.”
I fight the tight throat at how lovely the damn thing is. It’s an emerald-cut stone that has to be over five carats set in a halo of smaller round stones that can blind me.
“No, we’re not,” I keep arguing with him.
“What do you mean, we’re not?” Griffin cinches his eyebrows and looks in the cube like maybe he was showing me his cufflinks by mistake.
“I don’t recall you asking me.”
“Your brother arranged it. There’s no asking.”
“Then why am I wearing that?” I point and disappear into my closet to get dressed.
He screwed with my brain so much that I forgot my aunt is waiting downstairs.
“I wanted you to have something nice.”
Damn... But he doesn’t want to marry me. I don’t get why he’s making me sleep in his bed, or getting me a ring, or buying my clothes.
“Could you at least do me the dignity of asking me?” I take off the flannel shirt and let it drop to the floor.
Being nude in front of Griffin shouldn’t draw a reaction, but...it does. His hungry gaze tightens my core.
“If I ask, that means you can say no.” He hovers over me. “Unless we ask your nipples.”
Shit.
I open one suitcase and reach for a pair of jeans. “I guess it doesn’t matter, I can tell you to go fuck yourself, but I have nowhere to go.”
He grips the jeans when I nearly fall over, and helps me get dressed. “Then why do you need me to ask you?”
“Because this is the only time I’ll get married.” I gulp back my emotion. “And what if...” I can’t finish that out loud. He’ll think I’m silly.
“What if what?” His fingers circle my bare waist.
What if we end up falling in love and we’ll already be married and can’t go back?
I’m insane to think that will happen. I don’t even want that to happen. Right?
“Nothing. Just ask me. Ask me like... Like you mean it,” I whisper. “But wait for me to put on a shirt.”
Griffin laughs. “Said no woman dying for a proposal with a big rock ever.”
I quickly put on a bra and toss a boxy, but soft sweater over my head. Braiding my hair, I say, “Okay. I’m ready.”
Griffin studies me and takes the ring out of the box. “I know you don’t want this and neither do I. So, let’s just go for formalities. Ava, will you do me the great honor of being my wife? Because it is an honor to marry into a noble family such as yours. You are a treasure to your brothers and they’re trusting me with you.”
Tears build behind my eyes, but I can’t let them fall. Clearing my throat, I say, “That was nice. I’m honored to be your wife. To stand beside you while you lead your family.”
He takes the ring out and slides it on my bony finger.
“It’s loose.” I shake my hand and gasp when it flies right off.
“I got your ring size months ago.” He picks it up. “You’ve lost so much weight. I swear, I wish I’d been the one to kill Brandon.”
An angry Griffin who wants vengeance is hot, so long as it’s not against me. “It’s okay. My appetite is already coming back.”
“How about you wear it around your neck?” He removes that same silver braided chain he wore around his neck the night I met him and slides the engagement ring through. “This was Norah’s. We all took something that she loved and wear it every day.”
My heart squeezes as the silver shines off the bedroom sconces. “It’s beautiful.”
“Turn around,” he growls, opening the clasp.
I spin on his command and lift my hair out of the way.
“Sabine wears one of her rings. Shane, her twin, wears the matching bracelet to this. Connor had his ear pierced and wears one of her earrings. Ewan had a spoonful of her ashes made into a charm that he keeps in his wallet. He and I took her remains to Ireland and scattered them there.”
My cheeks flush with heat. Watching Griffin in the mirror put this precious reminder of his sister around my neck overwhelms me. It also screams so loudly that my brothers kept nothing from Alexander like this.
“Thank you,” I say, hiding how choked up I am.
Giving me a necklace that I know has so much value to him means more than the ring.
This isn’t feeling very fake all of a sudden.