Chapter Five #4
That took the wind right out of Serena’s words because he had done exactly that and it was no small feat, mastering her stepmother in the way that he had.
It wasn’t something she’d ever been able to manage.
Serena had never seen Marcia back down so quickly or be at such a loss for words, but she’d been no match for Caleb’s lethal charm offensive.
Watching it unfold had rendered her speechless and weak-kneed at his show of power.
However, the fire raging in her chest was less easy to dampen because of how he had done it.
‘By telling her that we’re getting married. And this weekend!’
Caleb tipped his dark head ever so slightly, the steel in his eyes softening to silver. ‘I’m afraid I saw no other way around it. You heard her, Serena. There was no way she was going to let you back into your siblings’ lives, not whilst you were, at least in her eyes, disgraced.’
Arms crossed tightly across her chest, she glared back at him.
‘Do not pretend that you did that to help me. You are not some knight in shining armour who just slew a dragon and rescued me from a tower.’ Although there was some part of her that did feel rescued, and she hated that.
Because she couldn’t even start to believe he was someone she could rely on in that way.
In any way. ‘You saw an opportunity to get exactly what you wanted, and you seized upon it.’
‘Perhaps I did. But I never claimed to be someone who wouldn’t do whatever I have to, to get what I want, did I?
’ Shivers ran over her because he was so unapologetically arrogant, and it was dazzling.
‘And it doesn’t mean I didn’t want to help you and your siblings.
And why didn’t you tell me that in addition to kicking you out, she was stopping you from seeing your brother and sister?
’ he asked, watching her from his gleaming gaze. ‘How can she even get away with that?’
‘Because she adopted them when they were little, right after she married my dad, so she has final say on everything. And I didn’t say anything because it has nothing to do with you.’
She hated that she sounded like a petulant teenager, but the way he had crashed into her life and thrown out commands and now backed her in a corner from which she had no escape had sent her spinning back to all those other times where she’d felt utterly, horribly powerless, as if every drop of power she possessed was slipping from her grasp, and the harder she tried to catch and hold on to it, the more she lost. And now it was happening all over again.
And it was worse, because as much as she wanted to loathe Caleb entirely—she didn’t. Couldn’t.
Because he had helped her. Without any hesitation.
It had been so long since she’d had anyone on her side, anyone to fight for her when she felt weak.
Her father had almost always taken her side in her scrapes with Marcia.
With hindsight she could see how that had aggravated their tenuous relationship, their closeness only making Marcia harden towards her, but in spite of her stepmother’s coolness, she’d known such safety, knowing her father was there to catch her if she stumbled or fell.
But then, in a blink, he’d been gone and she’d been so alone…
So, to finally have someone on her side felt good.
Too good, so she had to snap herself out of it because he wasn’t offering that kind of partnership. He’d done it in service to himself.
‘We both know that isn’t true. As long as you’re carrying my child, your life is my business.’
The words sounded so full of sense that her feelings only spiralled even deeper. ‘That doesn’t give you the right to sweep in and start making decisions that affect the rest of it.’
He inched towards her, making her blood fizz and pop all over again.
Serena could still feel where his arm had banded around her waist, as if the strength and heat of his skin had imprinted deeply, and she remembered how being pressed up against the hard, hot muscle of his body had made everything else she was feeling slip away and brought desire to the fore, as if she’d been turned upside down, yet had suddenly felt righted.
‘I didn’t hear you interrupting to tell your stepmother that I was jumping the gun, that we’re not getting married,’ he pointed out with a smartly arched brow, pausing for the observation to sit between them and rankle her further.
Because it was true. She hadn’t stopped him.
‘And I think the reason you didn’t is because you know that marrying me is the only solution available to you. ’
Serena spun away from the all-knowing expression on his handsome face with an anguished exhale, knowing he was right on all counts.
She didn’t have any other options. She had consulted a legal expert.
They could help, but it would be a protracted and expensive battle, and whilst it was a fight she would happily undertake, she couldn’t afford to, not financially, nor, she suspected, emotionally.
Not whilst she was pregnant and not when it was now that the twins needed her.
Not in the years it would take for the battle to be waged and won.
No, if she wanted to be back in her siblings’ lives, marrying Caleb was her only choice.
Marcia would be far less troublesome if Serena had Caleb by her side.
As much as anything else, she would enjoy having a stepson-in-law of such wealth and bearing.
Was that why, as Caleb had pointed out, she hadn’t interjected to correct him, even though the words had been on her tongue, hadn’t pulled away from his snug grip around her waist, even as it had stirred memories, yearnings, that she would have preferred remained undisturbed?
Not because his touch had penetrated every level of her being and rendered her helpless, but because for the first time in days she’d seen a chink of light on the horizon, felt a kindling of hope that she could right the wrongs and reunite with Kit and Alexis.
Even if it meant compromising on the future she’d envisioned again and binding herself to this impossible man, wasn’t it worth it to feel whole again?
To be able to fulfil the last promise she’d made to her mother?
Not to mention all the other advantages to her unborn child that she’d agonised over all night, wavering the more she’d considered…
‘Fine. We’ll get married,’ she said, forcing the words out.
‘I knew you’d come around,’ he drawled with a smile that was so wolfish that Serena’s stomach quivered ominously, because at least when dealing with her stepmother, she’d known what she was letting herself in for. With Caleb, she had no clue.
But there was one thing she was absolutely certain of—she would not be giving up her freedom. He’d proposed a marriage in name only and that was what he would get, because the days of her living under anyone else’s control were well and truly over.