15. Neve
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Neve
I watch Celso walk out of the living room and head towards the front door.
My heart is beating so loudly it sounds like a thousand wild horses, their hooves hammering against the dirt in a thunderous roar.
My brother sold me.
He sold my life as though I was something to use, a tool to trade with. As though I was nothing.
He gave me away and didn’t even care to ask me.
My heart is shattering. Splintering and breaking apart. The pain is too much to bare.
“Neve.” Luke says, quiet and timid .
“Shut up.” I blurt out, my voice still tight from crying. “I don’t want to hear it. I hate you. I hate you for what you’ve done.”
“But - you’ll go through with it right? You’ll marry him to save our family?”
It’s still all he’s focused on. He doesn’t care if I’m ok. He doesn’t care about me at all.
“I’ll do it. But right now - you need to stay far away from me Luke.” I warn him, standing up and glaring at him with eyes that might set fire to his skin. I want him to feel the pain I’m in. To know what it’s like to have your own brother betray you like this.
But he looks away, not even man enough to hold my gaze.
I spin away from him and march out of the living room.
I march out of the entire house, out into the front yard.
“Hey.” I shout at Celso.
He stops, turning, that divine smile across his lips.
“My angel.” He says, making my heart flutter .
“What the fuck game do you think you are playing?” I demand angrily. “Who the hell do you think you are? You can’t buy me? I’m not a car. I’m not somet hing you get to throw money at and own.”
“Angel, that’s now how I see it at all. You aren’t a thing. You aren’t a toy. You are the most precious and rare and beautiful creature on this planet, and I want to marry you. I want to make you my wife so that I can spend the rest of my life with you at my side.”
I stammer, tripping over everything I had planned to say to him. I came out here to shout at him, to make sure he knows how angry I am. But his words have thrown me off. His tenderness is clouding my ability to think.
Celso steps close to me, the heat of his body brushing against mine and now I can’t breathe. “I—” I stammer. “I’m not just—” But I can’t remember what I wanted to say.
“You’re everything, my angel.” He whispers against my lips. His long fingers wrap around my jaw as he tilts my face upward. “Do you understand me?” he demands.
I nod, blindly.
His mouth locks over mine his lips move against me. I gasp, a wild heat running through my entire body as I lean towards him. He pulls me closer with his hand against my lower back. He moves, spinning me and pressing my back against the side of the car. He kisses me harder, pressing his lips against mine with more urgency. His cock is like a chiseled stone against my stomach.
I want him. I want him to take me, right here, against the car. Fuck the world and what they think of me. Fuck the campaigns and the reporters.
Celso chuckles, a delicious smooth sound that runs over me like caramel.
“You have to wait, angel. Our wedding night is coming soon.” He says, stepping back. My eyes drop to his cock and widen at the sheer size of it. I felt it, but seeing the outline pressed against his pants, running down his left thigh, I swallow hard. He laughs again.
“I’ll see you soon.” He says, spinning me away from the car and climbing inside. I can’t move or speak or do freaking anything .
I’m furious and turned on - and more confused that I have ever been in my life.
What the fuck is going on right now?
Celso opens his window and reaches out to touch me, sparks shoot between us. “Go inside, beautiful girl.” He says and I nod. “Ok.” I mutter. Then, obediently I turn back towards the house and walk inside - wondering how he has the power to command me like that. The heat between my legs suggest he has a lot of power over me. A desire so intense I never dreamed it was possible to experience something like this.
I walk upstairs to my old bedroom and sit down on the edge of the bed, blinking at the wall, trying to come to terms with everything going on.
Am I going to marry Celso Vece?
And through my overwhelming anger - is that excitement pulsing beneath the surface? How ridiculous is this? It’s too crazy.
I can’t - I won’t - I don’t understand.
In the back of my mind a thought is teasing at me. It’ll be a wild adventure. And I’ve been longing for freedom and something exciting. I’ve been longing to feel alive, to be loved and desired.
But this is too much.
I stand up, huffing and throwing my hands in the air. “I’ve lost my fucking mind.” I say to no one.
“Neve?” Luke says, standing in the doorway. “Can we talk?”
I walk over to him, shooting knives from my eyes as I glare at him - and slam my bedroom door in his face.
No.
We can’t talk.
I’m angry with him, but I’m even more angry with myself. Why did I let Celso get to me like that? I have to stay in control of myself if I’m going to find a way out of this. I don’t want to be married. I want to be free. I want to live my life. After the whole thing with Damion happened, that was the main, glaring truth that I came to learn. I don’t want to be tied into some contractual obligation.
And I really don’t want to be attracted to Celso .
I flop down onto my bed, face first with my head buried in my pillows.
“What is going on?” I groan, rolling onto my back.
Later the same night, lying on my bed again and scrolling through my phone, I am horrified to find an article about my apparent engagement online. It’s suggestive and alluring and hints at some mysterious love that has been growing amongst the chaos of everything else. It doesn’t flat out announce our engagement - but it’s a very suggestive article. A teaser - basically. There are two separate images. One of me and one of Celso. Ugh. So prim and proper. It’s a photo go me from one of my father’s campaign events. I hate it. It’s not who I am.
It’s clear from this that Celso is building up to the big reveal. From the looks of things he’s loving this. And dammit he looks so freaking good in that photo.
Not a moment after I finish reading the article, rolling my eyes every five minutes, my phone rings.
“Dalila.” I say nervously .
“What the fuck is going on?” She shouts into the phone. “You promised me that?—”
“Hey, stop - this wasn’t me. My brother and Celso came to an agreement in order to get funding for his stupid campaign.” I blurt out defensively.
“Celso and your brother - Luke agreed to this?”
“Luke planned this whole thing.” I say tensely.
“I’ll kill him. I’ll kill them both. I’ll speak to my father. I’ll have him put an end to this. I won’t let this happen.”
“Dalila - stop - breathe. You sound like you’re having a panic attack.”
“I am having a panic attack. ” She hisses.
“Breathe.” I tell her again and hear her take in a sharp, scant breath.
“We can find a way out of this, ok. It only happened today. We have time to fix it.”
“I don’t know if we do. My brother is already making plans.” She whimpers.
“Can you speak to your father?” I ask, hopeful .
“Yes. I’ll go see him first thing in the morning. I’ll fix it.”
I nod, biting at the inside of my cheek. “Ok. Everything’s going to be fine.” I say, more to myself than her.
“Yeah.” She agrees.
After a tense moment of silence, we say goodbye because I don’t know what to say to her and she’s too upset to speak.
She’s my best friend. Yes, I’ve thought about being with Celso way more often that I should have been thinking about it, but I wouldn’t have actually done it. I wouldn’t have risked losing her over this.
I sigh, shoving the pillow over my face.
He’s on this wild mission to marry me and I think it’s freaking hormones. Maybe if I had slept with him, he would have seen that I’m a normal girl - nothing special - and he would’ve gotten over his obsession. Guys only want what they can’t have. That’s what this comes down to. He wants me because I’m forbidden, out of reach, something he was never allowed .
After the wedding he will get bored with me and start ignoring me and my life will suck.
Whatever fantasy I have of him being in love with me, like really in love - that’s all it is. A fantasy. I’m not na?ve.
But as I lie there alone on my bed my hand drifts down my body, slipping beneath the waist line of my sweatpants.
Celso pushes my bedroom door open, walking in uninvited.
“ Can’t wait until the wedding night, my angel. I want you now.” He growls.
I sit up in my bed, horrified to see him. “No, I don’t even want to marry you - get out of my room.” I shout.
He laughs, that smooth, carefree sound that sends ripples through me. “I always get what I want, angel. Haven’t you figured that out yet?”
I move to stand up and he shoves me back down, my back landing on my bed as he pins me down with his solid, muscular body. He is so much bigger than me, no matter how hard I resist him it’s no use. I don’t stand a chance against him .
He grabs my wrists and pins them above my head, snarling at me to behave as he pushes my legs wide open, my skirt bunching up over my hips.
“Stop” I say, breathless and flooded with desire.
He kisses me to silence my words, his lips pressed over mine as his cock rubs over my pussy.
“Please, stop.” I beg him as he slams his cock into me.
The sudden sensation of being filled by his massive, throbbing cock is a complete shock to my body.
I shudder and tilt my head back, my eyes fluttering closed.
“I knew you would love it.” He growls against my ear as he pulls back and slams into me again.
I cry out in desperation and pleasure.
“Stop.” I mutter, but it’s barely a whisper and if he tried to stop now, I wouldn’t let him.
“Don’t you see how you make me lose control, Neve. I can’t be without you. You are the only thing I’ve ever wanted.” He snarls, his cock thrusting even deeper than before. My pussy throbbing over him, my entire body melting against him.
“You belong to me.” He whispers .
My entire body goes rigid as the orgasm pulses through me. Wave after wave of blissful release. I take in a deep breath, my lips parted, my heart beating fast.
I’m hot, and cheeks flush bright red with embarrassment.
It’s not the first time I’ve done that while thinking of Celso. But now I know it might really happen - it feels even more wrong of me to want it.