CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
– FIERO –
From the corner of my eye, I notice Floris who strides into my office and takes a seat across from me.
My attention stays on the laptop where I’m watching the feed of a camera inside of Quinn’s room.
One might think it’s a breach of privacy, but it’s my damn house, my child she’s carrying, and my responsibility to keep her safe.
I’m very aware I’m lying to myself because this woman has a hold on me. It’s as if she crawled under my skin the first time we met and has slowly rooted an infection that’s now festering and turning it into an obsession.
The condom breaking, the pregnancy, it’s all a twisted way to bind us in life. Any other time I’d be furious about outside forces controlling parts of my life. Yet, having Quinn close releases a completely other turmoil inside me these days. One where I want to possess her.
I shouldn’t have acted on my urge earlier, or at least treated her differently.
Then again, she drives me fucking crazy.
There hasn’t been a woman in all my life who I’ve fucked more than once.
The first time Quinn’s pussy felt like the ultimate wet dream, something I might have hyped up inside my head.
Shoving my cock inside her today proved nothing about her is hyped up; she feels like the perfect fucking fit.
Floris touches the contract lying on my desk. “Did she sign yet?”
A wave of annoyance flows through me. I should have offered her the contract before I fucked her.
The chance of striking a new deal with her, one involving an arranged marriage, has drastically changed.
Those parting words I threw at her let me know because after an hour, I’m still waiting for her to show.
“Any update on Cillian?” I fire back, ignoring his question.
“Nope.” He jerks his chin in the direction of the papers. “Well?”
Quinn’s reaction causes me to ignore Floris this time. The way she abruptly stood and is now pacing the room while glaring at her laptop makes me curse.
“What’s wrong?” Floris asks.
I get to my feet. “I think she just received the same video I did.”
Floris follows me to her room, and once I step inside I’m sure. Quinn rushes to the laptop and slams it shut.
“What are you doing here?” she snaps.
The anger in her voice doesn’t distract me from the redness and the panic in her eyes. She’s been crying and what she just stumbled onto shook her to her core.
“It’s my house.” I point at her laptop. “What are you hiding?”
I know what she’s hiding, and I have the ability to get into her laptop and see what she just received. It’s the whole reason she was allowed to have her laptop back.
Quinn closes her eyes and inhales deeply before she releases it in a huff. “This world is fucked-up and so is my freaking life. How can I trust anything? Nothing seems real anymore.”
I keep my gaze on Quinn when I order, “Floris, go to my office to get the papers. Close the door and wait till I call you inside.”
When the door clicks shut, I close the distance between me and Quinn.
Tears are now sliding down her cheeks and the way she looks at me with a mixture of utter despair, frustration, and anger makes my damn chest tighten.
For the first time in my life the need to console another person arises inside me.
I reach out and cup the side of her face. “Deep down you know what’s real. Just forget about me, you, and all the shit in your life for one second and breathe.”
She swallows hard, closes her eyes, and leans into my touch. The move itself that she graces me with feels like a tight fist around my heart.
A handful of seconds pass and then she pulls back.
“Thank you,” she murmurs, then turns to the laptop to add, “Cillian emailed me a video.”
Honesty is what she gave me, a gift I gladly return. “Fucking asshole. Cillian sent me one to give a few days’ notice. He wants you as his wife, says he’s had a claim on you for years through a deal his father made with him.”
“That asshole doesn’t have any kind of claim on me. I don’t want anything to do with him. He had men give me something to knock me out so he could freaking kidnap me. There’s no way I’m ever going to marry him,” Quinn states with a load of disgust.
“Agreed. Show me the video.”
Quinn slightly tilts her head. “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”
The corner of my lips twitch, and I can’t help but tease her. “Tit for tat, pussy for cock? You already felt my cock inside your pussy, and your mouth. I can’t wait to fuck your ass, but we’ll work up to it.”
She rolls her eyes. “Put a pin in the whole lust thing. It’s not what we need right now.”
“Agreed.” I reach down and adjust my cock.
Her eyes follow the movement and she licks her damn lips. Fuck. Now I can’t help but think the way that mouth felt, sucking the cum right out of me.
I clear my throat and throw out a distraction. “Marry me.”
“What?” she squeaks. “Marry you?”
Raising my voice I rumble, “Floris, give her the papers.”
My brother strides inside and hands her the papers. She takes them with wide eyes and quickly glances over them. There’s a tiny Post-it note on it from my lawyer.
Quinn’s gaze meets mine and she’s wearing a stunned expression. “You had this drawn up days ago?”
I give her a tight nod. “I reached out to my lawyer the day I found out you were pregnant.”
Her jaw practically hits the floor. “You found out at ground zero and you jumped right up to the mountaintop of marriage? Who freaking does that? You don’t even know me, or if this pregnancy will have issues, or...or...who does that?”
“Me, apparently. It wasn’t exactly on a whim. I already had a full background check on you due to the fantasy deal. Clearly, we’re a good match when it comes to sex. We might have potential for more, even if we have a fourteen-year age gap.”
Her eyebrows hit the ceiling. “Potential for more? You’re an arrogant, egocentric asshole who doesn’t have a kind word for anything or anyone.” She frowns and focusses back on the papers for a heartbeat or two before she asks, “Do you have a pen?”
Floris is helpful and offers her one while I’m still stuck on the brutal honesty she just threw out. Quinn turns to face the desk and is crossing something out and then signs the contract.
Holding it out to me she demands, “Put your initials on the crossed-out sections and then sign. I will marry you for the sake of everyone’s safety, and the fact that you’re the one who knocked me up. Though, you are going to leave the damn money out of it. It’s nonnegotiable.”
“Fine,” I grit. “But you will let me pay for the medical expenses during, and after the pregnancy.”
“Fine,” she fires back.
I take the pen and sign.
Handing them to Floris, I order, “Handle these and make the arrangements. I want it done within the hour.” Turning back to Quinn, I ask, “Please show me the video.”
A few minutes pass while we both watch the screen.
“It’s the same one I received. I’ve checked and it’s authentic.”
Quinn places a hand on the desk as if to brace herself. “So...you’re telling me that’s my brother on the video? Not some complication of some technology who brought him back to life?”
“No, I’m fairly sure your brother is still breathing. I’ve been interrogating your father and he has shared some things about the fight your brother was in. By the looks of him, and the fact he’s holding up a message? I’d say there’s some truth to your father’s words.”
“I need to talk to him.” Quinn pins me with a look, resolution radiating from her. “I need to hear for myself what my father has to say.”
“I don’t think...” I start, but she cuts me off.
“Then don’t think because he’s my father and this is shit I’m wrapped in.
Besides, I agreed to marry you and it’s a two-way street.
Are we going to do this thing together or will it be like the sex we have where you’re always in control?
” Her eyes widen. “I’m not saying I don’t like it during sex.
I actually do...it’s just with everything else it should be a partnership. ”
A sigh rips from me, and I rub the back of my neck. “I don’t simply ask questions, and people I interrogate don’t answer unless I...motivate them.”
She blinks slowly, and I expect her to judge and lash out, which she doesn’t.
Surprise hits me when she says, “Fine. Then I’d like to motivate my asshole father too because I need answers.”