Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68628 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 275(@250wpm)___ 229(@300wpm)
I hang up the phone and go back inside where Quinn’s unpacking her bags.
"Six months," she says. "We can do anything for six months." Looking up from her unpacking, her eyes twinkle. God, does anything hold this girl down? I wonder what she's had to endure that gives her that spark of resilience in her eyes that attracts me.
She lifts her chin up and nods. "We can do hard things."
I roll my eyes. “Do you plaster your bedroom with motivational posters?"
She sniffs. "Maybe ‘positive affirmations.’ Is that a problem?”
"What the fuck is a positive affirmation?" I shake my head. "Never mind, I don’t need to know. What I want to do is talk about our plan. Tonight, we have a party to go to. Since we're supposed to be celebrating our marriage, we’ll have to pretend that we like each other and that it was part of our plan to join in the festivities.”
“Celebrating… our marriage?”
“Yeah.”
"So… what's in it for me? Can I keep the wedding gifts?”
Like I give a fuck about wedding gifts. “Yeah.”
Her eyes light up. “Ooh, I love gifts. Do I get anything else besides—maybe my life being spared? Like do I get a cut of the billions?" She smacks her forehead. "Goddammit, why didn't I sign a prenup?"
That almost makes me laugh. "I never would've signed a prenup. And while you're here, you can have anything you want. I don't just mean here in our honeymoon destination. We get six months. I've got more money than I know what to do with. The least I can do is give you a credit card and keep you out of my hair."
She taps her chin thoughtfully. "Keep me out of your hair…" she repeats thoughtfully. "Something tells me you can be quite the romantic."
Does anything ruffle her? "I promise, you'll be rewarded for your time. Sergio and I already discussed the details."
She gives me a curious look. She deserves to know details about what the next six months will look like.
"You'll have a car. Once I know we're safe, you’ll have a cell phone. You will always, and I mean always, have a location tracker on your phone, and a detail of at least three guards with you at all times. You can buy whatever you want—clothes, jewelry, whatever. I don't give a shit.”
She eyes me warily. "So, I stay married to you for six months. In the meantime, I live in the lap of luxury, and I know that I'm safe." She nods, her big brown eyes framed in thick, dark lashes thoughtful. "And when this is done, I'll be paid for my time, and if I know you and Sergio, well, Sergio, because I don't really know you at all, but I just know you work for him, it will be well worth my time." She nods again, clearly thinking this over. "And what do you get out of this situation?"
"What do I get?"
I'm a little surprised we got here already.
She gives me a wary look.
"Yes. What do you want?"
Time for me to play my first sadist card.
"Your submission. Your obedience. I want you to obey me. No talking back, no questioning me. I want you to be the submissive that I know you can be."
Submission and masochism aren't synonymous, I know that. But her masochistic tendencies aren’t gonna be a challenge. That's already who she is. I want to have a little fun, and I don't enjoy anything unless there's a challenge involved.
"Bruh, are you even serious right now?"
A slow smile spreads across my face. "Do I look like I'm joking?”
Her jaw drops open. "No. God! I mean, like, that's not me, okay? I'm not a little housewife. I didn't even know how to peel potatoes until Eden showed me."
"Who said anything about being a housewife?"
She looks thoughtful again. “Huh. But I thought Sergio said that we didn't have to have sex."
We will absolutely have sex.
"We don't."
"So you want to…dominate me.” Her cheeks flush with color and her pupils dilate. I know the signs of arousal when I see them.
Fuck. Me.
She swallows. “Okay. So, let's go back to what you said before about… impact play and stuff like that? You want me to submit to you, but you don't want to have sex. You want to just… turn me on for the next six months?"
"Six months of foreplay? Jesus, that would be something else," I say thoughtfully.
"Adriano!"
I sober. "Whether or not we have sex is up to you. I'm not here to take advantage of you.”
"OK, all right, I might have some rules of my own."
This ought to be amusing… “Let's hear them."
"You can't fall in love with me."
I stare at her, dumbfounded. "You don't want me to fall in love with you? Oh, baby, that is so, so rich."
She holds up a hand, "You say that now. Like you think that I am so easy to resist. That you're not going to fall for me. But you haven't really gotten to know me. I’m charming, okay? And once I submit to you, or whatever it is that we do, and if we spend a lot of time with each other, which something tells me we will, you might fall in love with me. And you just need to know right now, that can’t happen. Off the table. I don't do love, and I don't do long-term commitments."