Tears started to fall down her face, and she struggled not to drown under all the emotions crashing down on her. “I just have to leave—”
“Answer me, damn you!”
“Because I have to! Before you make me weak, I have to go!” The emotional dam had burst, and now she just couldn’t stop spilling her heart out. “Tell me, Mykolas. Tell me the truth! Why do you want to marry me so quickly? Why?”
Mykolas was aghast at Velvet’s sudden outburst. Her eyes were wild, her voice choked with tears. She looked like she was about to crash any moment. “Calm down—” He tried to hold her, but she slapped his hand away. She tried pushing him off balance, too, but he was too strong and her tears had weakened her.
“You can’t answer me, can you?” she snarled. “You can’t…or you don’t!”
Again, he tried to hold her and again she struggled like a wildcat, trying to kick him away this time but ending up hurting herself as she forgot about her injury. “Shit!” She sobbed in pain, and stupidly or not she blamed Mykolas for it, too.
Mykolas finally managed to hold her down, keeping her arms to the sides so she would stop trying to beat him. “Will you please calm the f**k down? You’re worrying me, dammit!”
“Well, you’re killing me! Why don’t you ask me the same question? Why?” She glared at him even as more tears fell from her eyes. “Don’t you want to know why I’m in such a hurry to marry you? Don’t you want to know why I just asked one hundred damn grand when I know you can afford to give me a billion? ASK ME,” she shouted.
“Why then?” he shouted back. “Why—”
“Because I love you!”
All the strength went out of her as the words spilled past her lips. She looked at Mykolas, and her chest squeezed so hard it was as if she was about to have a heart attack. But of course it wasn’t that. It was only because she loved him so much.
“I didn’t want to. You scare me, Mykolas Sallis. You scare me when I’ve worked so hard not to be scared. I’ve fought so hard to be strong, but you make me weak. You made me fall for you, and you made me lie. You made me name a price when there wasn’t any price at all for me to marry you because…I love you.” She struggled to breathe, struggled to get the last words out so her humiliation would be complete and with it, closure and perhaps a chance to move on. “I love you so much, Mykolas,” she whispered. “Love you so much that I wanted you tied to me before you realize the truth and think I’m lying—”
“Stop.”
And as if that was not enough, he hauled her to him, his lips crushing hers in a kiss. She tried to struggle at first, but this only made him kiss her more deeply, tongue diving aggressively into her mouth so he could remind her that she was his.
Terror – sheer f**king terror – was growing inside him like a damn infection, but he forced himself to ignore it. Forced himself to play deaf to all the cynical warnings his past was now blasting out at him. He believed her. He believed every word she said, and that was the terrifying part of it. If he allowed himself to believe, then he would be risking everything of him – like she was risking everything of her to love him.
“You are so f**king stubborn,” he said hoarsely against her lips. “I’m sure your brain’s told you a thousand times that letting me know you love me is the worst decision you’d ever make.” He lifted his head, and his lips formed a smile when he saw her glaring at him. “But you ignored your own advice.”
She snarled, “What’s the point of this?”
“The point, my love—” And he had to kiss her again when fresh tears stung her eyes at his words. Goddammit. A woman like Velvet wasn’t supposed to cry like this, and he hated the fact that he was the cause of it, hated how he had made her feel like she didn’t deserve to hear him say those words.
“—is I’m damn stubborn, too. Because right now, the sensible part of me is telling I’d be taking a lot less risk if I toss you out of the house in favor of a bride who’d just ask me for a billion dollars.” He cupped her face and said unevenly, “A billion I can afford to lose and earn back. But my heart?”
A sob escaped Velvet. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Oh God, was this true? Was this really happening?
Something raw and tender squeezed his chest as he watched Velvet start to cry again at his words. “You’re trying to steal my heart, Velvet, and I have to say you’re doing a damn good job. If you end up stealing it, there’s only one of it so you better f**king take care of my heart.”
“Right now,” she said shakily, “I hate you so much for making me cry I’d gladly stomp your heart to pieces.”
He laughed, and she laughed and then they were kissing again, Mykolas falling to the floor and Velvet falling on top of him. “Before I f**k you,” he told her seriously, “and punish you at the same time for attempting to leave me when you know you’re mine, is the wedding still on for tomorrow?”
She pretended to think.
He slid his hand under her dress and into her panties.
Her eyes widened.
One finger slid in.
She moaned.
He pulled his finger out but didn’t push it back inside again. Mykolas raised a brow. “Care to answer now, agape mou?”
She tried pushing herself down, but he was good at keeping her off his delicious finger. Glaring down at him, she snarled, “Yes, now please—” Three fingers were suddenly thrust inside her, and moaning, Velvet forgot what she had to say.
Chapter Ten
The wedding was almost perfect.
A judge that was also a family friend of Mykolas had officiated the wedding in his office, which had been kept private. Guests had then been invited for dinner at the ballroom of Mykolas’ office building, a sixty floor corporate center that he also owned.
The ‘almost’ part mostly had to do with the guests. Neither Mairi nor Damen were able to attend, and Mandy hadn’t been able to contact them to ask why. Mykolas’ father had come but was accompanied by a barely-legal wannabe actress, whose idea of proper wedding attire was a dress where her boobs were in danger of popping out.
Her own parents hadn’t come of course. They didn’t even know she was getting married, and she preferred to keep it that way. Mykolas had asked about her family once, but she had told him they were dead. They might as well have been anyway.