“Four months. It’s been four months since we were together like that, since I let you go,” I replied. “Technically, we’ve been apart for longer than we were ever together at this point. I thought you got it. I thought you accepted it. But you’re here. Why?”
“Because you’re marrying that prick instead of me. That’s why.” No more laconic tone. His words cut through the air between us, sharp and vicious. “Because you promised to become my wife, then bounced like you never gave a shit about me. That’s why.”
I took a step back.
I had been so clueless before breaking up with him. People had acted like he was the scariest guy in the world—even his family, the ones who had known him the longest. And I hadn’t understood why. I’d thought, “Sure, he’s a little rough around the edges, but once you get to know him, he’s a big old teddy bear.”
But now I saw it—what they saw when they looked at him.
I swallowed. “Garrett…Garrett is the one I chose. The one I’m marrying. You’re just going to have to accept that—”
He closed the space between us so fast I didn’t have time to react before my back hit the bathroom door I’d just closed behind me.
He caged me in with a hand on each side of my head and growled, “I fucking loved you. Say you don’t love me, and you never did. Say that shit to my face.”
“Olivia!” a startled voice said.
I turned to see Garrett standing at the end of the hallway, party music spilling in from behind him.
But Phantom’s intense gaze never moved off me.
“Please,” I whispered. “Don’t do this. He’s standing right there.”
Phantom’s eyes flashed, dangerous and violent. “You think I won’t fuck you right here in this hallway in front of your fiancé?”
My traitorous body heated at his words, my pussy clenching for something it missed so much. But I couldn’t…I couldn’t let him win. The stakes were too high.
“Please,” I said again. Pleading. “Leave. Just leave. I don’t want you here. You’re ruining everything.”
He brought his head in closer, hovering his lips above mine. “Then say it. Say that shit to my face.”
“I never loved you,” I answered quickly. Then I hardened my voice to add, “I don’t love you now, and I never did, and I’m sorry if you felt led on, but there are plenty of fish in the sea, and I have decided on mine. So leave. Leave this party immediately. I never want to see you again.”
His concrete face…so feral and hard—for a moment, it softened, hurt shining suspiciously like tears in his eyes.
That is until Garrett came closer to us and said, “Don’t make us call security. I think you’ve already embarrassed yourself enough.”
Again, Phantom didn’t acknowledge Garrett. He just stared at me for several violent seconds, the air pulsing between us like a bomb about to go off.
But then he said, “Alright.”
And with that, he simply pushed away from me and walked back down the hallway, disappearing through the side doors where he must have come in.
“Do you want me to call security?” Garrett asked as we watched him go.
“No, that would draw unwanted attention,” I answered. “It’s over. He finally got the message. I’m sorry about that. Please don’t—”
“Darling, don’t apologize,” Garrett said, his tone magnanimous. “Remember how upset I was when I thought I’d lost you for good?”
He took my hand and raised it to his mouth to kiss the back of my fingers. “I almost don’t blame him for his last-ditch effort. But I will not abide another intrusion like this. Imagine if someone other than me had walked in on that scene.”
He made a disgusted sound as he started walking us back to the party.
“He won’t return,” I promised, remembering the hurt look in his eyes.
“Just in case, I’ll warn security to be on the lookout for him. You can put a thug in a suit, but they’ll always be a thug deep down inside.”
That old instinct to defend Phantom tried to rise inside of me at his words. But I squashed that urge down just like I had the memory of Eric’s voicemails. I wasn’t that person anymore.
I kept it all pressed down, and fortunately, the rest of the party went off without a hitch. Dad decided to save his speech for the wedding. And I managed to make it another hour before I told Garrett, “I’m sorry, but I absolutely have to get some sleep.”
“I’ll walk you up to your room,” Garrett offered, pressing an affectionate kiss into the side of my forehead.
“Thank you for the escort,” I said with a gracious smile when we made it to my door.
“Of course,” he answered. Then he leaned in for a kiss.
And I tried. I tried so hard. But I had to turn my face away at the last minute, forcing it to my cheek.
Garrett pulled back, the accommodating fiancé fading away. “You promised.”
“I know.”
“I can’t wait forever,” Garrett said with an irritated look. “We’ve been back together for months, and I’m a man with needs.”
Needs…the word pierced my heart as I remembered the night Phantom arrived at my door to tell me the same thing.
But no. I couldn’t let myself think about that. I batted the memory away and returned my focus to Garrett.
“After the wedding,” I assured him. “Just give me until Sunday.”
Garrett glowered but then pasted on a bright smile. “Perfect. That’s how we’ll celebrate the acquisition.”
I tried and failed to smile back. Then settled for, “See you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow, my love,” he answered.
I sighed, kicked off my heels, and leaned against the door with my eyes closed after he left.
Then I immediately undid the side zipper of the empire waist dress I’d worn to the rehearsal dinner and let it fall to the floor. And I let out a huge sigh when I finally freed my breasts from my bra.
My gorgeous La Perla had never been a problem before I gained weight. But I was beginning to hate underwire bras as much as Han’s wife, Jazz. Maybe, like her, I’d switch to sports bras after the wedding—
“Is it mine?”
I froze. And turned.
Too late…
Too late, I saw Phantom sitting on the bench in front of my four-poster bed.
He stood, his face unreadable as he took in my swollen four months pregnant belly.
“Is it mine?” he asked again.
29
“Is it mine?”
I’d prepared for this. If the time ever came, I had an explanation all ready.
No, this happened after we broke up—not the day I agreed to be your wife.
Yes, I’m sure. I had a period between you and when I got back together with Garrett.
It’s not yours. It’s not yours. It’s definitely not yours.
I’d rehearsed my answer in the mirror while refusing to think about what would happen if the baby came out with his upturned shark eyes.
Yes, I was prepared for this. Ready.
But when I opened my mouth, all that came out were tears.
Phantom didn’t say anything. Just quietly stood up and closed the space between us.
“Did he touch you?” He dipped his chin, his voice low and rough. “Did you let him in?”
I mutely shook my head. Once in answer to his question.
Then twice when he tried to reach his hands toward my face. Tried to touch me for the first time in four months.
I knocked his hands away. I’d shellacked over myself, made everything perfect just like Garrett had demanded. But underneath, I was too fragile. I couldn’t. I couldn’t let him touch me. If I did, I’d break.
But this was Phantom. He didn’t care about my fragility. He hooked me roughly, cupping a massive hand around my neck so that I couldn’t back away.
And then he….
Oh my gosh, he laid his other callused palm against the side of my belly and asked, “
Is it a boy or a girl?”
All wasn’t lost yet. I hadn’t said any actual words.
I could still save myself. Save him.
But then the word escaped from my mouth like a freed bird flying despite its broken wing. “Girl.”
He looked down, then away as if he didn’t trust himself to speak for a moment.
Then he said one more thing. And this time, it wasn’t a question but a command. “Now. Without him watching. Tell me that shit again. Say you don’t love me to my face.”
I opened my mouth. There were ways to salvage this—custody agreements signed along with NDAs.
Everything was at stake. Everything. But I was too weak.
“I love you,” I gasped out. “I’m so sorry—”
“Fuck, I knew it!” He pulled me into his chest, hugging me to him before the words were even all the way out of my mouth. “You almost had me. But I knew what we shared was real, even when I told myself I had to let go. Why, O? Why did you fucking do this to me?”
I explained as best I could with my head pressed into his broad chest. “Garrett’s in trouble with the Russian mob. He gave them stock that he guaranteed would double in exchange for paying off his debt. But then you came along, and Dad chose your deal over Easton’s. So he threatened to go to the FBI if I didn’t call everything off with you and marry him instead. He said he had you dead to rights for money laundering, and you were a big fish. If he went to the authorities with what he knew, they’d guarantee him immunity and put you in jail.”
“You’re trying to say you did this for me?” A terrible shadow fell over his face. “You were going to marry that asshole with my baby in your belly without telling me! What happened to that big speech you gave me at my parent’s house? About trusting each other and being brave?”
“He was standing right there beside me when I made the breakup call.”
All the guilt I’d squashed down over the last few months cracked my voice as I explained, “He said that if I didn’t play along with his plan, if I told you—if I even got in contact with you again, he’d immediately go to the Feds to protect himself. Then he erased your number from my phone and put a tracker on it. I could have tried to acquire a burner, but I didn’t have your new number memorized or written down. And every plan I could come up with just seemed too risky. He assured me that even if you had him killed, he’d already set up things so that the FBI would get everything he had on you. And as for trust….”
I shook my head miserably. “The problem is I did trust you. I knew you’d pick this baby and me no matter what. I had to hurt you and make it seem like I truly didn’t want to be with you, or you’d do something crazy—like go to jail just to save me from Garrett. That’s why I was terrified for you when you showed up earlier downstairs. Terrified.”
He knitted his brow as if he was trying to reconfigure all the math he’d done in his head about our breakup. So many conflicting feelings flicked across his eyes.
But then, his concrete face softened. “You were going to marry that prick, give up everything, just to keep me out of jail. Why would you do that?”
My answer was an apology and a declaration at the same time: “Because I love you, Hak-kan. I’d do anything to protect you. Anything. I love you so much….”
He claimed my mouth, inhaling my love in like it was air.
But then he pulled back, his eyes boring into mine. “Alright. You love me. Now I’m going to teach you not to ever fucking do something like this again.”
He whipped me up into his arms and carried me over to the made bed where he set me down carefully—that would be the last gentle thing he’d did that night.
I sensed that when he began to slowly strip. There was no urgency on his part, only intent as he removed every piece of his clothing while never taking his eyes off me. Not even when he got down to skin, tattoos, and one extremely large cock, throbbing and angry.
He stroked it as if it was an animal he was bidding to calm down right before it was unleashed.
“I tried to be nice to you,” he said, his voice dark and sinister. “Tried not to unleash the psycho. I gave you options….”
No more looking at him. He flipped me over in three deft moves, yanking up my hips and pushing my face into the bed with a hard hand at the back of my neck.
He kneed my thighs apart, making me spread out wider with my bottom fully in the air. I could only imagine the picture I made. The very opposite of the southern lady I’d tried to become to keep Garrett from hurting the man I loved.
“But I played too nice with you.” His thick knob lined up at my entrance. “So here’s what you need to understand, O. You are mine. Nobody else’s.”
He began feeding his dick into me. Slowly, inch by inch, like he always did when he knew I wasn’t completely ready. “You said you’d do anything to protect me. Well, I’m a selfish bastard. I’d do anything to keep you.”
He said that. Then he thrust into me, hard and rough.
Big…big…he was so big. Being filled by his thick shaft again was both my punishment and reward for finally telling him the truth.
Either way, I cried out, scrabbling my knees further apart to accommodate his girth.
He held still behind me, giving me time to adjust, but the heavy hand on top of my back remained. “Ssh…c’mon, beautiful. You remember me. Breathe. Let your body know it needs to take this lesson.”
Nothing had changed. In fact, everything was ruined now that he knew. I’d been too weak to protect him.
My chest twisted with sorrow, even as my body throbbed with relief. Hak-kan was here, taking all the decisions I’d been grappling with out of my hands….
Making it better.
In the end, I breathed, molding myself around his proportions, grinding down on him until my body accepted him as our king.
He seemed to know exactly when I’d fully submitted.
“You understand now, right?” he asked as he began pushing into me with punishing strokes. “You understand I don’t care if me going to prison was at stake. I would have fucking rotted in that jail before I let him take you from me.”
“I do know,” I confessed. “That’s why I did it.”
Wrong answer.
With a guttural growl, he yanked me up, pulling my back into the muscle wall of his chest as he knelt back with me in his lap. His heavy mitts found the tops of my thighs and spread me even wider, using some sex gravity formula to make me take him even deeper.
“You made me hate you,” he grunted, gripping my hips and riding me up and down on his cock. “I spent four months—the first four months of our baby’s life hating you instead of doing this.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered brokenly. Tears blurred my vision because I couldn’t reconcile the regret eddying around my chest along with the intense pleasure of being with him like this again. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” he growled. “Remember. Never forget. We are not that couple. If shit comes at one of us, we battle it together. No more letting go of each other for the other’s own good. Fuck what’s good. Fuck what’s safe. Life ain’t something I’m doing without you. And I want you to promise me the same thing.”
“I promise.” I was mindless and sobbing, grinding my hips as he worked me on his cock.
“Promise me you’re mine.”
“I’m yours! I promise!”
He pulled out—but only to turn me around in his lap.
To stroke tendrils of hair out of my face as he thrust up into me with animal grunts.
“Promise me…promise me…promise me…” he chanted.
I promised. With no idea of what I was agreeing to, but I didn’t care. These four months without him had been the worst of my life. And now that he was back, I couldn’t see myself ever letting him go again.
I promised him, and I loved him as wild and crazy as he demanded. Then I exploded, and so did he, his hips punching into mine as he ground out one last, “You’re mine.”
&n
bsp; Yes, yes, I was his. Utterly and completely, no matter what. I didn’t understand that before when I thought my sacrifice was the only thing that could save him.
But I understood now.
We fell back onto the bed, panting and complete. Committed to each other in ways that went way beyond a marriage ceremony.
“I love you, and I’m sorry,” I told him, my entire body radiating with promises and epiphanies. “I should have told you. I should have visited you in jail for the next decade rather than give another man what belongs to you. We belong to each other. And I swear to you, I’ll never forget that again.”
He let out a long sigh at my words. “Just so you know, all this psycho inside of me is fully unleashed now. We’re getting married. Soon as fucking possible. And good luck ever getting a divorce off of me. I’m going to treasure you until the day I fucking die. And if you want it any other way, you’re going to have to learn to keep those opinions to yourself. Because us not being together is no longer an option available to you. That shit ended tonight.”
His voice was hard as he told me all of this, but then he rolled over to face me, his shark eyes soft and tender.
“I love you.” He stroked my swollen belly. “And I love her too. Already.”
My heart swelled. He felt the same way about our baby that I had from the moment I got back the positive pregnancy test. “I love you too. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry ….”
I wondered if I’d ever be able to say it enough. But he cut off my apology stream with another kiss. This one was sweet. No punishment, all welcome home.
Then he said, “Now, here’s what we’re going to do….”
30
PHANTOM
Friday’s wedding rehearsal would be an all-day affair to ensure that the ceremony went off seamlessly. Every single hour of Garrett’s and Olivia’s day had been planned down to the quarter-hour from the wake-up time of eight a.m. to breakfast served in the formal dining room promptly at nine.
So Phantom could just imagine the surprise that popped off inside Garrett’s mind when he came downstairs a few minutes before the appointed hour and found his bride-to-be already sitting at the long dining table.
Phantom: Her Ruthless Fiancé: 50 Loving States, Kentucky (Ruthless Triad) Page 20
