Forever His

by Jagger Cole

  Forever His

  Jagger Cole

  Contents

  A Special Present

  Synopsis

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Forever His

  By Jagger Cole

  www.jaggercolewrites.com

  Copyright © 2020 by Jagger Cole

  All rights reserved.

  Cover by Plan 9 Book Design

  Editing by MJ Edits

  This is a literary work of fiction. Any names, places, or incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. And similarities or resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events or establishments, are solely coincidental.

  All characters in this work are eighteen years of age or older, and all relations of a physical nature are completely consensual.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  The unauthorized reproduction, transmission, or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal and a violation of US copyright law.

  Created with Vellum

  A Special Present

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  Synopsis

  Sienna

  True love is a fairy tale. Real life is cruel and unforgiving. Trust me, I know.

  I lost my prince charming years ago, when he went off to war in the desert. Luke Crow was forever off limits and so beyond my league anyways. He was only ever a crush, but I’ve been ruined ever since.

  Now, I’m being married off to a man I hate to settle a debt. I’m terrified of spending the rest of my life as a cruel man’s pretty little bird in a cage, until the very last ghost from my past I’d ever imagine steps in and changes everything.

  Prince charming is back, and this time, he’s playing for keeps.

  Luke

  She’s always been mine.

  But before, when we were young, Sienna Holloway was untouchable. She was off limits, and out of bounds. So I ran off to the Marines and fought in the sand until an ambush put my squad in the ground and me in chains.

  But now I’m back, and twice the man I was before. I’ve built an empire—a kingdom. And all I need now is my queen.

  Tonight’s supposed to be her wedding night. She still getting married, but trust me, it ain’t gonna be to the a-hole who thinks she’s his.

  I’ve waited years to claim what’s mine. And tonight, I’m taking her all for myself.

  1

  Luke

  She’s always been mine.

  It was never spoken, but I know we both know it’s true. Always have, always will. Before, she was just Sisi, my best friend Carter’s little sister. When we were young, and the world was all late summer nights, skinned knees, tree forts, and fireflies, she was my princess, and I was her prince. Well, at times I guess I was more the troll under the bridge pulling her pigtails or putting bugs down her dress.

  But that’s how you say “I love you and I’ll love you forever” when you’re ten. At least that’s how I figured was the best way to say it back then. We grew up; me hard, muscled, and rough, her tall, willowy, and beautiful. Not a day went by when I didn’t know that she was the one for me. Not a single night passed where I didn’t think of her and know in my heart that she was the only love I’d ever have.

  “Sir?”

  I frown and pull myself from the memories. I turn to look at my pilot, and I nod. “There, yeah.”

  “Sir, I don’t have clearance to land there.” The pilot looks conflicted, and I’m sure he is. On one hand, the guy has a license to protect and laws and regulations to follow. On the other hand, I’m paying him a lot of fucking money. I know how to settle his conflict though, and I reach into my suit jacket pocket.

  “Here’s your clearance.” I pass the man another ten thousand dollars, and his eyes bug out. “And if you get in trouble, I’ll swear I was flying. I have the license on record anyways.”

  He hesitates, but finally he takes the money. “Right down there?” He asks, pointing to the baseball field across from the church.

  “Right down there.”

  I never did have her though; Sienna, that is. At the end of the day, she was still Carter’s kid sister. She was off-limits, and untouchable. As much as I wanted her, and as hard as I fell for her, I kept my distance. I kept my walls up, even when that killer smile of hers sparkled like the sun. Even when I almost couldn’t stand how beautiful she’d become without even realizing it herself.

  So I held back, I turned away, and then I lost her. Carter and I were already over in Afghanistan when I heard she’d got herself a boyfriend—this asshole Ian we knew from school. I never made a move, and I know the forever-love I felt was all in my head. Mine, not hers. After that, I threw myself into the Marines, and any reservation I had about joining went away. Carter and I both grew up with nothing, and the Corp was a way to get out, and to see the world. But in the end, all we saw was death.

  They say war is hell, and they’re not lying. It was brutal over there in Afghanistan, but also not what we’d signed up for. We weren’t heroes, we were glorified prison guards. Or when we weren’t on that duty, we were glorified truck drivers.

  After two years in Afghanistan, the both of us managed to fuck up royally. We got busted skipping a post duty to get drunk off of moonshine some petty officer made in his shower stall. And man, we were out the Corp faster than you can say oorah. But, there’s a lot of opportunity out there if you’re young, reckless, and have US Marine Corp training. Carter and I both got picked up by a Mercenary outfit that did dirty work all over the Middle East. The money was good, and the adventure was what we’d been looking for. Plus, with the one girl I’d ever loved out of my hands and probably forgetting all about me, what the hell else did I have to live for?

  After that though is when it all went wrong. We were doing contract work in Turkmenistan, on the Iranian border, for a warlord. I still don’t know who hit us, but someone did. Could’ve been the US, or perhaps another warlord. All I know is that after the dust cleared, Carter was gone, and I was in chains.

  The helicopter lands, and I turn to my pilot again. “Keep it running, we’ll be out soon.”

  “Good luck,” he grins. He understands the basic gist of why I’m here. But I don’t need luck. I just need her, and tonight, I’m getting her at long, long last.

  I’ve watched from a distance. I’ve bided my time. I’ve waited until there isn’t any damn way I could wait any longer. I’ve laid the groundwork, and prepared the life I want to, and have always wanted to give her. But finally, it’s time.

  I also can’t wait any longer because I literally can’t. Someone else is about to steal her utterly from me. She’s getting married tonight at the very church I’m storming over to right now from my helicopter. My intentions are clear: stop this bullshit of a wedding before it happens. Speak now or forever hold my peace? Believe, I’m about to speak loud and damn clear.

  Sienna is going to be married tonight, but it won’t be to the man who thinks he’s going to be her husband after today.

  It will be to me.

  Sienna’s all mine. She’s always been mine, and after tonight, she always will be. I’ve waited years to claim her, and tonight, I’m stealing her all for myself.

  2

  Sienna

  As long as I don’t cry, I’m pretty sure I’ll ma
ke it through this. It isn’t exactly the go-to line that most brides tell themselves in the mirror minutes before their own wedding. But, today, it is for me. I look into the mirror, at the girl that looks back at me, and I barely recognize myself. Just like I can barely accept that all of this is real and happening.

  Oh, but it is. Today, I’m marrying Nick. In less than an hour, I’ll be Mrs. Passanté. The thought makes me want to puke, and I don’t mean because of butterflies in my stomach. It makes me want to puke because Nick Passanté is a sleazy, narcissistic asshole, and I’m being forced to marry him. I don’t mean that as hyperbole. I mean I’m literally being forced, contractually, to marry the guy.

  Nick is the son of Christopher Passanté, a man my father had business ventures with. My father was always a shoot from the hip kind of guy when it came to business. But when he died a year ago, the full weight of his bad business moves were brought to light. Including just how much of a bad guy Christopher Passanté is. Or just how much money my father owed him. Suffice to say, it’s a lot.

  It’s so much, in fact, that it’s more than everything my mother and I have left. I didn’t grow up with much, but as dad’s business did better and better over the years, we sized up with it. A better, bigger house, nicer cars, my college paid for, and more. But with dad gone and the business gone with him, mom and I have been scrambling to downsize. Especially since we realized he hadn’t really left much in the bank for a rainy day.

  “Hey girl.”

  I glance up into the mirror and see Aurora step into the dressing room behind me. Aurora’s my best friend in the whole world ever since we were four. We grew up together, we went off to college together, and we both came home together; me because of my dad, and her because of her mom getting sick. She’s like a sister to me, and as terrible as today is, I don’t know how I’d even be standing right now without her.

  “Hey,” I say dryly.

  “Well not for nothing, but you look fucking smokin’ right now,” she beams at me. I roll my eyes, but she stops me. “No, no it’s true. You look freaking gorgeous, girl.”

  “Well, I’ve got that going for me I suppose.”

  She smiles and walks over to hug me. “Look, I know today is…”

  “The worst?”

  She sighs. “Yeah, basically. But I do think it could actually be worse.” I wrinkle my face up, and she laughs. “It could always, always be worse, Sienna.”

  “Elaborate.”

  She giggles and pushes an errant strand of auburn red hair away from her face. “Well, Nick is a tool, and kind of a prick. But he could be, like, abusive or something.”

  “Hey, the day is young,” I mumble. She smiles a small smile and strokes my arm.

  “It’s not your dream wedding, and I know it’s not your dream man.” I shrug nonchalantly, and she smiles. “Oh, don’t even play that game. I know you were always mooning over…” she frowns and looks away. She doesn’t have to say his name. We both know who she’s talking about.

  “Anyways, I just came to check in. You doing okay, relatively speaking?”

  “Relatively speaking? Meh,” I shrug grumpily. “It is what it is.”

  “I’ll drink to that. Alright, I’ll check before we do this whole thing, okay? I’m going to go check in on your mom.”

  “Thanks, Aurora,” I say with a small smile of my own.

  “You bet. And hey, chin up, girl. It’s going to be okay.” It’s not, but I smile warmly anyways as she leaves.

  So, mom and I realized that my dad hadn’t left anything for a rainy day. And that’s when Christopher stepped in with the outstanding debts. We could sell the house, the cars, my grandmother’s jewelry, and I could drop out of school, and we still wouldn’t come close to paying him back. A rational person would see the struggle we’re in and cut us some slack, but Christopher Passanté isn’t a rational man. Or a very nice one. But he is opportunistic.

  His offer is simple: if I marry his son, Nick, the debt goes away, and he doesn’t take us to court for what he’s owed. It’s a disgusting, medieval arrangement, and I want nothing to do with it or with Nick. But mom and I are out of options. The worst part of it is, I know what Christopher and his son are really after, and it’s not me. My dad had one asset left that we could possibly trade on: a patent for a type of car brake system mechanism that’s gotten a lot of buzz from major carmakers. That’s what Christopher is really after, and we all know it.

  I’ve even offered to just give it to him and settle things that way; skip the fake wedding and the pageantry. But Christopher has dug his heels in, and he’s insistent that I marry Nick. And then, through the marriage, he’ll get his hands on the patent. I could fight it, but like I said, mom and I are out of options with dad gone, and with Carter, my older brother, gone these last few years—MIA in the Middle East.

  My dad, Carter, and him. Luke.

  My eyes close in the mirror, and I look down at my hands. Damnit, I told myself I couldn’t cry today, and here I go down this old road. Losing my dad was hard. Losing Carter hasn’t gotten any easier in the years since he went missing, presumed killed in action. But losing Luke at the same time was maybe the hardest of them all for me. Years later, it’s still just as raw, and on my wedding day, it’s even worse.

  It was supposed to be him. Well, not actually, but he’s who I always envisioned being at the end of the aisle I walked down on this day, ever since I was a little girl. What can I say? Luke Crow is and always has been the love of my life. Even if I never told him.

  He was my first crush, and my first secret fantasy. I mean how could he not be? He was four years older than me and all the snotty, immature boys my age. He was beautiful in this rugged, almost haggard way. He was tall, built lean and muscled from football, and had those eyes that make a girl go a little crazy.

  But he was beyond forbidden. Forget the fact that he was lightyears out of my league, he was Carter’s best friend. And that made him a forever fantasy and nothing more. Besides, he never even really saw me; certainly not as anything more than Carter’s annoying little sister. I kept it a dirty little secret, even if I always sort of could tell that Aurora knew. She was the one with zero trouble telling me about her crush on my brother, but it was the same situation. He was so much older than her, and I think we both know he always saw her as his kid sister’s friend.

  There’s a knock at my dressing room door, startling me. My head turns and I clear my throat. “Yes?”

  “Sienna, hon, how are we doing in there?”

  It’s Lisa, the wedding planner. And I think the woman has a sixth sense for brides with cold feet or who want to make a run for it, because she’s been on me like a hawk all day.

  “Fine… I’m still fine,” I answer. It’s the third time she’s checked on me in maybe twenty minutes.

  “Okay, just trying to keep on schedule! It’s almost time!” she squeals gleefully.

  “Okay, great.” My voice is totally bland, but I don’t even care. Who cares about trying to fake it at this point? Nick knows we both know the deal here. He knows why I’m marrying him. My nose wrinkles as I think about our last interaction the day before. Nick made one of those “it’s just a joke but it’s not really” lines where he insinuated that as my husband, he could finally “get in my pants.”

  Oh that is not fucking happening, believe me. Not with Nick fucking Passanté, and not when I’ve waited this long to… well, you know. To not have done it yet. How pathetic is that? Twenty years old, and still firmly holding onto my v-card. It sounds even lamer to say that I’ve been saving myself for Luke. But deep down, that might be true. There’s just never been a guy I’ve met who was even close to measuring up to him.

  Luke and Carter went off to the Marines together, managed to get deployed together, and then also managed to get kicked out together. I can remember how pissed my dad was about that; for both of them. Luke’s mom left when he was really young, and his dad was pretty much a full-blown drunk by then who didn’t really know
or care where his son was.

  They joined Fortress Security after that, which was just a nice name for a mercenary group. But somehow, wherever he was, Carter would find a way to send a letter or an email. If I was lucky, he’d get time at a computer station with a webcam, and I could say hi that way. And if I was especially lucky, there’d be Luke in the background.

  He’d be half a world away, and I didn’t even know if he knew that he’d stolen my heart years ago.

  Lisa knocks on my door again, and I grit my teeth. “What!” I bark.

  “Gentle reminder!” she says brightly. “We doing okay in there?”

  “Just peachy!” I yell back. I listen for her heels to click away before I slump back in my chair. The dress is gorgeous, my hair is great, and I even love the theme of this whole thing. But it’s all wrong, because I’m marrying the wrong man.

  The knock comes again, and I almost lose my shit. I groan and drop my face into my hands. “Please fuck off!”

  The knob turns, and I can hear the door opening behind me. I groan into my hands. “Seriously, can you please just give me some fucking time?”

  “I have, but I can’t any longer.”

  The voice—his voice—takes my breath away. It sends my heart into my throat, and has my head spinning as I whirl around. And there, standing tall with wide shoulders filling the doorway to my dressing room, is Luke.

  It feels like time freezes, and I stare into his eyes. Luke stares right back, and I slowly stand. I blink quickly, trying to swallow with a cotton mouth. But then finally, I’m somehow able to talk.