Arranged love

EMILEE

I wake with a pounding headache. My eyes are sensitive to the sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows. I moan, burying my face into my pillow.

“Here. Take these,” I hear Titan say from beside the bed.

I lift my head and crack my eyes to see him standing there with two aspirin in one hand and a bottle of water in the other.

I sit up and take them from him. “Fuck.” I toss them into my mouth and gulp down the water. “You would not believe the dream I had last night,” I say.

“Try me.” He crosses his arms over his chest and glares down at me.

I frown. “Were we fighting when I passed out?” He doesn’t answer. I sigh. “Look, I wanted to go out. I’m not going to apologize for going to a club with my friends.”

“That’s not the part that pisses me off,” he states. “It’s who you ran into while there.”

I frown, trying to think back on what … “Oh. Josh?” I ask, and his brows rise to his hairline. “Haven met him when she came to visit me in Chicago. When we decided to go out, she saw he was in town for the weekend working at the Seven Deadly Sins here in New York. We were never serious. We were just friends who fucked.”

“Seems like a common occurrence for you.”

My jaw tightens at his words. “Hey, that’s not-”

“Fair?” he interrupts me.

I throw off the covers. “Fuck you, Titan,” I growl, getting out of bed. I wrap a towel around me that was lying on a chair and yank open the bedroom door. I come to a halt when I see Bones and Luca sitting at the kitchen table with Haven and Jasmine. Nite is standing in the kitchen, and a man is standing next to him. “Dad?” I breathe.

“Hey, sweetie,” he says softly, setting down his cup of coffee.

I stand frozen in my spot. “It was a dream,” I whisper.

“No, it wasn’t.” He comes closer to me.

“You’re alive?” I choke out, tears stinging my eyes.

He nods once. “Yeah, I am.”

He reaches me and holds his arms out wide, waiting to see what I do.

“But you’re … I saw you …” I never saw his body. He had been cremated, and we had a memorial service in remembrance.

“I’m so sorry, Emilee. Please forgive me.”

The first tear runs down my cheek. “Of course.” I choke. “Of course.” I run into his open arms, and he wraps them around me. I never thought I’d get this again. His love. His smell.

I don’t dare close my eyes, afraid he may disappear. “I don’t understand. How are you here?” I pull away and look up at him.

He wipes the tears from my cheeks. “It’s okay. We have plenty of time to talk about it.”

“We do?” I ask surprised.

He nods. “Yeah. We’re going back to Vegas. Together.”

“We are?” I can’t believe it. “When?”

“Whenever you want. I have a jet fueled and on standby.”

My face falls. “I burned down your house,” I say, and my bottom lip begins to tremble at what I’ve done.

“Don’t worry about that.” He cups my face. “Luca has a penthouse downtown that he has offered me. No one will know that we are there.”

I take a step back from him and nod. “Okay.”

“Go pack your things and I’ll inform them we are ready.”

I turn and walk back into our bedroom. I’m throwing things into my suitcase when the door opens, and Titan enters. “You can’t be serious?” he growls. “You’re going to go with him?”

“Yes,” I say and stop what I’m doing. “He’s my father. I thought he was dead …”

“Yes, because he tricked you. He tricked everyone.”This content belongs to Nô/velDra/ma.Org .

“He was in trouble.” I don’t know the full story, but obviously, he faked his death and needed the insurance money.

“God, you can’t be that fucking stupid,” he snaps.

My chest tightens at his words. How cold they were said. As if he believes I really am stupid if I go with my father. “Titan …”

“No!” he shouts. “He could have come clean to you. Or filled you in on his plan. But he didn’t, Em. He didn’t trust you.”

His words hurt because they’re true. But I swallow the knot in my throat. “He’s here now.”

“To use you,” he snaps. “Just like George did. Just like …”

“Like you did!” I shout.

His eyes darken and his chest bows out.

“You fucking used me too, Titan. Don’t pretend you didn’t.”

He says nothing. Just stands there like a fucking statue.

“Get on your knees, Em! You want your phone? Get. On. Your. Knees. That sound familiar?”

He steps into me, pressing his chest into me. “You wanted me as much as I wanted you.”

I shake my head. “Not like that. I didn’t want to be your whore.”

He tilts his head to the side. “You didn’t do it for your phone. You did it because you wanted to be a Queen. You had no problem whoring yourself out for money then.”

I slap him across the face, and my palm instantly stings from my force on his cheek. “Fuck you, Titan,” I growl as his murderous eyes glare down at me. His face now red from my hand.

I grab my things while he just stands there watching. And once I’m done, he doesn’t follow me out of the bedroom.