Page 82 of Driftwood Daffodil 3

“I hope you step on a Lego tonight.” She sang and walked to the left.

That was just mean.

“That’s the wrong way.” I pointed to the right. “The parlor is this way.”

Nova stopped, looked at the hall I was pointing to and lifted her chin. “I knew that.”

Snarky little bitch strutted right past me. I couldn’t help but smirk at the glare on her face. The hatred running through her veins was thick and palatable in the air. If she could kill me right now, she would. She sure as shit tried to when I bent her over to insert that plug. And I had the wounds to prove it.

“Just so you know...” she said when I snickered and followed. “You haven’t won anything.”

I gave her a mocking frown. “It’s cute that you think that.”

I won everything.

Not only was she dressed up like a virgin sacrifice that I desperately wanted to devour, but Nova was about to be escorted into a room full of people and introduced as my fiancé. Something that I was oddly looking forward to doing. A week ago I would’ve dreaded this, but now, I wanted to publicly lay my claim on her. So, why couldn’t I give her the ring?

I once again held out my arm, “shall we?”

This time Nova accepted my offer and looped her arm in mine.

We made it down one hallway before her attitude came back.

“How’s your hand?”

My gaze dipped down to the imprint of her teeth sitting between my forefinger and thumb. “My hand is fine.”

What Nova saw as battle wounds, I saw as something else. Every motherfucker who shook my hand would see her mark on me. A mark that I would proudly display. If this wasn’t such a formal affair I’d roll up my sleeves so everyone could see the scratches on my arm too.

“How’s your ass?”

“My ass is fine.”

The way she growled that through gritted teeth would say otherwise.

“Excellent.”

Out of all the victories I had over Novalee Ford, this one was my favorite. Every time her hips shifted, my dick twitched. I wasn’t just escorting her, I was inside her. Little miss attitude would have to sit through dinner feeling me in her ass. Every hand she shook or person she talked to, I would be right there constantly on her mind.

Nova may look the part of an elegant wife, but under that mouthwatering dress was the dirty little vixen I’d be using hard.And no one would know. My dick was hard just thinking about it.

We stepped up to the parlor’s closed double doors. “Here we are.”

This dinner was for us just as much as it was for Aldo. Romeo had a similar meeting for his betrothal to Kendall. Since Nova wasn’t Italian, this was more important for us than it was for them. In order for the marriage to be accepted, Nova needed to be officially introduced to the ‘family’. And once she was, there would be no turning back. As soon as we stepped through those doors, my contract with her would be bound in blood.

Did I really want to do this?

The muffled sounds of conversation coming from the other side caused my eyes to drop down to Nova’s left hand. I stared at her empty ring finger and thought about the box in my pocket. There were certain expectations that everyone in that room would have. One of which was a ring.

I slipped my hand in my pocket and fingered the small velvet box sitting inside. It was just a ring. What was the big deal? I should give it to her and move on. But it wasn’t just a ring. It was my mother’s ring. And Nova was a Ford. My mother loved her children. She doted on us. How could I give her ring to the sister of the man who killed her oldest son? How could I defile Atlas’s name like that?

Nova huffed out a sigh. “Are we going to stand out here all day?”

“No,” I cleared my throat. “Let’s get this over with.”

She didn’t need a ring to be introduced. If anyone had a problem with that, they could fuck off.

Pulling my hand out of my pocket, I grabbed the door handle, but Nova stopped me before I could open the door.

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