Page 26 of Billionaire's Runaway

His hand grasped mine, and before I guessed what he was doing, he slipped my band onto my ring finger. I held out mypalm, and he dropped his ring onto it. Once I had it on his hand, I moved to face my father, Luke at my side, giving me much-needed strength. This was the parent who’d been so harsh and borderline terrorizing my entire life. This was the parent who’d never cared about me until he’d deemed me useful.

“I’m married now,” I told him. “But even so, I don’t belong to anyone but myself.”

Beside me, Luke growled, and I squeezed his hand, silently telling him I belonged to him, but that was different.

“I love Luke, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life with him. And I…” I took a deep breath, steeling myself for some of the hardest words I would ever say. “I…don’teverwant to see you again.”

“Laura!” my father gasped.

“No,” I interrupted before he could argue. “I was never anything to you, not until you wanted something from me. I was the daughter who should have been a son. And because I’m not a boy, I was worthless to you. Luke loves me. Luke makes me feel important, not for anything except who I am. He listens to me and believes in me.”

“I do,” Luke breathed. “You’re everything.” His face turned granite as he glared at the man I was evicting from my life. “And I will do everything necessary to protect Laura. I know how precious she is. And you can bet, she will always be guarded. Don’t ever think about trying anything.” He glanced down at me and away from the deflated man who clearly realized he’d lost this battle and was probably tallying in his head how much money he’d lost. I knew the arrangement wasn’t about me, but about the cash.

“Are you ready to go celebrate?” Luke asked me, bringing my attention back to him.

“Yes.”

“Cassel wedding party? Ready?” he asked the room.

“Let’s go,” Jameson replied. It didn’t miss my attention that his eyes were pinned to Willow when he answered.

“I’ll get the car,” Rick said.

“How much was he—the guy you promised me to—going to pay you?” I asked my father, unable to help myself.

My father’s scowl returned, his eyes narrowing. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me. How much was I worth? What’s the going dollar value for a daughter?”

“Two million,” he muttered.

“I’ll send you a check—”

“Luke, no!” I exclaimed, even as the face of the man who’d sired me brightened. He didn’t deserve to be called my father. “You can’t.”

“And in return, you will never bother us, never come near Laura again—you or anyone working for you,” Luke went on, ignoring my protest. “You’ll call off whatever detective you’ve had trailing her here in the city.”

“Done,” the other man replied. Turning on his heel, he left without so much as another glance at me. I tried to ignore the pain in my chest, the hurt at being so much…nothing to him.

Luke hugged me to him, somehow knowing what was going on inside me. “Icando it,” he said. “I’m a billionaire, remember? Two million to ensure you’re safe is like pennies to any other man. We won’t even miss it.”

“We?”

“Did you sign a prenup? I sure didn’t. What’s mine is yours, baby. But most importantly, you’re mine. All mine. Forever.”

I melted into him. “All I want from you is your love. And maybe babies, one of these days.”

He grinned. “I look forward to making as many as you want. And as for my love, you’ve owned that for months. You’re stuck with it.”

A few feet from us, Jameson made a gagging sound and Willow punched his arm.

“Shut up, dick,” she grumbled. “Your brother is exactly what women want. Sweet, romantic. He’s the kind of guy I’ll someday—”

She screeched as Jameson suddenly threw her over his shoulder and stormed from the chapel. I looked at Luke, wide-eyed.

“There’s long history there,” he told me. “I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow. Today is about us.”

Going on tiptoes, I pulled his mouth down to mine. “Nope.Foreveris about us. Let’s go, husband. I want to get started on that.”

---