Page 43 of Screwged for Christmas

I shove open these doors pretty much in the same fashion and cause everyone to jump with a startled look. I lock eyes with Noella from across the room first. Sunlight filters through the stained-glass window and casts a halo of brightness around her confirming what I’ve known for years—she’s an angel. For the first time in a solid year, my heart starts to beat again and pump life back into my body.

Her father and two brothers are on their feet, the surprise on their faces almost comical.

“Don’t even try to stop me,” I snarl, whirling on them. When I see they hold no threat all my focus moves to her. Everything and everyone fade away.

Fire roars through my veins and I storm across the room. All that beautiful, white silk and lace wrapped around the most stunning woman I’ve ever seen has me captivated. A deep V dips in the middle to reveal creamy skin and a delicate hint of cleavage. The surprise in her eyes quickly turns heated as she strokes her gaze over every inch of my body like she can’t believe I’m standing in front of her.

When my mother called with the news Noella moved up the wedding date I rushed back to New York City with no real plan in place, but to get here as quickly as possible. All I knew was that if I could steal five minutes of her time, I could convince her we would be a perfect pair. To give me a chance. Us a chance, though I know I don’t deserve it.

Living across from her for years started out fine. And then she grew into a beautiful woman who was too young for the likes of me. But I couldn’t help but allow a little part of me to wonder what it would be like if she were a little older or I was a little younger. Either would work for me back then.

And then time passed. Every year I came home for the holidays she became bolder until her mother caught us making out on her eighteenth birthday.

The next morning Noella was gone. Shipped off to relatives in Switzerland to finish out her last year of school and then on to college half a world away. When asked, the steel-boned matriarch of the Montgomery family made it a point to let me know a meathead jock would never be good enough for her perfect daughter.

I agreed on the perfect part, but everything else was utter bullshit. Me staying away boiled down to the respect I have for Noella and a ridiculous amount of self-control.

After landing in New York City yesterday afternoon, getting past Noella’s mother proved to be impossible so I waited and tried to convince myself the foolish ideas running through my head were just that. Foolishandselfish. Didn’t I have plenty of time to come home and take her as my wife before today?

Yes.

But sometimes you don’t realize how much you love someone until buttons get pushed. And thinking about her walking down the aisle to that little preppy fuck O’Malley Jr. left me in cold sweats.

“What are you doing back here, Mount?” Her brothers stand and try to make a human wall between me and Noella.

I smile. Obviously, they forget what I used to do for a living.

“Aron?” she asks breathlessly over the rise of her brothers’ shoulders.

The surprise on her face and the flush on her cheeks has my cock straining against the back of my fly. I ignore her father’s demands to leave at once and bust past her brothers like they are no more than wedding confetti.

She’s standing in all her bridal beauty and suddenly I feel like a caveman. A lucky one at that.

I ignore her gasp of shock, bend at the waist and swing her curvy body over my shoulder. While I’m at it, I grab her bouquet of flowers from a nearby table without breaking stride.

If you’ve never seen chaos before, the scene that plays out before me is a pretty good visual of batshit crazy the second I hit the church steps. Cameras flash, reporters dash across snow-covered lawns and the flock of sharply dressed guests descend on us. I throw the bird over my shoulder at her brothers and their red-faced scowls reflecting off the glass in the church door.

“What the hell are you doing? How dare you ruin my wedding day!”

The bite of the brisk winter day hits us head-on.

“How dare I? How dare you try and give away what’s mine?” There are a million other things I could voice but they’ll have to wait. Right now, I need to get my bride alone and naked. I’m starved for my woman and I won’t be satisfied until I have her naked, my tongue, lips, and cock making sure she knows everything about her belongs to me.

She’ll learn how much my heart and body has been hers soon enough, too.

I clamp my arm possessively around my precious package and pick up the speed a little.

Feet and fists go flying and I can feel the bite of Noella’s fists slamming into my back. I ignore them and Noella’s protests. Without looking back, I address her dad in a voice that everyone can hear. Including the camera crews.

“Excuse me, Mr. Montgomery, but your daughter and I have some unfinished business. Find another bride. This one is taken.”

CHAPTER 3

NOELLA

His.

This can’t be happening.

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