The Billionaire's Unwanted Bride

CHAPTER 3

I paced the corridor outside the study, heart hammering in my ears.

Something wasn’t right.

My father and Lucas in one room together? It could only end badly.”

I pressed my ear against the heavy oak door, trying to hear, but their voices were muffled. All I picked up on were low murmurs, fragmented sentences, and the occasional clinking sound of ice hitting glass.

I clenched my fists.

Lucas may have thought he held all of the cards in this situation, but he didn’t know my father like I did.

My father didn’t make deals. He owned people.

The same way he had owned me my whole life.

And now he believed he owned Lucas, too.

I breathed in deeply, trying to remain calm.

Minutes passed. Finally, though, the door creaked open.

Lucas went outside first, wearing an unreadable expression. My father came next, adjusting his suit cuffs, his beady gaze fixed on me.

“Elara.” His voice flowed smoothly, but in a measured way.

I lifted my chin. “What did you and he talk about?”

Lucas’s eyes shifted toward me, his smirk all but invisible. “Business.”

I crossed my arms. “What kind of business?”

My father gave a little laugh. “Nothing for you to worry about.”

That just twisted my stomach a little tighter.

He touched me, brushing a wisp of hair from my face. I froze up, but he didn’t seem to mind. “You’ve always been pigheaded,” he said. “I hope you’re going to learn how to act in this marriage, Elara. Lucas isn’t going to put up with your normal tantrums.”

I jerked away from his touch. “I’m not a child.”

Something that was not a smile twisted his lips. “No, you’re not.”

A shiver ran down my spine.

Lucas stepped between us. “We’re done here.”

For a moment, my dad said nothing. With a satisfied nod, he then turned into the doorway. “I’ll be in touch.”

He left, the smell of designer cologne wafts out behind him followed by the weighted intangibility of his presence.

I let out a slow breath.

Lucas was leaning against the wall, watching me. “You don’t believe him, do you?”

I shot him a glare. “Do you?”

He smirked. “Not even a little.”

That caught me off guard.

I frowned. “So then why did you agree to this marriage? “I don’t imagine you are the kind of man to take orders.”

Lucas’s gaze darkened. “I don’t.”

I waited for him to say more, but he didn’t.

Of course, he wouldn’t.

Lucas Thompson was a man of many secrets.

And now, like it or not, I was tangled up in them.

I started to walk away, but Lucas caught my wrist before I could take a single step as he yanked me back into him.

My breath caught as my body melted into his.

His voice dropped. “Where do you think you’re going?’

My heart quickened; I swallowed hard. “To bed.”

He arched a brow. “Our bed?”

Heat rushed to my face. “You’re impossible.”

His smirk deepened. “And I can’t stop running into you, though.”

I shoved at his chest. “Let me go.”

He didn’t move. His hand continued to grip mine just enough to remind me of his power, the power he harnessed.

Then, all of a sudden, his fingers glided along my jaw, lifting my face up.

“Say something, Elara,” he whispered. “Do you hate me?”

My pulse pounded.

Yes.

No.

I didn’t know anymore.

I lifted my chin. “What do you think?”

Lucas looked at me for a long moment. Then, without a word, he lowered his head, his lips skimming the sensitive skin just under my ear.

I gasped in a sharp breath, my body subverting me.

“Good,” he whispered. “Hate makes it more interesting.”

And then his lips crashed into mine before I could know what to do.

It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t sweet.

It was fire.

A fire that was dangerous, consuming, that would burn me alive.”

His hands dropped to my waist, squeezed me tightly, and backed me against the wall.

I gasped, but he swallowed the gasp, burnishing the kiss, stealing all the wind from my lungs.

My hands flailed up, forcefully pressing against his chest, but he didn’t budge.

Instead, he grabbed my wrists, holding them above my head, his body pressing against mine.

A shiver ran through me.

This was not the way it was supposed to be.

I was supposed to resist.

But Lucas kissed me as if he had every right to. As if I were already part of him.

And worse…

A part of me didn’t want him to stop.

Then he instantly withdrew, warm breath on my lips.

His eyes burned into mine, dark and knowing.

“You’re mine, Elara,” he whispered. “No matter how hard you try.”

My heart pounded.

I hated him.

I hated how he made me feel.

And I hated that part of me…

Didn’t hate it at all.

I felt frozen with my heart thudding into my ribs, Lucas’s words buzzing inside my head.

"You’re mine, Elara. No matter how hard you fight it.”

His breath was still sweet on my lips, his body close enough that I could feel the heat rolling off him.

I hated him. I hated the way he stared at me as if he already owned me. Like I was some prize he had won.

But more than anything, I hated how my body betrayed me.

I pulled my wrists loose, my breathing jagged. “You don’t own me, Lucas.”

His lips formed a slow, lopsided smirk, as if he heard the uncertainty in my voice.

“We’ll see about that,” he said quietly.

I was seething with frustration. “You think that you can just kiss me and I’ll forget everything? That I’ll simply throw myself at you like all the other women who worship you?”

His smirk didn’t waver. “I don’t need you to worship me, baby. I just need you to remember who you belong to.”

Something inside me snapped. I put my hand up to b***h slap that arrogant smirk off his face

But he intercepted my wrist in midair.

His grip was firm but not painful, his thumb rubbing my skin in a way that sent an unwelcome shiver down my spine.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said, voice muffled. “Unless you want me to give you.”

My stomach sank; heat flooded my face.

“I hate you,” I whispered.

Lucas stepped closer, his mouth a breath away from mine. “Then hate me in our bed.”

My breath hitched.

Damn him.

I pushed against his chest, hard this time. He released me, but the mirth in his eyes told me he had released me.

I turned and fled to the door, wanting to be as far away from him as possible.

“You can run as far as you like, Elara,” he called after me.+ “But you end up back in my arms everytime.”

I didn’t stop.

Didn’t look back.

Because I was afraid he might be right.

I slammed the bedroom door closed and pressed my back against it with shaking hands.

This was a nightmare.

A nightmare living and breathing.

I pressed my eyes together, forcing my heart to still.

Lucas was playing with me. That’s all this was. A game.

But I wasn’t going to play.

I just had to outlast this marriage until a way out emerged.

Then came a knock on the door that startled me.

“Elara?”

My stomach twisted. Not Lucas.

It was my mother.

I opened the door, hesitated in a moment of disbelief as I watched my mother standing there, her face inscrutable.

She entered the door behind her.

“I presume you’ve talked to your father,” she said in a low voice.

I crossed my arms. “If you mean he’s coerced me into this marriage, then yes.”

A shadow of something passed across her face — sadness? Regret? But then it disappeared just as fast.

“You have to be careful with Lucas,” she said in a hushed voice.

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

She hesitated. “Just… don’t trust him.”

I scoffed. “You think I trust him? He’s the one who made my life hell when I was growing up.”

A sad smile was noticeable on her lips. “People change.”

“Not Lucas.”

She sighed and leaned in to tuck a piece of hair behind my ear. Just promise me you’ll be fine.’”

That tone of hers sent a chill up my spine.

I wanted to ask what she wasn’t saying.

But she turned and walked away before I had a chance.

Leaving me with more questions than answers.

And the sinking sense that I had just put my foot in something much more dangerous than I realized.