Chapter 1 - Prologue
Gabriel
“Mr. Harrington, I hope it works this time? We could be wasting our time in other ways,” says Marie, annoyed, as we enter the lobby and follow him into the meeting room.
We’ve definitely spent too much time here in the last few weeks only to end up wasting it.
Time and again, her father has asked for a meeting, but time and again she has not come. It is frustrating how she shirks responsibility when tomorrow she has to take on the role of her life - the role of the loving, faithful wife.
My future wife.
Who would have thought that one day I would almost love my father for making that contract with Mr. Harrington twenty years ago when I was just a kid? A contract that binds that bitch to me for the rest of her life, if I want it, and takes everything away from her.
Jasmine Harrington, the black-haired monster who nearly destroyed my whole life, even though she was just a fucking kid at the time.
That’s why I expected her to put on a show like she used to, that she would somehow try to get out of the contract. But neither her father nor she tried. It’s as if she just accepted to become my wife - but she’s not like that.
She’s probably up to something and I have to make sure she doesn’t stick a knife in my back on my wedding night.
Harrington looks up from his smartphone, a restrained smile playing around his lips. He knows what’s at stake. Because I can back out of the contract, I can not only refuse to marry, I can also simply stop the purchase of this small family business.
I can’t lose in this business, unlike her and her family.
And if this family is known for one thing, it is for putting money above all else. Otherwise this contract would not have come about.
“Unfortunately, something has come up the last few times, you know her, Mr. Sterling,” he lies dryly, staring at his phone again. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him checking the building’s surveillance cameras. The images show a woman with long black hair getting into an elevator.
“I hope you don’t have any problems with dogs,” says Harrington, putting his cell phone in his pocket with relief. He is nervous, like anyone who sells us their business, except that he has not only sold his business, but in a way his only daughter as well.
I look at Marie, who looks just as irritated as I do. Who brings their dog to a business meeting? But I’m not really surprised.
She still behaves like a child.
But what else would I have expected? As if this sneaky, spoiled bitch will learn to behave in ten years, let alone keep her word.
“There she is,” says her father with relief, and Marie and I look at the glass walls where she is walking past, followed by a black sheepdog.
Back straight, shoulders back, chest out. As if she were going to a trial, as if she had a chance of getting out of it.
But she doesn’t have one.
She comes in and immediately her blue eyes look at me, just like back then. Only her gaze is even cooler and it almost looks as if she’s not about to plunge a knife into my back, but instead pull out a gun and point it at me.
But she not only brings a cold atmosphere into the room, but also her scent, and my wolf is immediately more present than he has been for a long time. Because he recognizes her immediately - by the goddess - it must be a bad joke.
This sneaky little bitch is my mate. Suddenly it all makes sense why it could have come to this.
Why I got involved with them in the first place.
My body tenses up, I have to concentrate. Marie looks at me unobtrusively from the side so that Jasmine and her father don’t notice, but I can’t tell her what’s happening.
Not now.
My gaze focuses on her, my wolf tries to surface and I do my best to suppress it, as I have done for the last few years.
“What is there to discuss?” Her words are cool and, unlike us and her father, she doesn’t sit down but leans against the empty chair in the meeting room.
As if we weren’t worth her presence and she had more important things to do than talk about her future.
“Your father called us here. He thought it would be good if we discussed the most important points before the media ask questions,” Marie begins, but Jasmine interrupts her immediately. “And you are? His girlfriend? Or is it already called an affair? I mean, I’ll be Mrs. Sterling in a week.”
“That’s none of your business,” her father explains brusquely and she lets her gaze wander back and forth between us.
I love how tense she is about the situation and how she tries to hide it. I notice it in her small, inconspicuous movements when she shifts her weight alternately to the left and to the right.
Whether she wants to or not, she confirms everything I suspected and hoped for. She doesn’t want to be here, and she doesn’t want to marry me either. That feels good, because I want her to suffer like she made me suffer.
With the victory over them, I finally get my revenge - and this feeling of victory will last my whole life.
Just like our marriage.
“Of course not. What business is it of mine what my future husband does? After all, I’m ‘only’ going to be his wife, should I go straight to the stove?” She means it sarcastically, but her words sound like a knife, sharp and cold, as she smiles at her father and then looks back at me.
“Did you miss me so much that you have to marry me right away?” she asks in an artificially friendly manner and I have to suppress a growl at her disrespect.
The goddess must be taking the piss.
“Of course, my darling,” I answer her and really enjoy the way she grimaces like she did back then.
But those eyes weren’t on me at the time.
She still has those full lips and those dimples when she gives free rein to her emotions.
Is it just because she is my mate? Is that why she can’t hold back her feelings when we meet in person?
Because in the news it appears to be evil par excellence, and it is.
I just let her know when I would be in town in case she wanted to discuss anything else, not without reason, as I was hoping she would beg me to let her out of the contract.
That she would get down on her knees just so that her family would get money and she wouldn’t have to marry me. But she didn’t do that.
She just insulted me.
“We should give them some time together,” says her father, looking at Marie, who is waiting for my approval out of the corner of her eye.
Then she gets up and the two of them leave the room, but only after Jasmine’s father has asked the dog to follow him and the dog has snapped at him with a threatening growl.
Jasmine smiles slightly, calls her faithful dog to her and tells him to lie down. He listens to her command, just like I did before that bitch betrayed me.
I watch her carefully as she walks around the chair, as if she’s wondering if it’s too close.
“Jasmine, you’re going to be my happy fiancée from tomorrow, do you know that?” I ask her and her gaze fixes on me.
She takes a step towards me, bends down to me, puts her hand on my leg and slowly slides upwards until she reaches my cock.
One of the employees runs against the glass, so fascinated is he by their spectacle.
She runs her tongue over my neck up to my ear, and her breath tickles me like it did back then, and I don’t want it, but she makes me hard, which she can feel directly through her hand on me.
Her scent reaches my nose, as unchanged and sweet as it was back then. I feel the urge to push her hair aside and kiss her neck, as if I were once again the guy who was helplessly at her mercy.
But that is no longer me and never will be again.
She grins victoriously on my skin, this bitch. My wolf tries to push me forward so I can kiss her and pounce on her, here and now. So that everyone can see through the glass walls who she belongs to.
She will be mine, but differently than then. The marking will calm my wolf, and then I’ll decide what to do with her.
Only one thing is certain, it won’t be pretty for them.
I stay as calm as I can, even when she applies pressure with her hand and my wolf tries to push its way to the surface. I have to concentrate. “You’ll get what you want, as always. But everything only when it’s asked for, not a minute sooner,” she whispers against my lips.
She leans back, sits opposite me and smiles at me as if she’s just won something.
But she lost and this time I win.
She will be completely dependent on me and bound to me. Not only through the contract that our fathers made, but also through the marriage contract that she has to sign.
Although the building has been renovated over the years, I can see the door to the small coffee kitchen through the glass walls, which says: ‘Access for staff only’.
The memory of that time comes flooding back into my head and pops up in my mind’s eye. How she lured me into this room with her sweet smile and her short black skirt when my parents and I were here.
I feel like I can feel her sweet taste on my tongue again and hold her ass in my hands as I sit her down on the kitchen counter.
Concentrate.
I need to concentrate, now. My wolf is to blame for these terrible memories.
She leans forward, resting her elbows on her knees, and gives me a knowing look when she sees where my gaze is going.
“What do you really want, Gabriel,” she whispers, but I see her pupils dilate.
She also remembered, and of course she liked it back then, because I also fell for her sneaky ways back then.
Not anymore.
“I just want you to be mine, Jasmine. That’s all,” I explain and straighten my tie.
I hate that bitch, even though my wolf would love to offer her all the opportunities in the world.
She wants to cross her leg over the other and at that moment I grab hold. I hold her leg and her body tenses as she looks at me with slightly parted lips. It must be because of the mate bond that she doesn’t try to hit me directly.
“I’ll marry you, but I’ll never be yours,” she says, smiling at me.
“You belonged to me once, Jasmine, and you will belong to me again. Only differently,” I explain to her and she looks at me as she releases her leg from my grip and stands up.
She doesn’t like it and her expression is full of contempt.
“We’re not finished yet,” I growl quietly, whereupon the black monster next to her pricks up her ears attentively.
She raises an eyebrow and looks at me. ”The most important things are done for me. Just send me the rest by email,” she explains lightly.
“The most important thing?” I ask and she lets her hair fall back disinterestedly.
“The most important thing?” I ask, and she lets her hair fall back as a sign of her disinterest as she replies, “That you’re still the arrogant, smug asshole you were back then.”
Her dog backs away when I stand up and grab her by the wrist as she walks. She gasps for air, but immediately closes her lips when I place mine on hers.
“Get used to it - and to your future husband, who can decide whether your future will be beautiful or ugly.”
“I think the end is already in sight,” she replies, holding my gaze.
She’s not afraid of me, she’s just afraid of not getting any money.
I let her go, but as she opens the door, she stops for a moment and I hear the smile on her lips as she says. “I never belonged to you, Gabriel.”
