Chapter 33

Dallas

This was hardly the way I pictured the night before my wedding. I always thought there would be champagne, sneaky kisses from my husband-to-be, and a feeling of elation that I’d snuggle into like a cloud on my way to sleep.

Instead, I had one warm bottle of beer, an incredible hatred for my husband-to-be, and a feeling of nausea that hit me like a bus the second I moved more than an inch.

It was cruel to lock me up in my room while I “made my decision” when everyone knew there was no decision to make. Preston was all about the appearance of fairness without ever playing fair. He just wanted me to wallow in my misery. Meanwhile, I couldn’t even say out loud that come tomorrow, my living nightmare would become as permanent as the contract binding me to Wes. Marriage had come a long way since the days when women belonged to their husbands by law, but mine would be like stepping back into the dark ages. And there would be no getting around giving Wes my body. He would finally get everything he wanted.

I wished for Shane. I wished that he could save me, that in one fell swoop he could erase all this horror from my life and replace it with the joy I felt in that meadow. But what could he do? Nothing. Preston had finally won. Every last piece of myself that I’d been smuggling under the radar these past three years would soon be obliterated, along with all my hopes for a better future.

The handle turned on my door, and I curled my knees up to my chest in bed. I expected Preston, coming to gloat, but wasn’t surprised to see Wes instead. Goodie.

“Hey,” Wes said.

The aggression that commonly laced his words was absent. I didn’t trust it.

“What do you want?” I snapped.

Wes walked over to the bed and sat down at my feet. I pulled them closer to my butt and took an angry swig of beer, trying to communicate with my body language how unwelcome he was. Not that it would do any good.

“It doesn’t have to be like this,” he said. His tone was almost gentle.

“Like what?” I asked. “Against my will? Unless you’re planning to give me a lobotomy, I’m afraid it does.”

Frustration wrinkled his brow, but he smoothed it out. “I could give you everything, Dallas. It could be a happy life.”

“I don’t want everything,” I shot back. “I want my freedom.”

Wes angled his body toward me and rested a hand on my knee. Ice stabbed through me. I clutched my beer bottle harder. If I couldn’t stand for him even to place his hand on my knee, how the hell was I going to have sex with him without vomiting all over the place?

Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. It would serve him right.

“I love you, Dallas. Let me. Give in to me, and you’ll see how good we can be together. I know that it seems bad now, but everything I do is because I know what’s best for you.”

I was appalled at his gall and smacked his hand away. He let it fall beside my legs, but his jaw ticked. I didn’t care if I was pissing him off. If this was my last night as my own person, I was going to take full advantage and not waste a single moment.

“You have no idea what’s best for me!” I said. “You don’t even know me!”

“I don’t know you?” He stood and glared down at me. “No, I know you Dallas. I know all about you.” Leaning down, he shoved a finger into my face. “It’s you who doesn’t know me. You never tried to get to know me, never cared, no matter what I did. It’s your fault that your father’s in so much debt with mine. If you had been less of a bitch, I wouldn’t have had to tie you to us like that.”

I’d always suspected that Preston had screwed my dad over, and knew that Wes had encouraged him to make the arrangement we had once I already rejected him. I had no idea he had been working against me this long.

“Are you saying that my dad is in debt to your family because you were sad that I didn’t pay more attention to you?” I asked in a low growl.

Wes stood to his full height and sneered. “I did what I had to do to. I loved you, and when I heard that your dad borrowed money from mine, it seemed too good to be true. My dad wants what’s best for me, and he saw how much I cared about you, so he convinced your dad to take on a couple of bogus investments. I was going to forgive it all, Dallas.” The hardness in his eyes melted and he crumpled to his knees beside the bed, wrestling my hands into his grip. “As soon as you fell for me I was going to be the big hero and make it all go away. But you never even gave me a fucking chance.”

I could hardly see from the red clouding my vision. My hands were freezing, even in Wes’s sweaty grip, but my face burned like the sun. I yanked my hands free and climbed around Wes to stand in the middle of the floor.

“You’re sick,” I told him. “And you know what the worst part is? There were times when I thought you seemed almost human, but clearly, you don’t even know what human is.”

Wes stood and stepped toward me. I stepped back, but I didn’t slow down.

“I feel sorry for you Wes, I really fucking do. You never stood a chance with a father as cruel and manipulative as yours. You were twisted from the day he first held you, and because of that you’ll never know what love really is.”

Wes’s muddy eyes softened for a second. His hands fell to his sides, and he seemed almost ashamed. The mirage vanished a moment later, and steel returned to his gaze. He set his jaw, contempt written in the lines of his face.

“Get some sleep,” he muttered coldly. “You’ve got a big day ahead of you.”

He stormed from my room and slammed the door. I listened for his receding footsteps and, once I was sure he was gone, collapsed to the floor. I tucked my knees to my chest but refused to cry.