So, he thinks that marriage is just something to be played with, does he?
Well, we’ll just see about that.
It wasn’t easy getting the priest to agree to my little request, but in the end, what fault could he find with it?
He was supposed to oppose divorce, wasn’t he?
So what harm was there in making that one little stipulation in the wedding vows?
When the time comes, I will use that to my advantage.
It seems since coming back home; my whole world has been turned upside down with one thing or another.
Now I’m married.
I looked down at the gold band he’d placed on my finger; it’s funny; I hadn’t been expecting one.
It was old but beautiful, one of those timeless pieces that endured the test of time.
I felt a warmth creep into my heart for a split second as I looked after my new husband’s retreating back.
‘It’s time you grow up, Dana.’ I told myself.
Yes, it was; if not I will forever be tossed to and fro in the tempest, with other people always making the decisions for me.
I headed back to the house where my new husband had ordered me to stay while he did, who knows what.
As I stepped out into the sunshine, I felt free for the first time in a long while.
I also felt a giddy sense of something.
There was a tingling in my tummy, and I had the urge to smile for no blessed reason at all.
I could make this work; after all, it wasn’t like my new husband was an ogre or something; in fact, he was really quite handsome.
And hadn’t he gone after my dad for what he did to me, a total stranger?
And he brought mom to me even though she’d not stayed.
And he’s been nothing but kind ever since I got here.
Yes, I could work with this.
My step was much lighter as I drew closer to the house.
Melissa had promised to come by after and spend some time with me since it seemed as if Lawton planned on keeping me a prisoner in his house for now.
I felt a slight pang of regret that my wedding day was nothing like I’d dreamed of as a child, but that was silly.
This wasn’t a conventional wedding, after all.
Conventional or not, it was real, and it was going to stay that way.
Had that only been a few hours ago?
How could life change so drastically in such a short time?
I looked down at the ring on my finger once more and felt a new beat in my heart.
All I have to do now is learn my way around here because there was no way I was staying cooped up inside for more than a day or two.
Inactivity is the worse fate if you ask me.
At school, they’d taught us to always be in motion, whether thinking or doing, always be about something.
There was a whole lot of stuff I could do around here, I think, but first, I must work on winning my husband over.
Maybe some of those expensive classes will come in handy after all, though I’d found them old-fashioned and outdated at the time.
Who knew that etiquette and the how to be a proper wife training would actually come in handy in this day and age?
I got a chill when I remembered who it was that had paid for those classes and why.
Thank heaven Lawton had saved me from that.
TRAVIS
***
“You’re not marrying him; there’s no fucking way I’ll ever let that happen.” She was only doing this shit because she thought he was safe, that he would be her family’s choice.
I’d taken her cherry at sixteen, and I’d be fucked if someone else was going to put hands on what’s mine.
I had her laid out on the bed, arms and legs spread wide and tied to the posts.
Her pussy, that gash that fucking owned me, winked at me from between the fat lips that my mouth knew so well.
I’d gone away for a year; I had to if I wanted to do something more with my life than the drudgery that was staring me in the face in this small town that was going nowhere fast.
After university, which I’d only made because of scholarships, I’d been offered a job overseas.
If I took it and did well, I would be set in my engineering field for life.
“We had an understanding; we talked about this shit.
How the fuck could you forget that?” Her eyes followed me across the room as I paced back and forth in my anger.
Suzette is a good girl; I know that, but she’s gullible as fuck, and that smarmy bitch of a mother and her asshole dad was always turning her head around.
But I thought we were over this, that we were past anything resembling this shit.
When they’d found out about us when she was in high school and me already at college, they’d tried to break us apart, but my girl had stood firm.
I understand that that’s because I was there to hold her hand and reassure her that I would never leave her like they tried to make her believe.
But they waited until I was gone; Skype and email didn’t offer the same comfort and stability as having a warm body there next to you did.
I should’ve known they would try something like this, but I thought she was strong enough, that our love was strong enough to withstand whatever they threw our way.
“You are partly to blame for this too, don’t think you’re off the fucking hook.”
“Travis…”
“Don’t say one fuck to me.” I turned and pointed my finger at her.
I love my girl, but she’s known for causing shit where none is needed; too fucking soft.
It was true that we came from opposite sides of the tracks, with me being on the wrong side.
It was true that her family had more money than mine would probably ever see in this lifetime, but I was working, had been working on evening those odds. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Everything I’d done in the last couple of years had been for her, with her in mind.
I pushed myself in school that much harder because I wanted to give her everything that I thought a woman of beauty, the woman I loved, deserved.
Not to prove shit to her fuck of an old man, but because it’s what I wanted as a man.
To be a man in my book, you had to be able to take care of yours.
I never counted my uncle’s money and wealth as my own.
He’d done more than enough for me all those years ago when he’d taken me in, the poor relation, his younger brother’s son.
Sure my dad was a major fuck up.
He’d squandered every opportunity ever given to him, and the people of this town never forgot that shit, even years after he’d left and settled somewhere else.
So when my uncle started bringing me out here in the summer when I was about twelve, everyone pretty much knew my life story.
At first, I tried to resent Law and Kyle and even their baby sister.
They had it all, after all.
Their father had inherited most of our late grandfather’s wealth, and he and his family were living high on the hog while me and mine were barely putting food on the table.
But then, after that first summer here, I’d started seeing things different.
My uncle wasn’t the asshole I was led to believe by a disgruntled father, but a hard-working family man who’d taken his part of the inheritance and made it into more.
It was true that he’d inherited the lion’s share as the eldest son, but the others had in no way been left out.
He just happened to be the only one who wanted to stay around these parts, so had no problem buying out his siblings when they wanted to sell.
He wanted to keep the land in the family’s name as it had been for hundreds of years.
When things had started going way south at home, it was my uncle and cousins who had driven the hundreds of miles to move me out here.
They’d never once made me feel like anything less than they are and, in fact, had gone above and beyond to make me feel like one of them.
Not a distant nephew and cousin but a son and brother.
Then I’d met her, and my life had changed for the better.
Whatever it was that had been missing in my dad’s life, that I was always afraid would be missing in mine too when the time came, was no longer a lingering fear.
She made me want to do amazing things just for her.
When I thought of my future now, all I saw was her smiling and happy.
And so I’d set out to make that shit happen.
I’d applied myself at school and had a set goal in mind from then ’til now.
Now I come home looking forward to burying myself inside her again after going without for a fucking year and find this shit.