His Drakon Runaway Bride. Tara Pammi

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СКАЧАТЬ two years, since Father let it slip that you were alive, I’ve been waiting for this moment.

      “I will be crowned King of Drakon soon and I need my wife by my side. I have come to take you home to Drakon.”

      Her gaze searched his, desperate. What little fight had been there seemed to deflate out of her. As if she was shrinking right in front of his eyes. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

      He touched her then, tracing the delicate line of her jaw with the tip of his forefinger. Her skin was silky smooth to his touch, a faint tremor running through it. “But you already know I have no sense of humor.”

      “You...can’t...” her breath came in little gasps “...do...this.”

      Her thin body going slack against him, his wife did what she’d always forced him to do. She fainted and forced him to catch her. Forced him to hold her fragile body in his, before he was ready for any such contact. Feeling fear, and panic and a hundred other emotions that he’d never had encountered otherwise.

      Her gown’s bodice was so tight that Andreas drew his pocket knife out of his coat and cut the front off. The blue tinge around her mouth began to recede, his own panic fading with it.

      He easily lifted her slender form and made his way to the waiting car, icy anger thawing and giving way to shock.

      She might not have changed outwardly but there was something different about her. Something fragile and fractured. Almost as if there was a piece missing.

      He’d expected a radiant, carefree bride, ready to ride into another adventure with another man she’d sucked in with her effervescent personality, with her vivacity and wit. He’d expected her to be living it up in some party town with the money she’d taken from his father.

      He hadn’t expected this...this waif, with bruises under her eyes, working away all hours at a nonprofit legal agency. She made barely any money. She shared a one-bedroom apartment, the size of his closet, with another woman. He’d have never believed that silly, rebellious girl would have the interest to study law much less the grit to get a degree and practice.

      Barely out of breath, he slowly lowered her into the seat and slid into place next to her.

      Every savage promise he’d made himself that he’d make her suffer crumbled as he gathered her body into his.

      Once again, all his plans turned to dust by the infuriating woman.

      Just as she had been able to make him laugh, make him long for something he had never known back then. Make him lose his mind in the desperate need to possess her.

      All through that summer, Ariana had wielded some kind of magic over him.

      That laughing, reckless girl had shattered through to his core, given him a taste of an unparalleled joy he’d never known.

      And so he’d done the unthinkable and married her when it had been time to leave. Possessing Ariana had equaled holding that joy in the palm of his hand. It had meant being something more than the Crown Prince, something he hadn’t even realized he’d needed to be until then.

      He had forgotten who and what he was, he had clung desperately to that feeling, had thought it enough to have her in his life.

      Except it hadn’t been enough for her.

      With that same recklessness that had lured him to her, she had destroyed their lives. It was that same girl he had expected to find today.

      But she was right.

      This was not the Ariana he had met that summer, the Ariana he had married.

      And yet, letting her go was not an option.

      * * *

      Ariana came awake slowly, her throat parched, her mind blank. Air filled her in quick, choppy bursts.

      “Drink this.”

      Ignoring the questions buzzing through her head, she took the bottle and drank the water. It was cold and crisp, what she desperately needed.

      “Iedas Mountain Springs,” the label on the water bottle said, with a small sketch of the majestic mountain range in Drakon... Drakon!

      She jerked upright. Cream leather walls greeted her, understated luxury permeating the ambience. Soft lights from the ceiling cast a golden glow around the cabin.

      Cabin... She was in the rear cabin of a private jet—a jet that belonged to the blasted House of Drakos.

      The events of the afternoon came back in a fast reel.

      Andreas had said they were still married.

      Andreas had said he was going to take her back to Drakon.

      Andreas had caught her when she’d fainted.

      The panic felt like ants crawling all over her skin. She pushed her legs out and stood up. The cabin tilted but she had to get out of here.

      The slither of her dress, her wedding dress, alerted her. She looked down, found the corset cut neatly down in the middle. The beaded bodice hung open through the center, gaping open to reveal her slip and the shadow of her breasts.

      Ariana held it up with both hands and forced her Jell-O legs to move.

      Before she took another step, he was before her.

      A man as hard as the rock on which his palace sat. Yet, as she looked at him now, there were white lines around his mouth, and he was not so solid.

      “Why am I here? What is that sound?”

      “They’re readying for takeoff.”

      “No!”

      “Sit down, Ariana.”

      “Get out of my way.”

      “You’re in no shape to go anywhere.”

      “I swear, Andreas, if you don’t move out of my way—”

      His fingers gripped her arms, exerting pressure backward. “Calm down before you faint again!”

      “How dare you? You bastard!” Ariana let her hand fly.

      The crack of her palm against his cheek was like a pop of thunder, leaving an utter silence behind. She clutched her wrist with her left hand, shock jarring it. Breathing hard, she looked up.

      He hadn’t even touched his jaw. Except for the tight clench of it, the little jerk of his head, he showed no reaction to what she’d done. He still supported her.

      “Does that conclude this episode to your satisfaction, Ari?”

      Her shortened name made her breath catch. “I will not apologize.”

      He shrugged.

      That casual gesture was like fuel to her rage.

      “You’re СКАЧАТЬ