TAM CORNELL WAS WITHOUT doubt the most intimidating person I'd ever met.
It wasn't just the size of him—though I was hardly short myself at five feet eight—but more the atmosphere around him. Most men would be intimidated upon meeting my father, but Tam had barely blinked. In fact, he'd seemed completely at ease, especially considering he was taking Marlon Wynter's only daughter under his roof. I thought back to all the boys, and later, men, I'd met as I'd been growing up. While, as a pre-teen and younger teen, I'd been a gangly redhead with braces that boys had completely overlooked. Once the braces had come off, and I'd finally developed a decent sized pair of breasts, they started to notice me. By sixteen, plenty had shown me interest, and there were some I'd liked as well, but when they realised who my father was, they'd run for the hills.
Tam clearly wasn't fazed in the slightest, but then I guessed he'd grown up in the same business. It was different for boys, though, wasn't it? They were expected to be tough, to take control and fight, where I'd always been made to feel as though my job was to sit pretty and be protected. I didn't
like it, but I lurked in the background, mostly unseen, learning whatever I could about my father's business. Whatever my father thought, he wouldn't be around forever, and I'd always figured things would come to me one day. Of course, I hadn't anticipated being married into another crime family. If anything happened to my father, would it automatically become Tam Cornell's once we were married? Or would everything go to Jayden now, even though I was the eldest, and was the one who had my head screwed on right. This was an important discussion we'd need to have before it came to that.
My stomach twisted with nerves. I didn't want to be left here in this big house. I wanted to go home. But I didn't voice my thoughts.
When my father had said goodbye to me, he'd leaned in and placed a
kiss to my cheek, and at the same time, his fingers had wrapped around my
wrist. As he'd pulled back, he'd spoken low in my ear. "You're doing this for family, Hallie. Don't let me down."
I sucked in a breath and faced Tam. I needed to be strong now. Men like Tam didn't do well with weakness, and if I showed him even a hint of it, he'd use it against me.
"Right," I said, lifting my chin, "are you going to show me to my room?"
A slow smile spread across Tam's face. I had to admit, with his square jaw and full lips, he was annoyingly attractive. "You're going to be my wife, sweetheart. Your room is my room."
What? He expected me to share a bed with him? "Umm, I don't think so."
"I don't care what you think. I'm not having the woman who's going to be my wife sleeping in a separate bed to me. Who do you think I am?"
"I know who you are, and I want my own room. Look at the size of this place. It's not as though you don't have space."
He smirked. "Maybe I don't want space." "Maybe I do," I shot back.
He raised a thick, dark eyebrow. "Is this where you ask to go home,
little girl? Do I have to phone daddy before he's barely made it to the end of the road? You're actually fucking disappointing me at this point. I thought you'd last longer than ten minutes."
I scowled at him. "No, you don't have to phone anyone." Damn it. He had me up against a wall. I didn't have any choice—just like with everything else in my life.
"Fine. Show me to our room."
He glanced down at the bags at my feet. "I'll take those for you." He hauled them up as though they weighed nothing instead of the mountains of toiletries, books, and framed photographs I'd brought from my room. If I
was going to have to stay in this place, I at least wanted it to feel like my home, too.
"Oh, look," I said, lightly. "You can be a gentleman." I was using sarcasm as a means of defence.
He snorted. "Don't get fucking used to it."
My stomach twisted as I followed his broad back to the staircase, and then upstairs. As I'd predicted, there were plenty of bedrooms, but Tam wanted me in with him. I knew what that meant. He'd want to have sex
with me—no, he'd fuck me. It wouldn't be sex or making love, or any of
the other names for it. It would be fucking, purely so he could do whatever he could to ruin Marlon Wynter's daughter.
Despite myself, a rush of tingles flooded between my thighs, and my nipples tightened under my t-shirt. I'd had a taste of Tam Cornell three
years ago, but it was something I'd tried to block from my mind. Was he thinking about that night, too? I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking out the sight of Tam's hard backside in his jeans and the way his shoulders filled his shirt. God, he was so much older than me and clearly had more experience. The thought terrified me.
He moved with a slight limp, favouring his left leg. I wondered what had happened there.
He led me into the bedroom. It was huge—bigger than my room back at the hotel. A four-poster bed took up prime position in the centre. He set the suitcase down on the side closest to the window.
"This is the side you'll sleep on. Got it?" "I assume I don't have much choice."
He turned to me with a cold smile. "Good, you're learning."
I inhaled and forced myself to tear my eyes from the space where I was going to be sleeping that night—or not sleeping, as the case may be. Even if Tam decided to leave me alone, I still doubted I'd get much rest. Sleep had been near impossible since the wedding. Every time I closed my eyes my mind filled in the blank space behind my eyelids with Harvey Cornell's ruined face and the disbelief in his eyes as he'd dropped to his knees. I couldn't eradicate the sensation of his blood dripping down my face, and
the moment sleep tried to claim me, it would be back again, and I'd lurch upright, my heart pounding as I wiped away blood that was no longer there. I'd scrubbed my face over and over after I'd been bundled from the wedding and taken home. My skin had been tender and sor
e afterwards, but it hadn't helped.