4| WEDDING BELLS

DICE

Running late for my wedding was not the plan.

I was not known for being late at events, but today, I had a business to finish before I could head to the wedding venue. Almost an hour had passed and the bastard before me was still refusing to give me the answers I requested for. I needed to wrap this up.

I tilted my head to the side wordlessly and Ethan, one of my guards, slammed the heel of his metal gun against the fucker's temple. He yelped, and blood splashed on my navy blue suit from wherever. I bent to his level and meeting his tired eyes, I told him the words that usually did it for anyone,

"Since you are not ready to give us information on where your boss ran off to, I'll take care of it myself, but that would be after I visit your two children and pregnant wife, waste them, and bring the woman's head to you on a platter. I could make it gold, if you want." I saw the raw fear in his eyes before his face showed it. Bingo. Threatening with the family worked everytime. I could not care less about the threat myself, because I had no family, no weakness.

"No. Leave them alone." He spoke and I straightened up, replying,

"Then you know what to do."

He spilled the information I needed like a rhyme and when he was done, I lodged a bullet into his Adam's apple, then watched him breathe his last. It was always a sight, never got old.

"Tidy up." I told Ethan whilst wiping my hand clean, and then turned to leave, with Nate following behind me. We got into my car—a Mercedes-Benz C class, and Nate got in the driver's seat while I stayed behind.

Soon, we were on our way to the place that would mark the start of my revenge mission. I smirked at the thought. I'd waited for this moment for years.

"How many minutes have gone by?" I questioned. Nate spared a glance at his watch.

"Fifty minutes, boss." He told me. Fuck. I kept my cool, still and allowed my mind to wander to her. That night. I had been tempted more than once to find Liya and punish her, for not telling me she was a virgin, for letting me hurt her like that. But I could not bring myself to make the same mistake twice. 

I had not meant to fuck her that night, when I'd seen her drinking too much liquor at the bar, but when she told me she'd be fucking another man if I refused, I had no choice left. I told myself it was because I was a gentleman and didn't want her getting hurt. Lies.

That morning, when I'd found blood on the white mattress and on the used condom, I was hit with multiple emotions at once. One of which was pride. Pure, raw sense of pride and irrational possessiveness. I was her first. When I'd driven into her wet heat, I thought that the resistance I felt was simply because my dick was too huge for her tight pussy.

I was wrong, and it caused me to think about Liya more often than I wanted to. Even now, I couldn't wait to see her face again, see those emotions I was robbed of in the dark, plain on her delicate face. Was she still so utterly expressive?

I pressed my eyelids shut and opened them up after, chasing away the foolish thoughts I was having about her; my victim. The car stopped directly in front of the church, soon after.

I pushed the door open and got down, marching towards the building. My guards were already in place in front of the church, waiting to see if there was need to release bullets.

I knew Devin, my right hand man was behind this, he knew that I might be attacked even today, and it had a lot to do with the fact that I was the youngest to lead the English Mafia. A handful of people thought they could start up a challenge because of it. It was the reason I had more blood on my hands than I signed up for.

The muttering that'd been going on in the church died down the moment I walked in. My pitch black eyes immediately met her icy blue ones and I saw her fists squeeze, her fingers digging into her palm. I almost fucking smiled at the little gesture.

It showed that she was still the expressive princess I knew. Too bad she'd be getting married to a beast like me.

Aleksander glared at me as I progressed towards his daughter, and to that, I let a small smirk grace my lips. Oh, Aleksander, you should really have stopped me.

I reached her in large strides and invaded her space, causing her to move back two steps then swallow nervously. Liya was the definition of quiet beauty, if there was anything like it. With her almost white, blonde locks and icy blue eyes, she looked like a walking ice goddess.

Her freckles was hidden under her makeup—something that made me almost huff in distaste. Without touching Liya, anyone could see her baby soft skin. Her supple cleavage fucking smiled at me at the mere thought of her skin and my dick was already sporting a semi like a horny teenager—right after being brutally unresponsive for the past three weeks. I dismissed the thoughts and straightened.

Liya's eyes found the priest's and held, like she was having a private conversation with him to start the wedding immediately. I stared straight at her still, and she kept looking everywhere but me. It pissed me off just a tad bit, but I managed to contain my temper.

"Skip the vows, get straight to it." I told the priest and he looked like he was about to protest, but clamped his mouth shut when I met his eyes. The guests even gasped and Liya's face lit up in embarrassment, but I gave no reaction to the whole drama. He started then,

"Err.. Mr Dice Rexroth, do you take this woman, Miss Liliya Jeremiah Orlov as your lawful wedded wife?"

"I do." I spoke right away, and he turned to her. She shivered, in a way that would not be picked up by anyone, but nothing about this woman escaped me. The priest asked her now,

"Miss Liliya Jeremiah Orlov, do you take this man, Mr Dice Rexroth as your lawful wedded husband?"

She finally met my eyes then, her eyes shining with the obvious question; Why was I doing this? Wouldn't she like to know? After a long moment of silence and her fists still clenched with nervousness, she finally responded,

"I do."

The rings were handed to us and then the priest asked the crowd if there was anyone to object to our ‘holy matrimony’. My lips twitched as I heard the pitch silence, louder than the priest's silent plea for an objection.

The priest sighed almost sullenly, then spoke, "With the power vested in me by..." The priest continued and I watched Liya's face redden even more when she realized what was next. I wanted to steal the colour from her face and keep it as mine, that way, no one else would be able to see her blush, except me.

"... I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now kiss the bride." I leaned in, pressing my lips against hers and almost growled like a fucking animal when I tasted her.

I circled my palm around her throat and pulled her closer, allowing her fruity scent mixed with vanilla to invade my nostrils. Her lips trembled and she let out a small noise, but refused to open up, so I bit down on her bottom lip so hard that she gasped, finally giving me access. I kissed her savagely for a long while, before I felt her small hand pushing against my chest.

I reluctantly pulled away and she avoided my eyes again, looking extremely flustered. I'd fix that. I actually meant to plant a small peck on her rosy lips, but everything about this woman usually went overboard. I never even kissed women, so why did I despise being away from Liya's pouty lips?

The marriage was sealed after that and my wife turned and threw her flower behind her, leaving the hired bridal train to clamor for it. I took her hand then and pulled her with me towards my car. She allowed me to, smiling widely at anyone who stopped to congratulate us.

She had perfected the fake smile so much, it was almost impossible to detect how fake it was. She could have fooled me too, if I didn't know her so well. Liya snatched her hand away the moment we were inside my car. Nate started the engine and she turned to me sharply. I was tempted to stare at those swollen lips again, but I disciplined my eyes to meet hers.

"Why?" She questioned with a broken voice in that posh American accent, despite her Russian origin. I smirked, then answered,

"An eye for an eye, princess. Welcome to the start of your worst nightmare."