Curtis I had three meetings back-to-back but I couldn’t focus on any of them. My mind kept wandering to what I imagined Angelica’s face would look like when she found out she was going to get waxed. She didn’t strike me as the kind of woman who would ever think about having a bikini wax, let alone get one on her wedding day. My phone flooded with text messages and I burst into laughter. I knew she was exploding in anger. When the meeting finally ended, I gave her a call. “You despicable maniac!” She growled on the other end. I could picture her cheeks flushed in rage. Angering my wife-to-be was way too much fun. “How does your pussy feel, Mrs. Arciero?” I taunted. “Don’t you fucking call me that! Thanks to you, I feel naked.” I tipped my head back in laughter. “You were going to be naked one way or another tonight. It’s simply a matter of it happening earlier.” That would teach her not to defy me. And now, for the hardest part. “You can spend the next hour doing whatever you wa
Angelica. I couldn’t believe Curtis had bribed the receptionist for me. He had only called me back into the hospital without talking about how he had convinced the receptionist but based on the happy smile smile she flashed me when I came back, I knew there was only one way he could have done it. Of course, I was not stupid enough to think he was doing it for me. It was all for himself. He was covering up everything I could possibly use as an excuse to call off the wedding. It didn’t matter. I thanked him and followed the nurse’s lead to Nana Simone’s room. The receptionist had lied about some mix up happening that was their fault, and them having to let us visit her if they didn’t want the press outside their gates the following day. She was sleeping when we walked in. I didn’t think Curtis wanted to see her too but it turned out, he was serious about seeking her blessing. I ignored him. I only had ten minutes and I was not wasting a single one of them arguing with him. “Nana,”
Curtis I was getting married. Would anyone ever believe that? It seemed like my bride didn’t believe it either. She looked nothing like everyone described brides. They were supposed to be looking like the most beautiful version of themselves, smiling and unable to hold back their happy tears. My bride only looked like a third of that. She was breathtaking. I knew I was poking at a wounded bear when I chose the feathery, fluffy gown that was deliberately the exact opposite of what she had described to Siren, but I didn’t think she would look so beautiful in it. Her hair was in an up-do with a long veil hanging off her floral diamond clip. Aside from that, she wore no jewelry and certainly no ounce of makeup. I knew that was her attempt at trying to defy the norm of weddings, telling me she would not put in any extra effort for a wedding she didn’t want. Not that it changed much, she still looked so beautiful that I couldn’t tear my eyes off her. Which is exactly why I caught her e
AngelicaMaybe I shouldn’t have lost my temper. Since I yelled at Curtis to not touch me, he had shown me to the guest room and disappeared down the hall to where I knew the master bedroom must be. As expected, he gave strict instructions. I was not to go anywhere that was not the kitchen or living area. I shouldn’t touch any single thing that wasn’t mine. Spider would help me move my things from Nana Simone’s apartment as soon as we moved into our marital home but at least I had toiletries and a bed. A humongous bed with white sheets and pillows, to be exact. Curtis’s apartment was beautiful, but it was too bland for my liking. Everything was either white, black, or silver, with white being the most dominant. I liked a little bit of color. I knew as soon as I stepped into the guest room that I wasn’t going to have much sleep. Aside from the fact that I couldn’t fall asleep in a bed I was not comfortable in, I was quite aware of the fact that I had stepped into the enemy’s lair wit
Curtis Angelica recoiled at a speed that was nearly comical. She scurried quite fast for a woman who was so curious about me. “Thank you for sharing yoru food with me,” she quickly stated. I imagined her cheeks flushed as she spoke before she tried to make her escape. I grabbed her hand before she could get past me. I was just as shocked as she was. I didn’t want to spend an extra minute next to her, so why the hell was I stopping her? “I don’t expect Maverick to waste a single minute before coming over to bombard us with questions.” I pulled an excuse out of thin air. “Oh,” she silently agreed. “I believe you don’t have any problem pretending to know me. You do have a lot of information up your sleeve.” I was taunting her, and her expression only made it more fun. She looked like she wanted to bolt away, like I was a wolf trying to trap her in my cage. Maybe I did want to trap her, just to see how long she would pretend to be helpless before she started trying to claw her way o
She snorted in response to my words. “You are not going to see my dress on the floor ever.”I shrugged as though that didn’t matter but deep down, I wanted to ask a billion more questions about her. It was a good thing that we were visiting my family because that gave me an excuse to ask more questions about her. “Why do you hate being called Angel?” I asked.She frowned. We had been talking about something entirely different before I sprang the question out on her, so I understood her confusion. After seconds of trying to make sense of what I was asking, she sat on the couch farthest from me.“If I remember correctly, you only asked questions about me last night. It should be my turn to ask the questions today.”“Tonight,” I suggested. “I asked my questions at night. If you want to get to know me, find me in the dead of night and I will tell you everything you want to know.She didn’t believe it. To be honest, I didn’t either. I hated it when people knew more than necessary about me
Angelica This wasn’t as bad as I thought. The Arciero family was not welcoming in the slightest. Not that I expected them to be friendly to me when we all knew what my presence meant. They were ready to dig their claws into my flesh within a minute of my arrival.The only good thing that came out of it was getting to know my in-laws better. It only took half an hour to learn that Meghan and Miles had a worse relationship than Miles and Curtis. Meghan was to Miles exactly what he was to Curtis—the illegitimate child who destroyed his parents’ marriage. Meghan’s mother had disappeared two years after her wedding and her body had been found in the woods later, and Meghan blamed Miles’s mother. To be fair, it could be any of Fergus’s innumerable women. Not that it mattered. If I could use my in-laws as weapons against each other, I would enjoy the show without getting my hands dirty. My brother-in-law couldn’t keep his eyes off me. It made my skin crawl. I generally hated male attentio
“What the hell were you doing with Miles?” He asked again, despite having figured out that his brother was trying to make it seem like we had something going on.This time, I gave the answer I should have in the beginning. “I was looking for you. He said you would be here.” “Like hell I would.” He glared at me so hard I thought he was going to take out his fury on me. Not that I would let him. He toned it down but only to give me a stern warning. “Stay away from Miles no matter what you do. It will not end well with that scumbag in the picture.” ‘It will end in flames,’ I thought. I nodded. “Whatever you say, husband.” I had meant to tease him and the look on his face made it all the more worth it. He looked confused, puzzled and, annoyed at the same time. He didn’t say anything about it, probably because he wanted to pretend that didn’t happen. I led the way down the hallway and thought we were going back downstairs until he grabbed my hand and shoved me into the room I had just