Page 55 of Priceless
“Just lace it back up,” she said quietly. “I’m fine.”
“You are not fucking fine,” I said, guiding her over to the bed and sitting her down on it. The only reason I didn’t carry her over to it was because I didn’t want to hurt her back more. “And you’re certainly not going to be bleeding and in pain on your wedding night.”
I crouched in front of her and brushed the hair back from her face. She was so beautiful, and so frightened. As soon as her back was taken care of, I wanted to wrap her up in my arms and never let her go. “They made you wear this?” She opened her mouth, and I spoke again. “Don’t lie, princess. You’re our wife now. You’re ours. No matter what they did or said, it doesn’t matter.”
“Yes,” she finally whispered. “They made me wear it. Or something close.”
“How long?”
Her cheeks turned pink again, and I saw the way her hands dug into the bedspread. “You’ve never seen me without one.”
“Even at the gala?”
She nodded slowly.
This whole time? I bowed my head until it touched her knees. My voice sounded ragged. “Fuck, Ocean. Why?”
“Because you look like you,” she whispered. “And I look like this.”
Cameron came back with the kit in his hand. Sitting on the bed, he loosened the corset further and gently began cleaning her back. “You look like what?”
She shuddered when his hand came in contact with the first cut. I stood and took her hands. “Stand up for me, princess. We’ll get you cleaned up here in a second. I looked at Everett, and he stepped in with me as I gently took the corset off her and tossed it away.
Immediately Ocean’s hands came up to hide herself. I reached out and tilted her face up until she looked at me once more. “Let me see if I have this straight. They forced you into garments like that since we met you? Because they wanted to make you seem like less than you are?”
“I’m… not like most Omegas,” she whispered. “I’m not small.”
We already knew that. Had already handed her uncle his ass for daring to suggest she was anything less than perfect. I let my gaze fall down her body. She was luscious. Where she could have curves, she had them. Full breasts and thick thighs, a stomach which was round and soft, and the idea of getting lost between her legs made me so hard I was lightheaded.
“No,” I said. “You’re not. But where did you get the idea that’s what we wanted?”
Her eyes widened slightly, and Everett leaned in, brushing his nose along her jaw. “I already wanted to take a bite out of you, Omega. Seeing you naked has only made me more eager.”
Cameron stood, crowding behind her without aggravating the cuts on her back, so she could feel all three of us around her and believe it.
“It’s not a secret that we had to marry,” I told her. “We didn’t lie about that. And after everything is settled, if you don’t want to be our O— our wife, we’ll let you walk away,” I said, the words burning in my throat. “So it’s convenient for everyone. Just like we promised. But we’re selfish too, Ocean.”
“How so?” Less fear lurked in her eyes now, and more curiosity.
“We needed to marry. But we weren’t going to marry someone we didn’t like, and we never wanted to put our Omega through at least a year of being with someone she couldn’t stand. If we hadn’t thought this would work, we wouldn’t have married you.”
She gasped. “But— it was just because of the business deal. Right?”
Cameron leaned down to say it softly in her ear. “Fuck the business deal. We chose you. And fuck them for trying to make you less than you are.”
“I don’t understand.” She shook her head and took a breath. “Why would you…”
Everett growled low in his throat. “Why would we want you?”
She nodded.
I took her face in my hands. “Why wouldn’t we want you?” The fear was back, and I didn’t let it stay. “If there’s one thing I want from this marriage, other than to fulfill our contract, it’s to show you how wrong everything they’ve told you is. So when the time is up, you can decide what you want to do, knowing the truth.”
“When we decide,” she said.
“Of course.”
What she didn’t know was that we didn’t have to. We already knew we didn’t want her to go. She was ours, through and through. If she didn’t want this, we wouldn’t stop her. But I could sink my teeth into her shoulder and bind her to me right this second, and I would be fucking ecstatic.
