December (The Page Sisters Book 1) (9 page)

Maybe Miles has a Cinderella fetish.

Bliss begins to hum and toss flowers on the carpet. I fall in step with her, the silky petals under my feet feeling more like hot coals. I can’t believe I’m doing this. I don’t want to send the wrong message to Danny. I don’t want to encourage him into a proposal of any kind. He’s been gone for four years and we hardly know each other now. This is not what I want…

I look up from the trail of multicolored rose petals into Danny’s warm eyes. They draw me to him like a siren to a sailor, a moth to a flame. Instantly I’m mesmerized. Instantly I’m captivated. Instantly I hate all the reasons I love him.   

“Okay,” Bliss begins, pulling a long white ribbon from the pocket of her dress. “I will wrap your hands together while you guys say your vows.”

Danny clasps my left hand in his and I watch astonished as Bliss starts to wrap the ribbon around the spaces of our fingers and loops it around our wrists. Wrapping ribbons around our hands like this is an annual ceremony that my mom and Papa Pete take great pride in on the last night of December. Each year at the end of December Papa Pete ties each of my sisters’ hand-to-hand to an Oliver brother.

The Tying Ceremony represents luck, protection, and prosperity for each of the families. It’s sort of like a mini wedding. Everyone wears white. The girls wear flowy and elegant dresses. The guys wear crisp tuxedos. We rent the entire Huntersville resort out and Papa Pete performs it in front the gleaming lake with white paper lanterns flickering in every direction.

The ceremony is really beautiful and I’ve loved it since I was a child. Before I met Danny, I was tied to Gray and January. They said they never minded, but I felt other wise. I felt like I was intruding on something special between them. Everyone always had someone. July had Jarvis. May had Miles. January had Gray. It’s me that was always left out until Danny showed that gloomy night in September.

From age fifteen to eighteen I had him with me at every ceremony. I was tied to him. I was linked to him. I was given to him…until I wasn’t. He left me without a word, without a warning. He told Piper, though. And now he’s back and expects my life to stop, that I lay the world at his feet…

Not

going

to

happen.

“December,” he says softly, holding my gaze.

I stare at a savagely attractive man, a man dressed in an all white suit from the finest materials, a determined man that knows how to work his best attributes in his favor.

His dark hair stops at his ears; he needed a haircut three months ago. This man that stands before me has fire in his eyes. His irises blaze like scarlet embers.

“I love you. I love you with all of my heart, all of my mind, all of my soul. From the hairs on my head to the tips of my toes I love you, December. I’ve never loved another woman like the way I love you. You inspire me. You make me believe in magic again. I’m in awe of you. I only want you for the rest of my life.”

Liar
, I think.

Because his words are too much for me conceive if he’s not lying. If Danny isn’t lying, he fucking loves me in a way that only hurts me. And that’s more painful, more torturous than believing in the lie.

I smile up at him. “Danny Oliver, you drive me crazy. You drive me up the wall. You make me mad. But I’ve loved you since I first laid eyes on you. I’ve loved you since I was fourteen. But somewhere along the line, I saw who you were and my heart turned cold. Nonetheless, I will accept this marriage in the eyes of our niece.”

They both stare at me with matching confused expressions. “No, no, no,” Bliss refuses. “Your vows have to be sweet like Uncle Danny’s. You have to be nice to him on your wedding day.”

“Alright, alright,” I say, giving in. I look him in the eyes and take a deep breath. I’m about to dig deep and get uncomfortably real. “Danny, I love you and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you. I stare at you right now and I couldn’t be more grateful, more honored to have experience being loved by you. You make me feel safe, cherished, and loved.”

“That’s better, wife” he says through a lazy smile. “I knew deep down in that guarded heart of yours, you love me.”

Bliss nods in agreement. “Okay. By the power of princes and princesses everywhere, you may kiss December.”

He grins like he’s been waiting for this part. My heart flutters and my stomach dips. He lifts our tied hands and kisses my knuckles first, his topaz-colored eyes shimmering with something ravenous and wicked, yet gentle and kind. Then he moves close and tilts his head. I’m bathed in his pleasant warmth and I get butterflies in my belly.

I shut my eyes, trying to slow my breathing.

This

is

when

he

kisses

me.  

He suddenly seals his mouth over mine, enveloping my lips with his. I’m shocked at how soft and firm his lips are. And at how incredibly good and full they feel against my own. We keep the kiss PG with no tongue action because our six-year-old niece is watching us like a hawk. That doesn’t deter Danny from putting an arm around my waist and holding me close to him. We have our lips pressed together long enough for me to open my eyes and laugh against his mouth.

He smiles against my lips, looking into my eyes. “I get to have you for the rest of my life, little lady. No more running away, or denying me what’s rightfully mine.”

“Good luck, my friend,” I whisper into his ear.

Bliss shakes her digital camera at us. “Picture time!”

Two hours later Bliss falls asleep across Danny’s chest. She was on her third round of Frozen. I’m proud to say I know all the words to all the songs in this animated movie. He gingerly lifts her off him, tucking her in bed. He bends down to kiss her forehead.

I brush her hair back from her angelic face, kissing her cheek.

“We need to talk,” Danny whispers to me.

I nod and cut off Bliss’s TV and lamp, following behind him. He leads me to his room within this impressive mansion. Danny’s room consists of four plain white walls and a king-sized bed with TV. He hasn’t been here much to design it. It’s not like he would anyway. Unlike Miles, Danny doesn’t care much for glitz and glamour. Danny’s a soldier through and through.

He partly closes his door, then Danny eyes me for a solid moment. His gaze shifts down to my neck and lingers. He reaches up and touches my neck.

“How’d you get that bruise?”

“What bruise?”

He clenches his jaw and takes my hand, guiding me to the oval full-length mirror. His fingers lightly trace the fading yellowish-brownish marks on my neck.

I have to actually think about it. I bruise easily. Too easily. By the time I see them, I’ve usually forgotten how I got them.

“Me and Jarvis was fooling around,” I say more to myself.

His head jerks back, his brows furrowed. “Why did Jarvis have his hands around your neck?”

“We were only playing,” I whisper. “It’s nothing.”

Our eyes meet in the mirror and a dark emotion flares within the depths of his. It’s a fierce emotion that knows no bounds. It causes the hairs on the back of my neck to stand.

I shudder inwardly.

“That’s bullshit. It is something when he leaves marks on your skin. I’m going to talk to him about this. I’ve told him about putting his hands on women. He doesn’t listen. It’s time I’ve tried another tactic. Jarvis will learn.”

“It’s cool, Danny,” I say an indifferent tone. I face him and grab his arms, loving the steel hard strength beneath his soft golden brown skin. “Please listen to me. It’s nothing. If you talk to him about it, he’ll think I’m trying to wage war between you two when I’m not. If it makes any difference, his face looks far worse.”

The muscle in his cheek jumps. One of his hands slides up the side of my neck and sink into my hair. His fingers dig in deep and he grabs a fistful. A tingle of pain and something forbidden spikes through my scalp. Danny urges me close, pressing my forehead into the curve of his neck.

My hands fist in the sides of his suit jacket to keep me upright and steady when his warm lips skim across my temple.

“Jarvis hurt you. It means something to me. It means everything to me. You mean everything to me.”

“I kissed him,” I blurt out over the sound of my pounding heart.

He stills completely, nothing but the sound of his breath coming out of his nose. “You kissed who?”

“Josh,” I confess, my breath coming out in rapid spurts. “I kissed him. We went to the movies, and I kissed him. I liked kissing Josh. I might do it again.”

His hand in my hair tightens. I would groan out in the pain if the pulsing ache in my scalp didn’t feel so good. “Why are you doing this?”

“What do you mean?” I ask too innocently.

“Is this a game to you? Do you plan to get revenge for what I did to you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You do, December,” he says irritably in my ear. “When do you plan to stop? When will you get enough? Do want to hurt me like I’ve hurt you?”

I laugh callously into the skin of his throat. My fingers burrow firmly into his sides, hard enough for him to tense.

“Poor Danny. He comes home to find his sweet December has changed. He finds that she isn’t so sweet anymore. She’s changed for the better, sweetie.” My tone is condescending and spiteful. I kiss his throat and lift my head back to look into his heated eyes. I flash him a harsh smile, malevolence brewing deep within me. “But I would never hurt you, Danny. Not ever.” My voice is honeyed and dripping with sugar. My sweet tone doesn’t match my cold expression. He said those exact words to me when I was younger. He pledged the exact words to me right before he slept with Piper.

Yes
! Bitchy-bitch cheers.

The little girl inside of me sobs and tells me I’ve killed Danny.

He shrugs out of my arms so fast I have to balance myself to keep from falling. He stares at me like he’s seeing me for the very first time since he’s been home. He holds my gaze and swallows with effort, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

“I can see that I’ve hurt you. There are things I can’t undo. There are things I wish I could change. But more than anything I wish I didn’t promise you things that didn’t come true. I wish your father stayed, so you could have had the love of a man that you needed. I wish my fuckups didn’t make you into this bitter, hurtful, scornful woman you are today.”

I turn my back to him, my eyes watering.

He grabs my hand when I reach for the door, pulling me into his chest. I fight desperately when he wraps his arms around me. In the end my feeble efforts are laughable. He hugs me close to him and whispers into my hair, “Calm down, December.”

“Get off me,” I say through greeted teeth, pushing against a wall of muscle.

“Not until you calm down.”

“You know,” I murmur, “I bet I’m the first bride in history to fuck two men on her wedding night.”

He gradually moves back to look down at me, and I register immeasurable devastation in his eyes before his mask of impassiveness slides into place. He blinks twice, and my smile broadens.

I clasp his tortured face in my hands, kissing the corner of his mouth. “What’s the matter, baby? I hurt you? Tell you what. You can still have a go, if you want.”

Danny shakes me off again, taking a step back like he doesn’t want any part of me touching him.
His eyes are dark and feral. He stares at me like I’m the sickness of his heart. I am the sickness of his heart and he is poison to mine.

He works his jaw, his hardened gaze running down the length of me dressed innocently in this white princess gown. The dress makes me appear pure, which I’m not anymore. He’s finally aware of what I am. I’m a nightmare dressed like a dream fantasy.

“Come here, honey,” I whisper with a crook of my finger and an evil smile to match. “Let momma make it better for you.” I know I’m in deep shit when I make witty remarks about his mother. He played the father card, and I’m bold enough to throw it right back in his face.

Danny stares down at his boots and laughs grimly, then he looks up and charges forward. My back hits the mattress much faster than I expected. I’m not prepared for his attack. I’m breathless and stunned as he hovers above me. His powerful body is amped and drawn so tightly his energy and fury is palpable. His eyes are dangerously dark and distant yet precisely focused on my face, watching everything.

He swiftly wedges himself between my legs. Danny shoves the tulle of my skirt up to my hips while his other hand tears the thin material of my cotton panties off. The seams of the fabric harshly splitting apart are loud enough to be heard.

My heartbeat is deafening and a shiver of terror races through me. But I urge him on with my direct gaze, shooting hot daggers at him…until he flips me over on my belly. He turns me over as if he can’t stand the sight of my face, as if the very idea of me makes him sick and as if I’m not worthy enough to face him.

I’m repulsive to him.

I’m now face down, my cheek pressed into the mattress. My pulse skyrockets at the deafening sound of his zipper going down. The cool air hits my bare ass and then I feel the scorching heat of him behind me. Danny is scorching steel. I never thought that I would lose my virginity face down in a passionate hate-fuck.