I Thee Take: To Have and To Hold Duet Book Two by Knight, Natasha (ready to read books .txt) 📗

floor and he’s tall. Well over six feet.

I want to scream. I want to open my mouth and scream for help but when I do, nothing comes. No, a sound more pathetic that nothing.

Am I dreaming? Is this a dream, a nightmare I’m trapped in?

But some part of my brain remembers that it knows these robes. Ceremonial. My father had worn one once. I’d been terrified when I’d seen him too.

We remain like that neither he nor I moving, me not even breathing. He has an advantage. He can see my face. See my terror. I can’t see his.

Him.

It’s a man. His height and build give that away. More reason to scream if only sound would come. Where is my brother now when I need him?

I stare wide-eyed as he takes a step toward me and when he does, the light just touches his face. But it’s even more terrifying then because he’s wearing a black half-mask and what I glimpse of his face is impossible.

“Wh…what—”

“Ivy Moreno.”

Cold, bony fingers seem to crawl along my spine at the deep tenor of his voice and I visibly shudder. The devil's touch. It’s what Sister Mary Anthony used to say when that happened. I make the sign of the cross. Habit.

That makes him laugh. It’s an ugly laugh. Short and unamused and hard.

I rub my eyes wanting to wake up but when I open them again, he’s still there. Closer even.

“How do you know my name?”

“You don’t remember me, Ivy? I didn’t make an impression? I’m offended.”

“I...I don’t—”

“You’ll be my wife,” he continues as if I hadn’t stammered my feeble attempt at a response. “It would be strange if I didn’t know your name, don’t you think?”

His wife?

I peer closer. This is Santiago De La Rosa? Why is he wearing that cloak? The mask? It's for ceremonial purposes only. Worn by the founding family members. Males only. And only when tradition dictates it. They'd lent my father a similar cloak when he’d attended one such event. I still remember his excitement even when my sister and I had been terrified to see him in it.

But there’s a more pressing question. What the hell is Santiago De La Rosa doing in my room at two in the morning?

Then I remember hearing Abel out in the hallway at some point this night. I remember being irritated that he was making so much noise he’d woken me.

Did Abel let him in here?

“What do you want?” I ask.

I can just make out how his eyes roam over me and I look down at myself. I’m wearing a T-shirt and panties, one foot up on the bed, the other dangling off it. I pull both in, gather up the blankets.

“No need for that,” he says, stepping closer still to take the edge of the blanket and tug it slightly off me. “I came to give you something.”

I press harder against the wall when he steps to the edge of the bed. He takes a moment to look at the ornate frame, all the pink.

“A bit childish, isn’t it?”

“What do you want with me?”

He looks down at me and I don’t know if I see or imagine a grin. Don’t know if I imagine the skeleton that peers closer as I back into the corner.

“Oh, that’s no way to behave with your husband-to-be, sweet Ivy.” He sits on the edge of the bed, inches closer.

“What do you want?” I scream it thinking surely Abel will come. Surely someone will help me.

But nothing. No one comes. I am alone with this man.

He exhales like he’s disappointed, then reaches out, touches the tips of his fingers to my cheek, slips them to my neck where my pulse beats wildly.

I keep the back of my head pressed to the wall.

I’m dreaming. I must be. But he feels so real.

“What do you want?” I ask, this time in a quieter voice, a frightened one.

“I already told you that,” he starts, voice low and deep.

He takes my hand, his fingers like a vise around it and pulls it toward him. His touch is ice-cold. Maybe it is the Grim Reaper after all.

“I have something for you.”

He stretches out my hand, reaches into his pocket then, as I watch in shocked silence, he forces a ring onto my finger.

“What—”

It’s too tight but he doesn’t stop until he gets it past the knuckle, the ring icier than his finger.

“There.” He releases me.

I pull my hand back and look at it. At the large teardrop-shaped dark stone on my finger. At the skeleton like fingers that seem to hold the huge rock in place. Like bones. I glance at him then instantly try to pry it off.

“It’s no use,” he says, watching me.

I still try. I don’t want this. I don’t want any of it. And when he moves to stand, I swear I see that smile again. A dead man’s smile.

I feel blood drain from my head, my vision fading as the room begins to spin.

“You belong to me now, Ivy Moreno, for better or for worse. Until death do us part.”

One-click Requiem of the Soul Now!

Also by Natasha Knight

The Society Trilogy

Requiem of the Soul

Reparation of Sin

Resurrection of the Heart

To Have and To Hold Duet

With This Ring

I Thee Take

Dark Legacy Trilogy

Taken (Dark Legacy, Book 1)

Torn (Dark Legacy, Book 2)

Twisted (Dark Legacy, Book 3)

Unholy Union Duet

Unholy Union

Unholy Intent

Collateral Damage Duet

Collateral: an Arranged Marriage Mafia Romance

Damage: an Arranged Marriage Mafia Romance

Ties that Bind Duet

Mine

His

MacLeod Brothers

Devil’s Bargain

Benedetti Mafia World

Salvatore: a Dark Mafia Romance

Dominic: a Dark Mafia Romance

Sergio: a Dark Mafia Romance

The Benedetti Brothers Box Set (Contains Salvatore, Dominic and Sergio)

Killian: a Dark Mafia Romance

Giovanni: a Dark Mafia Romance

The Amado Brothers

Dishonorable

Disgraced

Unhinged

Standalone Dark Romance

Descent

Deviant

Beautiful Liar

Retribution

Theirs To Take

Captive, Mine

Alpha

Given to the Savage

Taken by the Beast

Claimed by the Beast

Captive’s Desire

Protective Custody

Amy’s Strict Doctor

Taming Emma

Taming Megan

Taming Naia

Reclaiming Sophie

The Firefighter’s Girl

Dangerous Defiance

Her Rogue Knight

Taught To Kneel

Tamed: the Roark Brothers Trilogy

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