Her Reluctant Husband by Erica Marselas (summer beach reads txt) 📗

of something cracking I feel my knuckles split. “June told me what you did to her for years.”

“You’re going to believe her fairytales?” he mocks, with a laugh. There’s blood oozing from his nose and he’s laughing.

I squeeze my fist around his collar tighter, ready to beat that haughty look off his face. Till he stops breathing. But I need answers. I need to hear him tell me why.

“The only fairytales were the ones you were feeding me for years. Admit you took my sister from me. And the girl I love.”

He smiles and says nothing. I snap, my rage boiling over, and hit him, twice to the face and twice to the gut. He huffs to the blows, but he’s also making no effort to fight back, no kicking or swinging of his arms. Nothing. I stop. I’m out of control, ready to kill this psycho as he grins back at me with blood dripping from his face and no fucking care. “Damn, Alex. What’s wrong?” He coughs as he mocks me.

“Just fucking admit it. Tell me what you did. Why? Why my sister? Why June?” I yell.

“Not till you tell me where my fucking treasure is.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I grumble and thrust him into the wall, causing all the pictures on the mantel to fall. I’m not in the mood for his psychobabble. “I just want the fucking truth. What fucking treasure?”

“You commonly refer to her as Ju-Ju,” he sneers. His olive eyes blacken, and the smug armor he was wearing cracks to reveal something sinister. “I really hated you calling her that. It didn’t fit her. It’s why she became my sweetcheeks. Not only because she tastes so sweet, but fuck, nothing is as sweet as when her little ass turns red after a spanking.”

“You motherfucker.” I raise my fist to punch him and I’m not going to stop.

But this time he manages to grab my fist and shove me back. “I let you have fun. Get what you needed off your chest, now it’s my turn.” He lunges for me and gets me with a right hook to my chin before I can dodge him.

I stumble back, but I catch my footing and go to charge after him. I tackle him to the ground.

“Just so you know, she fucking wanted it. She always came back.” He knees me in the gut, and grips my shoulders overpowering me, rolling me to the ground. He’s now over me, smirking. “You know, I’ve had June like this many times before. I like her better though. Can you blame me? You’ve had that pussy. It’s good, right?”

I fucking see red. I buck my hips and wrench my hand free. I punch him in the face and knock him to his ass. I roll away from him.

He shakes his head, holding his nose. “Is that all you got?”

He manages to find his footing as I find mine.

“Trust me, it’s not. When you leave here, it’s going to be in a body bag.”

“Does your sweet Ju-Ju know about your rage?” He laughs and wipes his face, where his nose has started bleeding again. “Tell me, is she still as tight as she was before?” He mocks again. “As sweet?”

“Shut the fuck up.”

I stomp towards him and he raises his arm. It comes down and hits me in the neck and the world goes black.

When my eyes blink open, Deacon is sitting in front of me, looking smug as shit. “Welcome back. Have a nice little nap?”

Fuck!

I try to move to go after him, but there’s a sharp pitch on my wrist and I find I’m handcuffed to the radiator. “What the fuck?” I rub the side of my neck with my free hand. It’s fucking sore as shit. What did he do?

“It’s called The Brachial Stun. My dad taught me. Just enough to put you out for a minute. It was either that or I was about to put that geode to your head.” He points to the mantel where Liz’s large purple crystal geode sits. “Thing is, I’m not ready for you to leave in a body bag.” He smirks and stands up, my phone in his hand. “Guess you should have taken me down when you had the chance, but I knew you wouldn’t.”

“Just let me fucking go.”

“Don’t be fucking stupid, Alex. I came for my little sweetcheeks and I’m not leaving without her. If my dad didn’t force me to stay away from her for good with that damn restraining order, we would have never been in this mess. She would have already been with me, complying like a good girl. Not sharing our secrets. And not fucking married to you.”

“You’re fucking delusional.”

“Am I? I turned everyone against her. I mean, what I had planned was to just get rid of her. You ruined her that night you fucked her. I was so mad finding out you touched her. I knew you were in love with her, but I didn’t think you would ever go through with it. You were always whining about how young she was or how good you never were. I was almost willing to forgive her till I heard her and Kathleen talking at that party.”

“You son of a bitch.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“If she’s so ruined for you, just leave her alone. Go back to whatever hole you just crawled out of.”

“And let you have her?”

“Is that what this is about?”

“She was mine, Alex. Mine. I always wanted her, but you, even when you were fucking other girls, kept her on this leash, not letting anyone date her. Then you left, and you told me she was mine to take care of. You gave her to me. Told me to watch over her, remember? Yet you still drooled