“We went out to lunch. He wanted to get to know me. I told him we met at Bible study. Told him who my father was.”
My stomach twists hard, a balled knot lodging itself under my ribcage. I know where this is going. My father couldn’t have dreamed up a more perfect suitor for his twenty-two-year-old daughter. My mothers haven’t shut up lately about the fact that I should be married by now, and my father stopped silencing their commentary several months back.
“He asked how I felt about plural marriage, and that’s when I knew you were my destiny.” Cortland’s hand hooks behind my neck, and he pulls me toward him. His lips graze mine, and I feel him smiling. “My family is polygamous, too. Bellamy. You should’ve told me. I believe wholeheartedly in the principle of polygamy. I would be honored to take you as my first wife.”
The car is hot. Suffocating. His cologne makes my stomach churn.
I don’t know if this is a good time to tell him I wholeheartedly do not believe in the principle of polygamy. All I know is I need to get out of here.
Now.
“Take me home.” I move toward the handle of the passenger door, but he grabs my hand, pinning me against the seat.
“Bellamy, stop. You’re being ridiculous. Keep sweet. That’s all you have to do. Keep sweet, and I’ll take care of you. Submit to me. Marry me. Have my babies. We’ll expand our family when the time is right. This is the only path for us.” He produces his argument like he’s speaking undeniable truths. “This is what Heavenly Father wants for us. I feel it in the deepest part of my soul.”
He sounds like my father on his craziest of days, when the ranting and quoting and paraphrasing booms from his mouth to God’s ears.
My heart races until the blood whooshes in my ears, and my head fills full of a thought-drowning thickness.
“You don’t want to marry me, Cortland.” I jerk my wrist, but he’s gripping it hard, unwilling to free me. “I’m all wrong for you. I’m not the submitting type.”
“Sure you are.” He releases my wrist for a second and then squeezes tighter. “Might take some work, but we’ll get there.”
“Maybe I don’t want to submit.”
“Maybe you don’t have a choice.” His eyes flash in a way that chills my soul.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
His answer comes in the form of an egotistical leer, one that implies he’s much craftier than I ever gave him credit for.
“Are you blackmailing me?” I lean away, or at least as much as I can. My back presses against the seat until there’s no more give in the upholstery.
“I want you, Bellamy. I have to have you. I’m the only man who’s ever felt you from the inside.”
Right. With your fingers.
“I’m the only man who’s ever tasted you. I’m the only man who’s ever commanded your body, pleasured you, and that’s why you keep coming back to me.” He leans closer to me, running his mouth across mine before taking a single, biting kiss. “I want the rest of you, which means you have to marry me. And I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that happens.”
“Take me home, Cortland.” I wriggle out from underneath him, jerking my wrists from his grasp and lunging for the door. The second the fresh air hits me, uncontrollable shivers run the length of my body.
The click of the opposite passenger door fills the empty parking lot. I stand frozen as he climbs into the driver’s seat and then rolls down the window next to me.
“Get in, Bellamy. I’ll take you back.”
I’m powerless in this moment because my car is several miles across town, and I do not own a cell phone. Calling my sister, Waverly, for a ride will just get me into even more trouble at home, and the last thing I need is for my father to be asking why I was on the south side of town, when I was supposed to be at Bible Study.
I climb in, slamming the door hard.
The drive across town is a mixture of muted thoughts and road noise. By the time he pulls into the church parking lot, my car is the only one left. According to the clock on the dash, I’m going to be thirty minutes late going home, which means regardless, I’ll still have my father’s wrath to deal with.
I can’t win.
Cortland pulls up beside my car, reaching over to place his hand atop my knee.
My body responds to his touch with a delayed flinch.
“Tonight, you’ll tell your father that I approached you after our studies, and we lost track of time as we spoke. You’ll arrange a time for me to meet everyone, and then we’ll begin our official courtship.” He speaks as if he’s had this planned for a while.
I should’ve known where this was headed when he signed his Valentine’s Day card with a heart and “Love forever, Cortland.” All along I thought I was dealing with some love-struck puppy dog, not a sadistic maniac.
Guess I thought wrong.
“Submit to me, Bellamy. No one else can love you the way you need to be loved. Only me. The sooner you accept that, the happier you’ll be.”
Marrying Cortland, or anyone else like him, would breathe life into my darkest nightmare.
My body buzzes with paddle-shock intensity. None of my thoughts makes sense, and I’m not certain I could form a complete sentence if forced. In all those months of sneaking around, never once did I consider this to be a possible outcome.
“I’m going to marry you by the end of the year,” he says. He releases his hand from my lap and rubs it across the smooth plastic of his steering wheel. I hate the slick sound it makes against his palm. “And Bellamy?”
I respond with silence.
“I strongly advise meeting me halfway with this. I don’t think your father would appreciate the truth.”
“So you are blackmailing me.”
“I like to think of it as saving your soul.”
I can save my own soul, thank-you-very-much.
“Whatever helps you sleep.” I lurch for the door handle before he has a chance to stop me, and I slam the door the second I’m free. I hear his voice, but I refuse to listen to the endless spewing of venomous threats fused with scripture.
I’ll do what I have to for now because if he’s not bluffing and he does tell my father everything, I’ll be married off in a heartbeat.
And I know that marriage will be with someone ten times worse than the twisted control freak with the talented tongue and deceptively gorgeous green gaze.
I scramble for my car, taking with me a handful of things I know to be true.
I would sooner die than marry Cortland McGregor.
I refuse to submit to him or any other man.
I’m going to get out of here as soon as possible, no matter what it takes.
ONE
BELLAMY
“I’m sorry. Your interview was yesterday.”
“No, no.” I yank my planner from my bag and slap it across the marble reception desk, my cheeks burning behind the blanket of hair that falls into my face. I refuse to believe this is happening. “It’s today. My professor set this up last week. The first Tuesday in April.”
The receptionist’s desk phone rings shrill and intrusive. She points a finger straight up in the air and takes the call. I’m flipping through the pages of my planner like a crazy person, page after page of March dates finally bring me to the current month, and several pages later, I’m staring at today’s date.
The page is blank.
I blink as if my eyes are the ones who have deceived me.
It’s all their fault.
“No.” I run my palm across the smooth, traitorous page, dragging in a haggard breath before I flip backward to Monday.
Monday, April 6th – 10:30 AM, Interview with Randy Mutchler, RJM Corporation
“This has got to be a mistake. This is not like me at all. I’ve never been late for so much as a doctor’s appointment.” I’m rambling, words flowing straight from my frazzled brain to my tingling lips. The stale lobby air nearly suffocates me. “I’m sorry about this. Is there any way at all he could maybe still see me today?”