DASHIELL
I couldn't believe I was married.
I stared at the signatures on the marriage certificate, the black ink still fresh beneath the courthouse lights. Dashiell Harper. Alexander Astor. Two names side by side, legally bound in less than twenty minutes.
Calling what had happened a ceremony felt generous. There had been no flowers or music, only a bored clerk, a notary stamp and a small windowless room that smelled faintly of old coffee and printer toner. Alex and I had exchanged flat vows, signed where we were told, and somehow that had been enough to make him my husband.
My family stood behind me while I waited for our copies. Mom kept dabbing at her eyes with a tissue, Dad looked as though he'd aged ten years overnight, and Selene shifted awkwardly in her heels. Bianca had refused to come because she "couldn't stomach watching her brother sell himself," and I couldn't even blame her. I didn't particularly want to watch it either.
Gregory was the only person who had come for Alex.
No mother, siblings or friends. Just his father standing in a charcoal suit with his arms crossed, watching the proceedings with all the sentiment of a man overseeing a business transaction.
Mom reached me first and pulled me into a hug, her familiar perfume wrapping around me.
"My sweet boy," she whispered against my hair. "You didn't have to do this."
"I know. But I wanted to."
Dad rested a heavy hand on my shoulder when Mom released me. "We're proud of you, Dash. If it ever gets too much, you call us. Day or night."
"You're an idiot," Selene murmured when she hugged me next. "But I love you."
I managed a smile. "Love you too."
Across the room, Gregory leaned toward Alex and lowered his voice, although not enough to keep me from hearing him.
"Don't screw this up. We need their pediatric wing. Keep him in line."
Alex gave no response. He stood with his white coat draped over one arm, looking no more affected by his father's words than he had by our vows, until his dark eyes met mine across the room.
I looked away and accepted my copy of the certificate from the clerk.
Gregory gave my parents a curt nod before leaving, and Alex followed him into the hallway without waiting for me. After another round of hugs and a promise that I'd call, I went outside and found him already sitting behind the wheel of a black SUV.
He started the engine as soon as I climbed into the passenger seat.
I buckled myself in and folded my hands in my lap while the courthouse disappeared behind us. Alex said nothing, which left me with the hum of the engine, unfamiliar leather beneath me and the growing awareness that I had no idea where he was taking me.
My heart had been racing since the ceremony. Routine made sense to me. I liked knowing where I would wake up, what route I would take to work, where everything belonged and what would happen next. In one day, I had acquired a husband, agreed to leave Harper Regional and was now heading toward a house I'd never seen.
The silence wasn't helping.
"Um... I know this is weird for you," I began. "And we don't know each other, but I'm sure with—"
"Shut your mouth."
I stopped.
Alex continued driving without so much as glancing at me, and after a second I turned toward the window.
"Okay."
Buildings passed in a blur while I tried to ignore how much those two words had stung. I lasted a few minutes before irritation won.
"You don't have to be rude."
"Just like you weren't rude when you bargained with my father to have me like I was cattle at a market?"
Of course that was what this was about.
"I did this for my family. For our hospital." I turned toward him even though his attention remained on the road. "We were going to lose everything my parents built, including a hospital that treats hundreds of children every year. Your family offered help on one condition. Bianca wouldn't marry you, so I did. If you were in the same situation, wouldn't you do whatever you could for the people you love?"
"No."
The answer came so easily that I wasn't sure I'd heard him correctly.
"No?"
He offered nothing else, simply kept driving as though I hadn't asked him whether he would sacrifice anything for his own family.
I tried to make sense of that. "Okay, but—"
Alex slammed on the brakes.
The seat belt locked across my chest as the SUV veered onto the shoulder and stopped. Before I had recovered from the sudden movement, he killed the engine and turned toward me.
Then he leaned across the center console.
One hand braced against the back of my seat and the other against the dashboard, trapping me between his arms without actually touching me. Up close, he seemed even larger, his shoulders swallowing the space between us until I had nowhere comfortable to look except at his face.
"Let me make one thing very clear, little boy. You bought me. You put this ring on my finger. You wanted me, so now you have me."
My back pressed harder against the seat as he moved closer, bringing the faint scar along his jaw into focus.
"But don't think for a second that I care about your family, your hospital or your sense of duty. I don't feel guilt or obligation, and I sure as hell don't feel love."
His eyes dipped briefly to my mouth before meeting mine again.
"I can make your life very, very miserable, hubby. Every single day, until you're on your knees begging me to let you go." He let the threat hang between us before lowering his voice. "Or you can be good, learn your place, and maybe I'll decide to keep you instead of snapping your neck."
I couldn't tell whether he meant it.
That frightened me more than if he'd shouted.
Alex remained close enough that I could feel the warmth of his breath against my cheek, watching me with an unnerving calm before he finally returned to his seat and started the engine.
Neither of us spoke again.
I watched the city pass outside my window while the platinum band on my finger suddenly felt heavier than it had inside the courthouse.
Yesterday, Alexander Astor had been a condition attached to saving my family's hospital.
Today, he was my husband.
And I had absolutely no idea what he was capable of.