Marriage of Convenience

I was bored. I hadn’t been married quite a week and, as it turned out, living a life of luxury was boring. Not that I wanted to go back to being poor and struggling, but I definitely needed to find something to fill my time. My goal in life had been to get an education and a good job. To that end, I had an internship that I enjoyed for the week I was there. Maybe I could still help Chase instead of sitting idle all day or shopping. I didn’t grow up to be a kept woman. If I was pregnant, I wanted to show my child that hard work and having goals and a passion were important. I hoped Chase didn’t fight me on that. I didn’t want to raise a spoiled brat. Chase was definitely spoiled, but he did seem to have some sense of right and wrong. He didn’t seem entitled, at least not too much.

On Thursday morning, unable to take the boredom any longer, I decided to visit Chase at his office. A man had to eat right? Maybe I could entice him to have lunch with me. Wouldn’t a real wife do that sort of thing?

I dressed in my Mrs. Raven clothes, a pretty seafoam green dress that fitted over my curves but wasn’t risqué. I wore cute strappy sandals and opal earrings. I considered putting my hair up, but my goal was to look like I fit with the Raven family, not like I was a stuffy old woman.

I called James and asked him to pick me up and take me to the Rookery Building. I sat back in the car, reflecting on how much had changed in two weeks. When arrived in New York City, I was alone and barely had two nickels to rub together. Now I had a husband and twenty-five thousand dollars a month. Perhaps I even had a baby growing inside me. It seemed to me something would be wrong if I didn’t, considering the amount of sex I’d had with Chase.

James pulled up to the curb outside the Rookery and then got out and opened my door. “Do you want me to wait for you, Mrs. Raven?”

I always inwardly snickered when he called me that. He wasn’t much older than me, and it was strange having a peer call me Mrs. Raven. I might have told him to call me Sara, except I worried that would break some sort of rich-people’s rule.

“No, thank you James. I’ll call or have Mr. Raven make arrangements for me.”

“Very well.” He got back in the car and pulled away from the curb.

I stood on the sidewalk, looking up at the building. Someday all this would be my child’s. Oh, how I hoped it would make him or her happy. Chase seemed to love his work, but what if our child wanted to do something else?

I was about to enter the building, when all the hairs on my neck stood on end. I wasn’t sure if it was an energy or maybe a scent, but all of a sudden, those old feelings of wariness and fear filled my body.

I looked up the walk one way. Nothing there. I turned to look the other way.

“Glenn.” My heart leapt to my throat. I stepped back, wanting to avoid him but his fingers wrapped around my arm and gripped hard.

“Where have you been, Sara?” Menace laced his tone.

“How did you find me?” I swallowed, trying not to show fear. He wouldn’t do anything crazy on a busy street would he?

“I’ve been calling you. I finally found a professor who said you were here doing an internship. You didn’t ask me if you could do that.”

I worked to pull my arm from his grip. “We’re done, Glenn. We’ve been done for a while. I told you that.”

His eyes turned hard and dark. “You don’t get to break up with me.” He readjusted and tightened his grip. “You’re mine. I’m taking you home.” He started to pull me as he headed back up the street.

“Let go, Glenn, I’m not going with you.” I pulled my arm back, but his grip was too tight.

“You don’t have a say, Sara. I thought you understood all that.” He stopped, but kept his hand squeezing my arm. “You’re mine, remember? We’re going to get married. Have babies. We have plans. You don’t get to change them. Not without my permission.”

Fear and anger mixed. Why hadn’t I listened to my inner warning when I met him that something wasn’t right. Glenn was possessive and controlling. I was in New York to get away from all that. For a moment last weekend, I’d wondered if I signed up for it again when Chase started telling me what I could and couldn’t wear. I remembered closing down emotionally as I wept on the inside that I made the same mistake I’d made with Glenn.

But Chase wasn’t like Glenn. He wasn’t controlling. He allowed me to express myself without fear of being demeaned or hurt. Sure, he had expectations, but so far, they weren’t unreasonable. He was right, I should look like I fit with him in how I dressed.

“I’m not yours Glenn.” I tried again to get away.

He leaned forward, his face red with anger. He gripped my other arm and with both hands shook me until my teeth rattled. “You fucking stop saying that. You’re mine and I’m taking you home. We’ll get married this weekend and then I’m going to fuck your virginity away until you can’t walk.”

I could only stare at him. He’d been hurtful with his words before, but I’d never heard such vulgarity spewing from him.

“Now come on.” He yanked my arm and started dragging me up the street.

“Let her go.” A deep voice said coming up from behind us.

“Stay out of it, buddy,” Glenn said continuing to pull me up the street. That is until a man who looked a lot like Chase, came around us, shoving his palm into Glenn’s chest.

“Hey, this is a private matter,” Glenn said.

“Molesting a Raven Industries intern is not a private matter. Let her go and I won’t break your arm.”

I recognized the man as Hunter, Chase’s brother who initially Chase had wanted to keep me away from. Right now, I was deliriously happy that he was there.

“She’s nothing to you. You can get another intern.”

Hunter gripped Glenn’s wrist and twisted until Glenn released my arm. “Get the hell out of the city and don’t come back.”

Glenn sneered at him. “You think you’re such a big guy because of your money.”

Hunter leaned forward, nearly nose to nose with Glenn. I saw fear flash in Glenn’s eyes.

“No, I think I’m such a big guy because I’m a former Marine. I can wipe the floor with fuckheads like you with one hand. Now get the fuck out the city before I toss you out.”

“This isn’t over, Sara,” Glenn said as he backed away from Hunter.

“It is unless you want to be dead,” Hunter said.

Glenn walked away, but when he looked back, I could see in his eyes that he wasn’t going to let Hunter scare him off. Not in the long run, at least. He might have lost the battle, but I worried he’d be back.

I rubbed my arm as I watched Glenn retreat, hoping against hope he’d heed Hunter’s warning, while wondering if and when he’d show up again.

“Thank you,” I said to Hunter.

“Who the fuck is that?”

I shrugged. “It’s not important.”

“The hell it isn’t.” He glared down on me. “You can’t let people treat you like that.”

“Sometimes you can’t stop them.”

“He shows up again, you call me. I’ll stop him.”

I had no doubt of that.

Hunter frowned. “Chase have you back here on a new project?”

Huh? “Ah, yeah.” I guess that answered the question about what Chase had told his family about my absence. I supposed it wasn’t a lie. I was working on a new project. Project give Chase a wife and baby so he can inherit the company.

“Come on,” Hunter said, putting a hand on my back to lead me into the Rookery Building. For a marine with giant hands, he was remarkably gentle as he walked with me to the elevator.

“You don’t have to escort me up,” I said, feeling a little embarrassed to have my dirty laundry aired for him to see.

“I need to talk to Chase.”

I looked up at him. “Not about me, I hope.”

He looked down at me with dark eyes. “Not only. But he needs to know. You’re our responsibility.”

“I’m not a child.” Although the tone of my words did make me sound like a child.

“No, you’re an intern that we’re responsible for. We’re responsible for our employees too.” He shifted. “Or at least I am.”

“Why?”

“Security is my job.” There was an annoyance in his eyes that had me thinking he was feeling like he’d failed in his job when Glenn accosted me.

“You’re good at it,” I said.

He smirked.

“Would you really kill Glenn?”

He eyed me. “Do you want me to?”

I shook my head vehemently. “No. I’m not asking you to, I just want to know if he kept bothering me if you would kill him, like you threatened.”

He looked ahead with his hands clasped in front of him. “Maybe. You should tell me who he is so I can make sure I don’t have to kill him.”

“You scared him off. He won’t bother me again.” Of course, I wasn’t sure of that. In fact, knowing Glenn and his inability to let someone outdo him, chances were, he’d be back. But I didn’t want my history laid out for all the Raven brothers to see. Chase would feel like he made the wrong choice in picking me, and he’d be right. My history would probably hurt the Raven name worse than a pair of short-shorts.