Free Everything But Perfect by Jevenna Willow

him.
    “It has come to my attention, and
greatest joy, that not only will Jessup and Regina wed fairly soon, but my
youngest daughter and her fiancé have announced their engagement tonight. Cheyanne
will be marrying Mitch Lavede, and of course, you all know who he is,” Joe said
laughingly.
    The crowd went into an uproar. Ten
seconds later, they pointed out who she was. She was being congratulated by unknowns
and well-wishers at every turn of the head.
    Her eyes searched for Mitch. She
found him making his way up the stairs to stand near her father, giving no help
to this relative disaster.
    Mitch then took up where her
father left off in the announcement.
    “With my greatest pleasure, and Cheyanne’s…,”he
started, eyeballing her hard, “we have set our wedding date for next Wednesday.
No reason to wait when you know it’s right.”
    Joe slapped him on the back,
laughing at this. “Here, here. To the happy couple and a hasty wedding!”
    The room went wild, raising
glasses of champagne high above their heads.
    Cheyanne wanted to crawl in a
hole and die. Next Wednesday? She felt claustrophobic, could not
breathe, could not think, and could not move a muscle had she tried. Mitch was
staring at her as if he had won the war, his eyes boring deep holes into her.
    Gasping for breath, she barely
made it to the patio doors alive, leaving from the room with no destination in
mind. Stumbling, tripping, she found the rose garden in a daze, dropping to her
knees. Her emotions were choking her, her heart racing. How could he do this to
her? Just spring it on her, when he could have said something earlier, gave her
warning?
    The bastard!
    “There you are, sweetheart,” he said
gloatingly, coming up to her side. He helped her to her feet, the world
spinning out of control. “I was so worried about you. I know you’ve had a lot
to drink…”he adlibbed.
    “Go to hell,” she muttered
rudely.
    Mitch smiled down at her then
bent near her ear. “There are folks looking and listening, Cheyanne. Do try to
behave.”
    “Like I said…go to Hell!”
    A half-second later, he crushed her
mouth with his warm lips, punishing her for her sins.
    If doing his best to kiss her
into submission, it was not working to his favor. He drew back only far enough
to whisper. “I am in Hell, sweetheart. No sense telling me to go there.”
    “Oh, yeah?” she sputtered, wiping
off his kiss with the back of her hand. “Well I’m in Hell, too.”
    He grabbed her arm, rushed her into
the glass gazebo and shut the door, giving them needed privacy. A mere taken
breath was all the warning she had to what was coming next.
    “I am sick to death of your
self-pity! You either pretend you’re happy to marry me when in front of New
York’s finest, or I call off the whole deal with your father, and then see you and
your family in bankruptcy court, bitch! Either way, Ribbons is mine.”
    Tears sprang to her eyes in
breakneck speed. “I can’t pretend what I don’t feel.”
    “Try, dammit! I am giving you ten
seconds to pull it together. Then, I am walking out of this gazebo with my
darling betrothed hanging on my arm, hopelessly in love with me. Do I make
myself clear?” The anger was venting out of his every pore, all of it aimed at
her.
    To combat this fury, she raised
her eyes, letting the tears fall. “Perfectly clear…Mr. Lavede.”
    “That will be Mitch to you,
sweetheart. We wouldn’t want to start our marriage on the wrong foot, now would
we?” His tone suggested he could care less if it started at all.
     
    ****
    Being mad at her was not going to
make this any easier on either of them. She made him look the fool, and he was
just trying to clean up the mess. From his point of view, when a woman bolts
out of the room after an announcement to her wedding, something is amiss. He
could not have tongues wagging unnecessarily.
    He was not in love with her,
hell, far from it. In fact, he could barely stand her at this point, but if he
was going