003 How Guilt Tastes

By instinct, I try to pull my arms out of his grip. He won’t let me. My struggle is barely shaking his posture as he cages me tightly to his chest. “Easy now, little mouse,” His grin widens, “You haven’t even heard my proposal yet.”

“You are a total jerk!” I hiss at him.

“That I do not object,” He lets out a light laugh, as if my curse was meant to be a joke.

He is just the bully he was when I first met him! I have been successfully dodging him these years that I forgot what a danger he is. He is heartless and shameless and crafty and evil! He is everything opposite of Hector!

But I can’t get off this ship now.

I peek at the guests, and the fear of getting dumped at the altar twice in a day grips my throat.

It’s one thing if the groom had an emergency and couldn’t show up, but it’s another if I grabbed a random guy onto the altar, only to cancel the wedding after I said my stupid vow already!

The wronged feeling stings my eyes wet.

He tilts his head to the side, curious to see whether my tears are genuine. I look away, biting my lips so the tears won’t fall. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction.

“For a year, you can’t divorce me,” The devil speaks.

And I glare at him, waiting for the rest of my bill.

There is none.

“Just that? Why...?” I grumble at him, suspecting that this easy loop to jump is just another lure for an even deeper trap.

“Why...?” Damon Dunn laughs, this time at my cheap tears and how easy he could get to me. My eartips burn hotter. “...let’s just say, because I have a reputation to maintain.”

Not a good one. I didn’t know he would care.

He narrows his fox eyes dangerously at me, “Unless you were planning to marry me today and divorce me tomorrow, just to throw a tantrum in your dear Hector’s face?”

Not to throw a tantrum. But other than that part, yeah, pretty much.

“I can help you with your company,” I dodge his eyes that are seeing through my plan, offering, “Your company is not profiting, and your father is upset at it, no?”

Jack Dunn is still the current head of the Dunn Empire. To test his two sons for the throne of the heir, he gave each of them a small company to see what they are made of. Hector’s has been thriving where Damon ran his into the dirt.

That’s why I dared to deal with him. This is a deal he can’t refuse.

“Like how you have been helping with my brother?” This time, Damon Dunn lets out a snort, a cold aura spouting out of him.

What’s so wrong about helping my own fiancé?! Damon Dunn said it as if I did some horrible thing.

“Do you want it or not?!” I snap, my tone sour at his stung.

“Fine,” Damon Dunn shrugs with an annoying smirk, “I’ll take both.”

“You can’t have the cake and eat it!” I huff, all but rolling my eyes in front of the cameras. What’s this jerk thinking?!

“In that case,” Damon Dunn chuckles, “I choose a year of marriage with you.”

Ughhh!!!!

What’s in it for him to keep a fake marriage with me for a whole year?! Did he think that Mr. Morgan would invest in a dying company just because his estranged daughter suddenly decided to marry a wastrel?! He won’t!

But the guests start whispering.

I close my eyes: “Fine! A year and nothing more!”

A soft, tender peck lands on my lips. I open my eyes wide in shock, and the pastor also frowns--

“Mr. Dunn, you kiss the bride AFTER you take the sacred vow.”

“Sorry,” Damon Dunn grins without even a shred of guilt, “I got too excited at my cute little bride. I mean, yes, of course I do.”

The minister moves on with the process, and I can hardly think about anything else except that kiss. Well, barely a kiss, but still! I have never even looked at another guy besides Hector since my 15^th birthday, and now I kissed a man when I was still Hector’s fiancée only yesterday!

...Hector is my yesterday now.

I married myself to the devil to make sure of that.

“Are you thinking about HIM?” Holding my hands as if he has always been my boyfriend, my fiancé, my groom, and now my new husband, Damon Dunn leads me on the aisle like an honored general showing off his trophy.

People cheer, too.

That’s the thing about the upper class-- no dirt is left on the table.

They knew my groom dumped me as much as I did. They knew I went up to the altar with a different groom only to save my dignity. They knew Damon Dunn as the shame of his famil,y that he is.

But they applaud like none of these are true.

“I’m thinking about that kiss,” I stop by the door, and there is visible pleasure in the womanizer’s eyes--

“Really? I’m so honored--”

“...and here is your reward!” I give him a fake smile, stomping on his foot as hard as I could.

Finally I wiped the smirk off his annoying face.

Damon Dunn lets out a suppressed groan, his arm on my waist tightens in pain. And like the upper class he is, he puts back on that perfect smile without rubbing his foot in front of everyone.

Welcome to the Upper East Side. You swallow pain and put on a winning face no matter what.

“Next time you kiss me without my consent,” At his pain, I find my smile much genuine now, “you won’t get off this easily!”

To my surprise, Damon Dunn laughs out loud. First time genuinely today, it seems. “Looking forward to it, Aurora Morgan,” He lets my name linger on his tongue as if tasting it, “...my dear little wife.”

“Tanya!” I shout, grabbing the stupid dress in my hands as I dash to the limo waiting in front of the hotel, can’t wait to get away from this nightmare. But when I reach the limo’s door, I can’t help but look back at the devil I left behind.

With his arms open, Damon Dunn smiles at the media that instantly swallows him. He glances in my direction, and his lips curve up. I can’t hear what he is saying, but none of the media sharks is coming after me now.

For a second, I taste guilt in my mouth. I wouldn’t have, if he didn’t embrace my abandoning him to my battlefield this gracefully.