‘The key to get back into that storage unit if you ever need to. No one else knows that this place exists, so if I’m not around you’ll find everything in there that you’ll need to disappear.’

She didn’t much like the sound of that, him not being around, but she watched him put the key into his wallet and stuff it into his back pocket. Taking off from the storage compound, they got back on the interstate and she munched away on her sandwich, happy to finish it and one of the bottles of water before she spoke again.

‘I’m ready,’ she said, stowing her trash in the door compartment.

‘Ready for what?’

‘For you to tell me the plan. So out with it, what’s the plan? Why isn’t leaving there enough?’

‘Because I don’t plan to stay gone,’ Dax said. ‘We’re gonna go back.’

‘When?’

‘Tomorrow, maybe the next day.’

‘What? Are you serious? No! I am not going back there.’ If she could jump out of the car and run now then she probably would.

‘Yeah, you are,’ he said. ‘I’m not going to run forever and after we show Mauri that we’re serious about this, he’ll understand. He wouldn’t get it if he thought it was just about sex, that might make him angry, make him think that we were playing for sport, you know? You won’t have to worry about going back to the mansion, I’ll be taking care of this, I’ll go over there myself and show him that this isn’t a fling. I’m not cross-eyed over a dumb tramp that I’ll forget about next week.’

‘No! I don’t want you to go there either. If you do that and he’s pissed at you, god knows what he’ll do.’

‘I’ve been a part of his family for twenty years, Minx. I’ll make him see sense.’

‘You couldn’t make him see it this morning. Either he vetoed us being together or you didn’t tell him at all, but what makes you think that the situation will be any different in a day or two? If you needed more time—‘

‘There was no more time,’ he said. ‘Trystan is coming back to California tomorrow, Mauri planned to have you both pick up the marriage certificate as soon as possible and be married by the weekend. Why do you think there was a sudden rush with the dress?’

Considering this, a chill went through her. Married by the weekend, to the man who had tried to violate her, to the man who had insisted she be the one to go through this ordeal just because she had disrespected him. Dax had come to retrieve her just in time. Now that she understood the urgency gratitude overwhelmed her.

‘But you think that the situation will be different in a couple of days, why? Won’t Trystan be mad? Mauri might not listen to reason and Trystan could rile his father more. We could end up with more trouble—‘

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Dax said.

‘How can you say that?’

‘Because by then he’ll have no choice. He’ll have to accept that we’re together and that you’re mine. He won’t be able to do anything to keep us apart, he’ll know we’re serious.’

‘How do you plan to prove that to him?’ she asked. ‘And where are we going now? What’s the point in leaving if we’re just going back?’

‘We have something to do.’

‘Ok,’ she said, settling back against the seat. There was nothing she could do to defy him, and if he had a plan that he was sure would work then there was no point in arguing in opposition of it. Dax knew the Stark’s better than she did and her alternative was to go back to that mansion and marry Trystan. ‘What is this important thing that we just have to do?’

‘There’s only one way to guarantee that Trystan can’t marry you.’

‘What’s that?’ she asked, thankful that he’d found a silver bullet.

‘You have to be married already, before he gets the chance.’

‘I have to be married,’ she said, not sure that she had heard him right. ‘Dax, what is it that we’re going to do?’

‘We’re getting married.’

If lightening had struck her then, or aliens had landed, Ivy couldn’t have been more surprised. Sitting up, she fixed her eyes on him, but he was happy to remain looking at the road ahead as though he hadn’t said such a shocking thing.

‘We’re what?’

‘It makes sense,’ he said. ‘I don’t plan on letting you go, and if you’re married to me then they can’t force you to marry him.’

Logic wasn’t the number one reason for most people when they got married. Then again, most men didn’t propose in the way he just had either. ‘We’re getting married?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Just like that, we’re getting married?’

‘Why not?’ he asked. ‘You got a better offer on the table?’

‘What?’

‘You’re twenty-nine, you must have sewn your wild oats by now.’

‘Dax!’ she scolded and was then lost for words.

‘You agreed to do what I told you to do. I said before we left the mansion that you would be under my command and I meant it. You’re going to marry me. You don’t have a choice in the matter.’

She couldn’t decipher if his cool manner was arrogance or dominance. His suggestion – which wasn’t really a suggestion at all – didn’t offend or repulse her, in fact it made a lot of sense. But before she could agree to it, she did need to be sure of one thing.

‘Do you love me, Dax?’ she asked, now he did glance away from the road to face her, but she couldn’t make up much of his eyes that were shielded behind his own shades.

‘After everything I just did, you have to ask me that?’

‘I want to hear the words. I need to hear your answer,’ she said, just as she’d been taught to vocalise her answers in the beach house, she needed to hear him admit it aloud.

‘I wouldn’t have risked losing everything I have if I didn’t,’ he said.

‘That’s not saying it. That’s implying it. I’ve known you for two months, Dax Harrow, and I know that there’s nothing you’re afraid of. So if you can’t say three silly little words—‘

‘God damn it, babygirl, of course I love you!’

Satisfied, her lips curled and her hands settled in her lap. ‘You’re such a romantic, Dax,’ she teased. ‘I’d never have pegged you as the mushy type.’

‘Shut your mouth and get over here,’ he said, opening his arm to her.

She slid across the seat and kissed his jaw, then his cheek, prompting him to turn his head and steal a lip kiss too. Then she rested her head against his torso and his arm settled around her.

‘We have a few hours until we hit Vegas, get some sleep if you want to. You’ll want to be fresh when we get there.’

‘Won’t you want to sleep?’ she asked, nuzzling closer. ‘I can drive some of the way if you want me to.’

‘It’s not that far,’ he said. ‘I can handle it. You handle the wedding night.’

Which meant he wanted her to do the work in bed tonight, but after all that he’d done for her today she had no trouble accommodating him.

‘Ok,’ she said, turning her face into his body and closing her eyes, which were still covered by shades. ‘But if you need me to keep you awake, let me know.’

‘I will,’ he said.

She listened to him inhale her hair and her smile crept up again. This morning she had woken up with a glowing hope that had faded as the day got older. Ivy could never have imagined that her day could turn out this way.

Chapter Seventeen

Vegas was just the same, it was the only constantly-changing, exactly the same city that she had ever experienced. While the buildings and the attractions transformed, that buzz that existed in the air as you moved down The Strip was always the same.

Dax had parked at a hotel and checked them in under a pseudo-name, he’d then given her ten minutes to get freshened up. She tried to tempt him into the shower with her, but he’d been insistent that they’d have time once the deed was done.

Either he was nervous and getting cold feet, so he wanted it over with, or he was really eager to have them bound together. Picking up the marriage licence took no time at all, Dax had everything that they needed, including her ID, which she guessed he must have brought – or maybe stolen – from the Stark place.