Shattered Vows: An Arranged Marriage Standalone Romance (Tarnished Empire)

Weeks later, Morina Armanelli fluttered around our penthouse like a new person. We’d found a weird sort of harmony, one built on odd partnerships and a marriage that didn’t quite look like any other, but it was working.

She buzzed into the kitchen that morning like the weight of the world had been lifted or she’d had some come to Jesus moment.

She thanked me for turning on her salt lamp and making breakfast, something I’d started doing every morning. The lamp provided light, nothing more, but it had a weird, nice glow to it and I found it meshed well with the sunlight in the morning.

I read a newspaper I got delivered every morning and made small talk with her as she lit some incense and fiddled with some diffuser thing she had ordered online.

“So.” She said the word with caution before she continued, “I’ll go clean up my food truck today and buy some ingredients to start blending again, I think. It’s been almost two months and I need to get back to work. I’ll be out of your hair in about an hour.”

“Out of my…I’m working from home for you.” Two months? It meant we’d been married and worming around each other for three weeks without a fight.

We had a routine. I woke up, made meals and worked. She put together bracelets and mixed oils and studied the file. She’d pop her head up every now and then with a question, but other than that, we just sort of lived together like it was completely normal.

I didn’t mind working from home. She was good company most of the time. Quiet, lost in her own world, then sometimes she’d meander over and tell me to smell something because I was stressed. Her read of my emotions was eerily on point most of the time.

At night, she’d tell me about some horoscope she’d read and go on and on about it.

The woman had the amazing ability to get lost in a hobby or thought and be completely engrossed for about twenty minutes. Then, she moved on to something else.

“Morina, you said you felt alone here about a month ago. So, I rearranged a ton of things to be working remotely.”

“Right, but now, we’re married. And you said I could go back after that.”

“Why now? Why not the day after we married?” I studied her as she turned the bracelets on her wrist.

“I think we’ve been getting along so well and…” She took a deep breath. “I’m pretty sure I’m done with the file and understand it now. I’ve read in between things I’ve been doing and I got the research in. I get all the points. I didn’t want to do anything else until I knew I understood it.”

“You finished it?” I smiled at her. How could I not? “Morina Armanelli, you told me your attention span wouldn’t let you finish something you didn’t want to.”

A blush crept across her cheeks. “Don’t make it a big deal.”

I stood from the table and folded my newspaper. When I approached, her blue eyes sparkled and her chest rose and fell like she was excited. Stopping right in front of her, I touched her hair the way I’d been wanting to for weeks. “You did it, piccola ragazza. And it was offensively boring.”

“So offensively boring,” she whispered.

I stared at her lips. Fuck, this woman was something I wasn’t sure I could keep avoiding. “I’m proud of you.”

She nodded and took a step back. I let my hand fall, knowing I needed to take caution with our interactions. We were in too good a place not to.

I returned to the table and opened up my newspaper. “What do you mean, you need to clean up your food truck?”

She didn’t. I’d had people do it for her. I just hadn’t told her that.

“Well, I need to get back to work and now we’re married and I’m done with the file. I’ll be ready for the board meeting in a month. So…” She shrugged her shoulders in her baggy, worn shirt. It was way too big for her, fit her like a dress, and had Jimi Hendrix on the front.

Probably an old boyfriend’s top. Instantly, I wanted to tell her to take it off.

After the good couple of weeks we’d had, I knew I couldn’t.

“I don’t think the food truck is a good idea.” This was going to be enough to push our day into negative territory anyway.

Immediately, the energy shifted in the room and on her face.

The fact I was even thinking about energies was a problem.

“I have to work, Bastian.”

I straightened my newspaper and turned the page. “You really don’t. You’re about to be a multimillionaire based on those shares alone. You could also sell your grandmother’s house.”

Considering she hadn’t moved on it yet.

“Oh, that’s smart.” Her tone was sarcastic. “Where will I live after all this ends then?”

“Here, of course.” Was she dense? I wasn’t going to be living here.

“This is your place. I wouldn’t continue to stay here.”

“This is our place, ragazza.”

“For now.” She plugged in a little ball that spurted her essential oils into the air or something. When the mist puffed from it, she squealed. “Perfect. It smells like lavender. We’re going to be so relaxed.”

I took a deep breath, hoping the air was wafting my way to calm me down right now. “If it’s just mine for now, how do you expect me to get the scents out of here when you leave?”

“I don’t know. You could sage the place or something. I didn’t even do that when I moved in. I probably should have, considering you’ve probably slept with women and brought bad—”

“I didn’t live here before.” I slammed the paper down.

“What?” Her eyes bugged out and she froze by the island counter that she’d practically morphed into a wellness station.

I sighed at my omission. “I bought the place for us.”

“No. I came here and you walked me through it…” She shook her head.

“I’d just purchased it. I figured it was close and you like tiles that look like the ocean.” I sounded idiotic, like I’d been pussy whipped from the beginning.

“The bathroom tiles?” Her jaw dropped. “Bastian, I can’t pay you back for that.”

“I don’t want you to.” I rubbed my eyes. “It’s just… I’m saying it’s here if you need it once we’re divorced. That’s all.”

She walked over to me as I lifted the newspaper back up and put her hand on it so we could stare at one another. “I don’t expect you to keep this place for me but thank you for buying it in the first place.”

Something was happening between us even if we were on good terms. I was falling down a damn slope into wanting Morina as more than just my arranged marriage partner. I didn’t know how to stop the descent. I didn’t know if I could.

She took a breath and clapped her hands, stepping away from me. “Anyway, I’ll be back from the food truck this evening and–”

“My driver will take you to the food truck and back.” I looked back down at my newspaper. “He can also be in the food truck with you for security purposes.”

“You want someone in the food truck with me?” she asked like it was ridiculous. “No.”

I stared at my hand holding the newspaper and the ring now on it. She’d listened to the story of my parents and hadn’t shrunk back in disgust when I told her I’d ordered my father to be killed. She’d accepted a part of me that sometimes even I couldn’t accept.

For that alone, I’d protect her even if she didn’t want it. “Yes, Morina. Don’t argue with me for no good reason, please. What does it hurt you to have a person with you?”

“Well, for one, it’s small quarters in the food truck and, also, is he going to help me make shakes?”

“If you want him to, I’m sure he will.”

She threw up her hands, then went and placed them on the salt lamp. She closed her eyes and stood there for a few seconds before opening them and staring at me. Those midnight blues were soft and appeasing. “Only because I’ve started to like you will I agree to this.”

I smiled, but she only rolled her eyes and skipped down the hall.

I watched her ass the whole way in hopes that t-shirt would ride up a little further. “Wear shorts to work, Morina.” It was for my own sanity but found another reason quickly. “There will probably be paparazzi.”

When I looked up to see her flying out the door in a black bikini and board shorts a few minutes later, I was proud I didn’t scream at her to go change.

I sat there a whole hour without calling her, and I even made myself coffee before I went and got my board shorts on.

The woman should have worn a shirt. She meant to drive me insane by not, I don’t care what anyone else said.

I took the Rolls Royce there faster than I should have and when I walked up to the food truck, I had to actually wait in a damn line because her just being there with the sign down caused a stir.

Some of them were paps. They had cameras around their necks, but a lot of them were locals telling Morina they’d missed her.

She was a mercurial loner by nature. I didn’t think I’d ever heard her on the phone with Linny, but they all seemed to accept that about her.

I let the crowd die down before I came up to the window. The smell that hit my nostrils was rich and aromatic. “Are you selling coffee today?”

“Yes.” She narrowed her eyes at me like I shouldn’t argue. Normally I wouldn’t have. I was in the area to make alliances. It worked best. I’d done better than my father in that arena time and time again.

“What happened to the shakes?”

“Technically, it’s winter, so this is a good idea, but that’s really not the point. The point is I’m making coffee because…” She spun around and waved her arm behind her. “I have a whole coffee appliance area, Bastian!”

The smile across her face was as brilliant as the sun on the water, bright, bold, and blinding. I didn’t see the roadblocks ahead of us or the obstacles when she looked at me like that. I only saw Morina Bailey, free and beautiful and full of life.

She leaned out the window and grabbed my shirt and pulled me close. “You did this and so I’m doing this now.” She covered my lips with hers and kissed me without reservation. Nothing held her back as the salty breeze blew over us. She made out with me over a food truck window, and then she shoved me back and squealed.

“I’m fucking in love with it all, Bastian. There’s a blender too! State of the art. And someone stocked essential oils up here with a freaking shelf. Did you tell them to do that?”

“I told them to make it functional, bellissima.” I wasn’t admitting to it. I watched as she showed me every single new thing she was excited about.

She shook her head like none of it mattered and her wavy locks flew back and forth. “It’s more than functional. It’s perfect! And now, I get to make you coffee. What would you like?”

I groaned, knowing I was never going to get a good cold smoothie now. “Can you just make me a shake today?” Hopefully that would cool the fire starting inside me.

She sighed and combed her fingernails through her dark hair. “No. That’s not what’s for sale today. Check the board.” She pointed with her brows lifted as if to say isn’t it so new and shiny? It was. They’d installed a larger chalkboard for her to write menu items on. “We can brew coffee, tea, even make a mocha.”

“We live in a warm climate, ragazza,” I said softly, trying to break the news to her, but enjoying the fire growing in her eyes.

“Yeah, and you’re on a beach with a girl who will only make you coffee.” She crossed her arms. The black bikini she wore dipped low, showing off her generous cleavage. “You want it iced? I can do that.”

“This isn’t the way to run a business.”

Someone came up behind me and peered around me, whooping when he saw Morina. “You’re back, baby!”

“Marco! I am! Get up here.”

The man didn’t even glance my way. He just skipped me and pulled Morina in for a hug through the window. Jesus, she was selling something here and it wasn’t just her fucking shakes. The men loved her and it pissed me the hell off.

“I thought the life of a celebrity was going to take you away from us.”

“Oh, shut up,” she threw back and laughed.

“I saw your face on a magazine cover one day and thought to myself, no shit. Your face might belong there, but it belongs here first.”

She rolled her eyes and I wondered if he knew her husband stood right behind him.

“Anyway, Marco, I’m selling coffee today.”

He groaned like he only wanted the same thing as me: a damn shake. “Can’t I just have a smoothie today?”

“Fuck off, Marco. Coffee or nothing.”

He chuckled like this was completely acceptable. They were all waiting to talk to her. “Mo’s in a mood today, huh?” he grumbled to me.

He didn’t get out of line, just paid for the coffee he hadn’t even asked for.

He meandered away, telling her to come to the tiki bar soon.

Once he was gone, she placed her elbows on the window frame, cupped her hands under her chin and stared down at me, her eyes bluer than ever and her lips the color of cherries.

I found myself leaning in to hear exactly what she was going to say.

“It’s my business. I run it how I want to.” She licked her plump lips.

“Give me a damn iced coffee then.”

She bit that lower lip, dragged her teeth over it and looked me up and down. My dick jumped. How could it not when she’d been kissing me just moments before? Then she spun and tinkered for a minute before returning with my coffee.

I moved to pay her but she rolled her eyes, glanced at the security guy by the door, and before I could stop her, she hoisted herself out the window.

“Jesus. There’s a damn door there.” But my hands were at her waist immediately as I caught her and set her on the ground.

“What’s a door good for when I got you to take care of me?” She winked and pointed to the security guy. “Plus, he goes out that way and makes a big scene about checking every angle. Now, we don’t need to.”

“Are you done for the day?”

“I’m taking you surfing again, Bastian, because it’s the only way I know how to repay you for the food truck. That, or I’ll fuck you right here in the sand but someone might get that on camera and we can’t have them saying the hippie lost her mind, right?”

Her mind went ten different directions at all times and I found myself chuckling as she fetched two boards off the truck.

The beads on her bracelet banged together, all different colors and materials around her arm. That along with her bikini was a bold sign, one that said she wanted the world to know that she was free to wear and do whatever she wanted.

It made me wonder if she would be that way in a few months, if I honestly wanted her to be.

“Hey?” I yelled to my guy behind her. “Close down and lock it up. We got other eyes. You can go.”

We got to the water and I grumbled about using Bradley’s board again.

“If you want, buy yourself one, but you’re not out here enough to spend that much.” She shrugged, combing her hands through her hair and threading it into a loose braid.

She didn’t realize coming out here once was enough for me to purchase a board. I wouldn’t continue riding another man’s things.

“He doesn’t ever use this one anyway,” she added.

That wasn’t the point at all.

We entered the cool water and she explained how I should snap up as the wave rushed toward us. I listened and tried again and again halfheartedly. I was more concerned that Morina was surfing with only a bikini like last time. This time, I wanted her wrapped up more.

Honestly, I didn’t think it was possible to surf with a bikini on. Sure, they did it in movies and during competitions, but those people were the best in the world.

Morina wasn’t the best in the world.

She was supposed to be an average girl on a board that had grown up around water.

How the fuck she even got on the board after I tried and failed so many times was baffling to me. How she did that and kept the scraps of material covering her tits was a goddamn miracle.

Why the hell I was out here torturing myself in the first place was an even bigger mystery.

“Mo, I’m done.” I bobbed up and down in the water next to my board after another failed attempt at standing up.

“What?” She jumped off her surfboard as she rode past. When she surfaced, she shook her head. “No! You’re almost there.”

Her smile was infectious. It stretched across her face in a way I’d never seen before. There weren’t any frown lines when she looked at me and the smile raised her cheeks even more than usual. The sun glowed on her smooth skin and the water glistened on her nearly bare chest like a mesmerizing game of where not to look.

Fuck, she was pretty out here.

Now, more than ever, I wasn’t immune to her. She radiated a light I wasn’t used to. All my life, I’d been around darkness, business, pain.

My father bred me to take his place and I was damn good at that.

How to handle a woman so genuinely naive of that darkness was baffling, intoxicating.

She vibrated with energy as she swam to my board and wrapped an arm around it. “You almost got this. I’ll give you anything to master it today.”

“You’ll what?” I cocked my head. “Today? You’re kidding me. People don’t get up on a board for weeks after they start trying.”

It pained me to admit I’d researched it after the first time.

“But you’re so close and I’ve never taught anyone to get on it and ride in less than a week of lessons. And I don’t teach often but come on! This could be epic for me.”

“For you?” I pointed at her. “You realize this is supposed to be about me, the student.”

“Okay. What does the student want from the teacher?” She squared her shoulders and had such a completely straight face that I couldn’t help but give her hell.

“Teachers give gifts now, huh?” I chuckled and looked around. The blue water rocked the us back and forth. The sun burned our skin, and the air smelled so damn fresh I almost forgot why I was irritated about being out here.

Then I looked at her and remembered people were eyeing up my wife.

“I’ll give you one thing.”

“You wear a one piece next time you’re out here.”

She glanced down at her tits and back at me. Then, she burst out laughing. “Never happening, Bastian. My boobs, my display.”

Fuck me.

“Fine. I’m done then.” I pulled the board with me and made my way out of the water.

She chased me down. “Oh my God. Let’s compromise! Jesus, you’re such an old man sometimes. You realize people go topless here half the time? There’s a topless beach right up the road. Want to go?”

“Don’t fuck with me, Morina. You’re my wife now.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know. I know. Fine. I’ll wear a sports bra next time. That’s better, right?”

Compromises.

I made them with others.

With her, I was thinking I might just cut up all her bikinis and throw them in the damn garbage.

Still, I stayed.

I got up on the board.

And she said if I’d asked, she would have got on her knees and praised me.

I almost let her. Her free spirit was rubbing off on me.