The Billionaire’s Bride by L. Steele

33

Edward

I glance over my shoulder at the flames that lick the far end of the corridor. If I am going to die, at least, I know that she is safe. That I’ll be sacrificing myself for her.

The crown molding catches fire. The flames edge toward me as I watch, trapped in my own personal hell.

If there was going to be a way for me to go, then it makes sense it would be like this—bathed in fire, purified of my sins. The cross that I have borne since the incident. The event that had scarred my life, had ruined me for any relationship… Until her. She had given me a reason to haul myself out of the unfeeling, unseeing existence I had settled for.

I believed I had found my calling… And in those years, I had found a certain kind of peace, dedicating myself to the higher good… Focusing on everything else… Anything else, but the festering mass of pain deep inside that had only grown, bigger, wider, more solid with time... Until it had lodged in my gut, had weighed me down, anchored me to a state of being from which I couldn’t escape.

If becoming a priest was the single most courageous act I had undertaken, then walking away from everything familiar was the riskiest one. One I hadn’t hesitated to take, because the path led to her. She saved my life, and I willingly sacrifice myself for her…and in that…there is a certain poetic justice.

I will die, consumed by the fire that will finally purify me. That will wipe away the hate I carry deep inside, the scars, which are all that remain of the boy I had once been.

And she won’t be alone. She has Baron to protect her, to take care of her. She’ll be safe and happy. My woman and my best friend. I clutch my fingers at my sides. My woman. Mine. Fuck… I close my eyes. Why is it I find it so difficult to let go of her, even now?

Baron is right for her. He isn’t tainted, like me. He is right for her. He has to be. Fucking Baron. Seems, he was always destined to come out ahead of me… It’s not a fucking competition, Ed.

Of course, it is. The race to capture the heart of a woman who means so much to me… It’s right I don’t win this one. I don’t deserve her.

"Priest, motherfucker."

I snap my eyes open, turn to find Baron, racing up the stairs.

"The fuck you doing, asshole?" He pants as he comes to a stop next me.

"What the fuck is it to you?" I scowl.

"I don’t give a rat’s ass what you do to yourself, but the woman out there... She’s losing her shit, and if you don’t get out of the fire, she’s walking right into it with you."

I lower my chin to my chest, "I don’t fucking deserve her, man."

"You can say that again." Baron growls, "But it’s not for you or for me to decide. She gets the final choice in this matter." His jaw tics. "And she chooses you."

"What?" She wants me? She chose me? She needs me? She wants to be with me? I frown and Baron’s features soften; there’s an indecipherable look in his eyes.

"Yeah," he closes the distance between us, "she wants you, man. You’re her first love. Hell, it was always you and her. Me? I was the interloper."

"You watched over her, took care of her while I sorted my shit out."

"And that’s all it was ever meant to be." Baron’s features harden. "I was wrong to think otherwise. I should have stayed true to my word to you. I should have bowed out a while ago… It’s just... I couldn’t."

"Baron, I—"

Fire licks up the wall, the chandelier hanging from the ceiling in the hallway shudders before the crystals explode. "Fuck." I throw up my arm to protect my face. Pain slices up my side. "Shit, we need to get out of here."

"Now, you’re talking." He bares his teeth.

There’s a high-pitched whine, and the ceiling above us groans.

"Motherfucker." Baron charges down the steps, and I follow him.

The stairway seems to tremble. Intense heat overwhelms me.

Behind us the crackling, popping sound intensifies. Flames hiss and a lick of fire lashes out from the side. I duck, then jump down the last step.