His Kingdom (Owning Vegas Book 1)

I panicked. When I saw Charlotte was at the airport, I thought she was leaving me. I get it. I have fucking abandonment issues. But fuck… Just the thought had me breaking out in a sweat. I can’t let her go. I had no intentions of letting her go. But the thought she’d want to…

The door to the penthouse opens and Charlotte walks in. And straight away, all of my personal shit is shoved aside. She’s been crying. I stride over to her and tilt her face up. “Who made you cry?” I ask her.

Her brows draw down. “No one,” she says, looking away.noveldrama

“Don’t lie to me, Charlotte. You’ve been crying.”

“It was one tear. I wasn’t crying and how can you even tell?”

“Because I know you. Who and why?” I press.

“It’s nothing. I called my sister.” She walks past me, setting her bag down on the table.

“What happened?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to check on her. I didn’t know how she felt about Owen. I thought she might have been upset,” Charlotte says.

“Okay. Do you want to go back to see your family? I can arrange a trip,” I offer.

“Home is the last place I want to be,” she says.

I reach forward and tug Charlotte against my body. “Home is where you’re standing right now. This is your home, sweetheart.”

“What if I don’t want to live in a casino?” she says against my chest.

“Then I’ll buy us a house,” I tell her.

“Maybe one day, when we have kids. If we have kids. I just don’t think a casino is the place to raise them,” she says.

“When we have kids, we will not have them anywhere near this cesspool,” I promise her.

“How’d you know where I was today?”

“Lucky guess?” I shrug, hoping she’ll drop the topic.

She shakes her head. “Try again.”

“I might have put a tracking app on your phone…”

“Why?”

“I need to know where you are, Charlotte. I have… There are people that will do anything to hurt me. As soon as the world finds out you are the single most important person to me, well, you become a target,” I explain cautiously. “But I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

“Okay.” She sighs. “But you could have just asked me. I’ll tell you where I am. I don’t have anything to hide.”

“I thought you were leaving me,” I admit. “I didn’t like it.

“I’m sorry you thought that. But I’m not going anywhere,” she says. “I do need to borrow a computer, though. I need to get a resume together and find a job.”

“Charlotte, you don’t need a job.” I finally loosen my grip on her and walk over to the kitchen.

“I actually do,” she says from behind me.

I pull out two bottles of water from the fridge before handing one to Charlotte. “You own three casinos on this strip. You don’t need a job.”

“You own casinos. I don’t own shit,” she argues.

“We’re married. What’s mine is now yours. We didn’t sign a prenup, sweetheart.”

Her eyes widen. “Well, that was really stupid of you. Jesus, Louie, what if I was some gold-digging hussy who just wanted to take half of everything you own?”

“You’re not, though.” I laugh.

“But you don’t know that. I could be.”

“Sweetheart, you’ve been arguing with me for the last couple of days about needing a job. You’re not a gold digger,” I remind her.

“Well, it was still stupid of you to get married without paperwork. And we can just sign some now. I don’t care.”

“I care,” I tell her. “This marriage doesn’t have a timestamp, Charlotte. There’s no need for a prenup because there isn’t going to be a divorce.” Before she can say more, I take hold of her hand and drag her over to the sofa. “I got you something today.” Reaching into my pocket, I pull out the small red box and open it.

Charlotte’s eyes go round. “Oh my gosh!” she gasps.

“I shouldn’t have married you without getting you a ring first,” I tell her. “We can make it up, you know. Have a redo. A big fancy reception. A destination wedding. Whatever you want.”

“I like the wedding we had. I don’t need anything else.”

I take the ring set out of the box and slide it onto Charlotte’s finger.

“How did you know the size?” she asks me. “Louie, this is beautiful.”

I lift a shoulder in a half-shrug. It’s a single, princess-cut, diamond solitaire. Three carrots. The wedding band is rose-gold and lined with several smaller stones to complement the one in the middle.

Charlotte looks up at me. “Thank you.” She smiles, then frowns. “Wait.” She jumps up, and I watch as she rifles through her bag before returning with a pen. “I don’t have a ring for you, but I’m going to get one,” she says, taking hold of my left hand.

“I don’t need a ring, Charlotte.”

“I want you to have one. How else will all the women know you’re spoken for?” she asks me.

“Because I’ll tell them.” I chuckle.

“Well, until I get to a store, this will do.” She proceeds to draw two lines around my ring finger before adding letters to the middle.

“CG?” I ask her.

“Charlotte Giuliani. Now everyone will know you’re mine.” She smiles.

Leaning forward, I press my lips against hers. “Everyone will know I’m yours because I’m going to scream it from the rooftops,” I tell her.

I open the door and step aside so Paulie can enter. “Thanks for coming.”

“No problem. What do you need?” he asks me.

“It won’t take long. Come on through.” I lead Paulie to the dining table and sit down. “I want you to ink over this.” I hold out my left hand.

Paulie coughs. “You’re serious?”

“Deadly.” I glare at him.

“O… kay then.” He starts pulling his equipment out of his bag. “You get hitched or something?”

“I did. Last night.”

“Congratulations,” he says. “Gotta say, I’m a little surprised. I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”

“It was fast.” I smile.

Just as Paulie is cleaning me off and packing up again, Charlotte comes out. She just showered and got changed. I want to take her on a proper date. She’s wearing a red dress that reaches her knees, but it’s fucking tight, hugging all of her curves and leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination. Her hair hangs in loose waves down her back.

Fuck, she’s beautiful. And she’s all mine.

“Paulie, this is Charlotte, my wife,” I introduce her. “Paulie is my artist.”

“Your artist, as in tattoo artist?” she asks. “What are you getting done?”

“Already done.” I hold up my hand, showing her my finger.

“You didn’t.” She smiles huge as she takes hold of my hand to get a closer look.

“I did. It’s never coming off,” I tell her.

“Can you do mine?” Charlotte looks to Paulie. “The same?”

“Absolutely fucking not,” I growl.

“Why not?” Charlotte glares at me.

Great, this is going to be another fight.

“Because you don’t need your body marred by anything,” I tell her. “Also, I’m not having another man touch you.”

“It’s a finger, and it’s not marring. It’s… symbolic. If you don’t want Paulie to do it, then you can do it yourself.”

“I’m not hurting you.” I shake my head, dismissing the idea.

“It won’t hurt,” she tells me.

“Yeah? How many tattoos you got, sweetheart?” I ask her, knowing damn well she has none. I’ve inspected every inch of her body. It’s a blank canvas.

“None, but I’m also not a wimp. I can handle whatever it feels like.” She crosses her arms over her chest.

I reach out a hand to Paulie, and he takes it. “Thanks.” Poor guy looks like he’d rather be anywhere else right now.

“It was nice meeting you, Mrs. Giuliani.” He nods and then makes a beeline for the door.

“That is not fair, Louie,” Charlotte pouts.

“Life isn’t fair, sweetheart,” I tell her.

“Don’t sweetheart me. Besides, this is Vegas. I’ll just drop into any old shop and get it done.”

I pull my phone from my pocket and message Paulie before he has time to even leave the building.

Me:

Make sure every shop on the strip knows not to touch her.

Paulie:

On it.

“Sure, you do that. You ready to go?” I turn to Charlotte. “You look absolutely stunning by the way. I should have already said that.”

“Thank you. Where are we going?” she asks.

“I have reservations for dinner, and then whatever else you want to do.”

“Can we gamble? After dinner? I just realized I haven’t so much as put a dollar into a slot machine since I got here. Seems like a crime.”

“That’s not a crime. That’s just smart. The house always wins,” I tell her. “But since it’s our house, we can gamble as much as you want.”

I watch Charlotte from across the table. She’s fidgeting. “What’s wrong?” I ask her.

“People are staring,” she whispers.

“That’s because you’re beautiful and they’re wondering how I managed to score you.”

“No, they’re not.” She laughs.

“How do you know?” I lift a challenging brow and then look around the restaurant. Watching how everyone quickly averts their eyes.

“They’re looking at you,” Charlotte says.

“Do you want to leave?” I should have known I couldn’t just come out for a meal like a normal fucking person.

“No, I want to eat. I just need to get used to ignoring people,” she tells me. “It’s hard, because I’ve spent my whole life having to care what people think, and I’m scared of making a bad impression. I don’t want to embarrass you.”

“Charlotte, you could never embarrass me.” I stand, pick up my glass of champagne, and tap a fork against the side.

“What are you doing?” Charlotte gasps.

“Ladies and gentleman, I want you all to be the first to know I was lucky enough to have this woman right here marry me last night. I’m officially off the market, and so is she,” I announce to the crowd of onlookers. Claps and cheers erupt around us as I lean forward and press a kiss to Charlotte’s lips. “I really am the luckiest motherfucker alive,” I tell her before sitting back down. “Now they’ll have something to really talk about.”

“Thank you.” Charlotte smiles at me. “I don’t know how, but you always know the right thing to say.”

“You should hear my inside thoughts, then.” I quirk a brow with a different kind of challenge this time.

“What are your inside thoughts right now?” she asks me.

“How I want to swipe everything off this table and replace it with your body. How I want to spread your legs wide open and feast on nothing but you all night long.” I keep my voice low.

Charlotte’s face reddens. “Yeah, ah… let’s not say that out loud.” She smirks before adding, “Well, at least not in public.”