Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
My breathing grew shallow with panicked gasps, dark spots dancing around the edge of my vision. The walls seemed to close in around me, the weight of the day’s events crashing down on me all at once. The wedding, the new home, the dogs—my new reality…
“I c-can’t,” I whispered, my chest tightening. “Please, Adrian, keep them away from me.”
With a sharp command, he called the dogs to heel. They immediately retreated, though their eyes remained fixed on me. “Edmund,” he said, never taking his eyes off me. “Take them away and feed them.”
The butler nodded, clicking his tongue to get the dogs’ attention. They followed him reluctantly, casting glances back at me as they disappeared down the hallway.
My whole body quaked and my hand fluttered to my heaving chest, as I tried to calm my breathing. God, I just embarrassed myself in front of my new staff.
Barely five minutes into Adrian’s home and I was already losing my carefully composed self.
I had somehow entered the twilight zone where my humiliation just wouldn’t come to an end today. As if this morning wasn’t enough, waking up naked in Adrian’s bed, then I walked down the aisle to the wrong groom, and now I had shown yet another weakness to my new husband and complete strangers.
“Come,” Adrian said, his voice strangely softer now as he extended his hand. “Let me show you upstairs, to your bedroom.”
The words sent a fresh wave of anxiety through me. I had barely processed the ceremony, the reception, the fact that I was now Adrian’s wife.
For a moment I had forgotten that tonight was our wedding night.
And that now, I was expected to share his bed.
I had to perform my wifely duties.
I reluctantly took his hand, allowing him to guide me up the grand staircase. Each step felt heavier than the last, my wedding dress trailing behind me like a ghost.
“This place is so secluded,” I murmured. “What if we ever need help? How—”
“No one can hurt you as long as you’re my wife, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Adrian said, cutting me off as we reached the top of the stairs.
I looked up at him, searching his face for sincerity. “And what about you?” I asked, the question slipping out before I could stop it. “Can you hurt me?”
He didn’t respond, as if he didn’t even hear my question.
Adrian opened a door at the end of the hallway, revealing a spacious bedroom dominated by a massive four-poster bed. Our bedroom. It was grand and beautiful, dark woods and deep browns, with none of the feminine touches I might have expected.
Adrian ushered me inside, closing the door behind him with a soft click. “This will be your room.”
I walked farther inside, taking it all in before his words registered in my mind. “My room?”
He stood in the center of the high-ceiling bedroom, the light glinting off the polished marble beneath his feet. Arms folded over his broad chest, his tuxedo suit still looking impeccably untouched, Adrian looked every inch of the reaper he was, a dark cruel sovereign.
A few strands of his dark hair fell over his forehead, brushing over his left scarred brow and the curve of his jaw was sharp as a blade. The air between us seemed to hum, charged with an energy I couldn’t name, making my skin prickle. It crackled with unseen current, shifting with masked tension.
And then his lips twitched…
In a mocking half-smirk that I hadn’t seen since this morning, since he had confessed his love to me.
But now there it was, twisted, cruel—a predator’s grin plastered across his handsome face.
“This is your sanctuary, wife,” he drawled, each word slow and deliberate. “You’re going to need it.”
My pulse thundered in my throat. I pressed my palms against the skirts of my wedding gown and my voice was barely more than a whisper. “I don’t understand. I thought we’d be sharing—”
He arched an eyebrow, eyes flickering with amusement. “You seem very eager to share a room with me,” he taunted, and I felt my hackles rise at the mockery in his tone.
Heat flared in my cheeks. “I didn’t say that,” I argued back.
He took a deliberate, measured step forward, the floorboards groaning under his weight, forcing me backward. My heart pounded against my ribs. “Whatever you’ve been thinking,” he murmured, eyes glittering, “you thought wrong.”
I swallowed, gulping down the taste of fear. “Then clarify it for me. I won’t have any misunderstanding in this marriage and no confusion about what’s expected of me.”
A dark chuckle rumbled from his chest. “Oh, perfect Serafina. Perfect daughter, perfect wife. Always so composed, so… flawless. Faking smiles, faking devotion… Don’t you grow tired of living a lie? Doesn’t it exhaust you? Pretending at every turn? Building relationships on lies?”
The room suddenly felt colder. I wrapped my arms around myself as goosebumps appeared on my exposed skin. “I was raised to be a dutiful wife. It’s all I’ve ever known. This is who I am.”