Page 76 of His Bride

I curl around myself.

“Thank me,” he demands, and I force myself to look at him even if the sight makes me sick. “I could have fucked you on your daddy’s desk, claimed what will be mine soon enough, but I didn’t. So, thank. Me.”

Tears stream down my face, dripping from my jaw onto my naked arms.

“Fuck. You,” I bite out, shivering, and he kicks me hard in the midsection, every ounce of breath exploding out of me. The pain is indescribable, and I’m nothing but a tiny ball of broken pieces on the floor.

“I’m going to have fun beating some manners into you. When all this is over, you will be the epitome of an obedient, submissive wife. I’m going to make a prime example out of you.”

He crouches next to me, arms on his knees, smiling like the sight of a woman in agony gives him pride. “Next week, there’s an event I want to go to. It’s important. Deals will be made. We’ll have our first public outing as a couple.” Then he reaches into his pocket and dumps a box on me. “Wear that from now on.”

The sound of his footsteps as he leaves echoes like a countdown in the room, and the second I hear the door slam, I wail.

I don’t cry. I don’t sob. I fucking wail like someone had just torn the flesh from my body.

Every ounce of me screams in agony, releasing a pain I never knew existed, a pain I never knew I could feel.

It’s not about what Aurelio had done. Even though it’s disgusting and vile, I can deal with his groping and shoving of fingers. His threats. I agreed to marry him, knowing he’s a monster.

I’m in agony because today…my father died. The man who read me bedtime stories when I was little, bounced me on his knee, danced me with me on his feet, snuck into my room to bring me milk and cookies when I was supposed to be asleep,thatman died today. And now I’m living in this house with a stranger.

I try to get up, but my knees are weak.

“Get up, Giana,” I say to myself. “Get the fuck up.” With trembling legs, I manage to pick myself up from the floor.

I’m lightheaded, not sure whether it’s from the blow to the head or just a mash-up of everything that’s happened. My legs are weak. My hands are shaking. And on the inside…everything is raw and red and infected.

Everything in me is screaming for Caelian. My soul is crying for him. I need him. His embrace. Comfort. I’ve always fought against being a damsel in distress, but right now I want to run to him, have him save me. But that only happens in fairy tales, something my life is not.

I grab the jewelery box Aurelio dropped, then go up to my room where I strip, toss the dress back into the box, screaming as I shove it outside—my pain now morphing into an anger that’s red-hot and consuming.

I lock the door and get into the shower, not waiting for the water to heat up. I stay there for so long, the water goes from cold to scalding hot, and then cold again. I’ve washed and scrubbed his touch from me. But the bitterness bubbling inside, the angry lick of fury, that remains, grows, until it’s all I feel.

Chapter 20

CAELIAN

Idump my gun on the table in the Dark Sovereign room.

Isaia cocks a brow, lifting his gaze from his phone.

“Fucker finally popped his ugly head out today,” I say.

“Aurelio?”

I nod. “Got word he was on Belucci property.”

“To see Giana?”

“Or her asshole father. I don’t fucking know.”

“You’re having her watched?”

I frown at him. “That has got to be the dumbest goddamn questionever. Of course, I’m having her watched. What do you take me for?”

“Do you want me to answer that?”

“Shut up.”

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