Page 58 of Little Nightmare

She was so stunning, sitting the way she was. I wanted to look anywhere but into her hypnotic eyes. I had no choice, though. I had a lifetime of this ahead of me. I might as well accept it and say thank you even though I’d be living a life of deserved torture. I wondered in that moment if her child would think of me as their dad? Would he or she call me that? Would she let them? Why did I care? This was a business arrangement, nothing more, nothing less. I had to think of it that way so my heart didn’t rip to shreds inside my chest and leave nothing left but lungs without the ability to breathe in oxygen. “I don’t like sharing, remember?”

“I do.” Her eyes flickered to my chest. “I should probably go shower or something and get ready for?—”

“No need.” I pulled her to her feet and started to help her take off her dress. “I’ll get you completely undone first and then I’ll draw you a bath, not too warm, but warm enough to help soothe your muscles.”

"That’s actually nice of you.”

"I thought of drowning you in it later but?—”

“Very funny.” Her hands shook as I slowly unzipped the back. She had gone for a modern dress thing, very modern, something that screamed Raven Alfero. I loved the easy access. I had no buttons to fight with and yet it didn’t matter did it? How fast or how slow I took off that dress and let it pool on the floor by her blood red heels.

I could look but not touch.

Remember her taste and never have it again.

I slowly tugged the dress down once it was loose enough and let it fall to the ground in a heap. Inwardly, I cursed as my eyes roamed over her shoulder blades and curved back. Her plump ass was barely covered with a scrap of lace that rose up around her ass cheeks and cut into her hips. My hands would fit perfectly there. My thumbs would rub down her skin while my fingers pulsed with the need to dig into her flesh and my mouth watered to nibble down her neck.

It was stupid but it was an excuse, wasn’t it? To touch her just once. I ran my fingertips down her spine. “You’re cold.”

“I’m half naked,” she answered crossing her arms in front of her.

She wasn’t wearing a bra.

One.

Two.

Three.

I had three seconds with her skin before my hands dropped to my sides. “I’ll go draw you that bath now.”

“Wait.” She turned, her arms covering her breasts. “Can we maybe just sit in bed for a while? I’m still a bit freaked out over what happened in the elevator, it’s been a long week and—” She made a face.

“Are you going to be sick?” I asked.

She shook her head, her eyes narrowed. “No, I thought I was, I just need to sit, I think.”

I didn’t realize how pale she’d gotten just standing there. “Come on.” I pulled her into my arms and gently carried her to the front of the bed and pulled the covers down. “I’m not a total monster; I can at least keep my wife warm.”

The minute the words left my mouth, I regretted them.

Not because I was embarrassed, but because she flinched.

The word wasn’t a comfort; it was almost an insult, a dirty reminder to her of who she belonged to and why.

Every time my walls started to crumble, she was right there to remind me why it was smarter not to care, why I needed to keep them fully erect to survive.

I never ended up drawing her bath. Instead, she was asleep in minutes. I went to the mini bar, poured some whiskey, then went outside and sat.

Maybe the sins of my past brought me to this place.

“Did you ever love me?” I begged, blood soaking my shirt as her face filled with rage, she held the knife over my chest. She’d drugged me so it was hard to move, yet I felt every single stab of the knife.

“You?” She laughed. “I loved you for what you could give me and what did you do? You got all noble. I want something you can give me, power. Quit? Quit the family business? You want to leave all of this? I would never go with you. It was either pull you into the family or kill you—we’ll keep this our little secret, though, because I did at one point have a flicker of attraction toward you.” She knelt down and pressed the tip of her knifewhere my heart slowed. It sliced into my skin. “Besides, did you really think you had anything to offer me other than your name and the muscle behind it, Ace?”

Yes. Because she’d been the only one other than Dante to show me affection. The only one to tell me I wasn’t broken, that I was loved.

And when I really thought about it in that moment, it included Raven, even Tempest, my family.

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