Defiant. Sweet. Alluring.
A business deal gone wrong brought me to her doorstep.
She's everything I shouldn't want; everything I was against after watching my mother's obsession destroy her.
Still, I can't stop myself from craving her.
I should know...
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MY NERVES WERE STILL FRAZZLED from everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, and to make matters worse, I woke up with a pounding headache. All that alcohol in my system proved to be a bad idea as I downed some Tylenol I found in the first aid kit in the bathroom.
I still couldn't even believe I was now married.
Surely, the day couldn't get any worse, or so I thought until I noticed the cup of coffee on the table even though I'd locked my door the night before.
It freaked me out knowing someone else had access to my bedroom, and I immediately made a mental note to take it up with Aleksei the next time I saw him. I didn't appreciate my privacy being breached—wife or not.
Surprisingly, my 'husband' hadn't sought me out last night to consummate the marriage. I was relieved, and, at the same time, worried.
What if he chose to have sex with me when I least expected it?
I'd prepared myself for days leading to the wedding—mentally and physically—by dressing up in skimpy lingerie his stylist had gotten me for this sole purpose. Hell, I even got a full body wax before the wedding.
Yesterday, I'd made peace with the fact that I was now a married woman, and part of the things expected of couples was having sex.
In my head, it was better to do it when I expected it—even though the thought didn't appeal to me and partially scared me—than to be forced into having sex when I wasn't ready.
I figured I could get the sex part over with on the first night, and never have to worry about it. Who knows? Maybe he'd even help me break my decades-long celibacy.
Wrong.
I stayed up until three in the morning, pacing and worrying, throwing up occasionally because of the alcohol in my system, before I finally locked the door when there were no signs of him visiting.
I was relieved. Maybe he didn't want to have sex with me.
'Or maybe he's out there fucking other women. Who knows? Maybe he's with one of his mistresses, and that's why he had to leave the car. He doesn't want you. You're too jaded for him.'
I squashed the ugly thought. It didn't matter if he was sleeping with other women. At least, that would keep his attention off me. As long as he didn't bring his mistresses to the house and flaunt them in front of my face, I couldn't care less.
I was startled when I pulled my door open, and I found Anthony standing right outside the room with a polite smile in place.
How long has he been out here?
"Good morning. I didn't mean to scare you. I was instructed to bring you to the dining hall for breakfast. This way, ma'am."
He was still dressed in a suit today, and he had those ridiculous white gloves on, reminding me of the butlers I watched in movies. He looked the part.
