Chapter 2
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At two in the morning, the hotel suite door slammed open. The heavy scent of alcohol preceded the unsteady figure that crashed onto the bed, his weight pressing down on me. I tensed instantly.
“Pretending to sleep?” Joshua’s drunken sneer burned against my ear. His silver–rimmed glasses caught the neon lights outside, twisting the hunger in his eyes into something dark and terrifying.
I instinctively curled in on myself.“How did you find me here?” My fingers dug into the duvet–I’d deliberately avoided our villa tonight.
He yanked at his tie like it was a leash holding back a beast.“Every hotel in this city belongs to Farley, darling.” The silk slid against my collarbone before tightening around my throat.“Five years, and you still don’t know
how to behave?”
The mix of leather and whiskey flooded my senses. Just ten hours ago, these same hands had put a ring on another woman. The thought twisted my stomach, but the pain dissolved into a whimper as he tore my
nightgown open.
“Why the tears?” His grip on my jaw forced me to meet his gaze, the wedding band glinting cruelly in the moonlight.“Saw the news, did you?” His thumb smeared the wetness on my cheeks.“It’s just business. You’ll always be mine.”
What a mockery of comfort. I turned my face away, but he wrenched it back.“Take off my glasses.”
For five years, that command had made me shiver. Now, his lenses reflected my pale face–a butterfly trapped in a display case. I shut my eyes. “I’m in pain…”
The air turned to ice. The tie bit into my skin, my vision spotting.“I said,” he bit out each word against my ear, “take. Them. Off.”
The frames hit the carpet with a muffled thud. Without the barrier of glass, the possessiveness in his eyes burned like acid. When the agony in my abdomen flared, the Christmas lights outside blurred into streaks of color through my tears.
“Stop-” I arched, nails scoring into his back.“It hurts-”
He clamped a hand over my mouth, driving deeper.“You know I hate spoiling the mood.” The cramps worsened with every thrust. I sank my teeth into his palm, tasting blood, but it only made him rougher.
By the time the shower turned on, I was curled into myself, the sheets soaked with sweat. The sound of Joshua fastening his cufflinks was a serpent’s hiss. His phone rang–it was Julianna:“Darling, wedding bands
tomorrow?”
“Of course, sweetheart.” The tenderness in his voice was unrecognizable. Hanging up, he glanced at my trembling form and laughed, tossing a bottle of painkillers at me.“Don’t look so pathetic. I expect you at the morning meeting.”
The door shook the chandelier when it slammed. Crawling to the bathroom, the mirror showed a stranger–a woman with bruises blooming across her stomach. As hot water rushed over my cramping muscles, a horrifying thought surfaced: My period was late last month.
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