Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75705 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Usually I would react with almost disturbing calm to such an attack, but there was something about hearing those sweet, full lips disparage my character that had swiftly and alarmingly gotten under my skin.
Stella’s fingers clawed at my hands, the gold bangles on her wrist clinking against the old masculine watch that was far too big for her.
I pressed my body against hers, pinning her to the wall, still holding her throat firmly in my grasp. She could breathe in raspy gasps, but that was more than she deserved.
“Listen closely to me, little one. It doesn’t matter what lies your father told you. The facts are simple. You belong to me now. I will now control what you do, where you sleep, and who you associate with. You can’t even buy a fucking cup of coffee without my permission.”
“I am twenty-six, an adult. I should have access to my own money.”
If this world were a fair place, then she would be right.
She would have access to her money, and it wouldn’t have been so fucking easy for me to control her.
Too bad for her, life was anything but fair.
Fortunes and empires were built by men bold enough to claim what they wanted.
Men like me.
And at this particular moment, Stella was in my crosshairs.
I needed an obedient wife with connections and breeding. Her fortune certainly helped as well. She would bear the next brood of Manwarring sons. Maybe she would give me children that obeyed.
It would be a challenge at first. I would have preferred a more mature woman.
The young still harbored silly notions like love and happily-ever-after. They talked incessantly about nothing and had no real drive or experience. Spending time with people her age was tedious at best. To have someone young seemed like an unavoidable chore.
But then there was the lure of witnessing her come into her own, as the woman I suspected she was capable of becoming. It would be like watching something at the very moment of creation.
How fascinating that would be.
It helped that I would be the one molding her, training her.
Like the omniscient god so many amusingly suspected me of being.
The gold in her gorgeous eyes glowed with fiery indignation. “You paid the courts off.”
I shrugged one shoulder as I focused on her mouth. “Semantics.”
Tears filled her pretty eyes and spilled down her cheeks. “Why are you doing this to me?”
Leaning so close I could smell the sweet vanilla of her perfume, my lips skimmed her jaw as I whispered into her ear, “Because I have plans for you, pet. Plans that include making you my wife.”
Her golden eyes widened with understanding, or maybe it was more fear. “I will never marry you. Hell will freeze over before I—”
I cut off her words, pressing my lips to hers.
She fought me for a second, squirming against my hold.
That only made me tighten my grip on her throat and press against her harder.
She needed to learn she could fight me—but she’d never win against me.
Her only option was to submit.
CHAPTER 4
STELLA
Dark, unholy fire ignited in my veins.
For weeks, I had been so cold, as if I were frozen from the inside out.
Sitting by the fire or drinking a steaming cup of tea brought no warmth.
Nothing broke through the chill.
Until his unwanted kiss.
It was wrong. So freaking wrong.
He was an unrepentant, arrogant bastard.
He was twenty years older than me.
He was the devil who’d just stolen everything from me.
But his touch was the only thing that had managed to crack the frigid layer around my core.
With his body pressed against mine, the icy cast covering my skin cracked and broke away.
And when his lips touched mine, it all melted.
I melted.
A chilling fog had crept over every corner of my life since the accident.
It didn’t matter how many layers I wore or how high I turned the heat on. Even long baths with scalding water that left my skin raw and bright pink did nothing to warm me.
Until Lucian Manwarring had the audacity to touch me.
His kiss was dangerous.
I was holding a knife by the blade, heedless of the blood dripping over my fingers, focusing only on the warmth of the crimson drops.
I couldn’t let this happen.
With as much strength as I had, I shoved him back.
He broke the kiss and grinned down at me like he’d just learned my darkest secret.
I had given up something… and he was going to use it against me.
My stomach soured.
This man, this tall barbarian in a suit, had stolen from me.
He had taken all of my inheritance. And worse than that, he was taking my freedom.
All of my plans for the future were fading like wisps of smoke.
As if I were no more than a petulant child, I wanted to stomp my foot and exclaim, ‘no fair’.
I was an intelligent, fully capable, legal adult. Unlike half the heiresses I knew who seemed to think it was a stylish accessory to brag about their time in rehab, or getting kicked out of numerous universities, or needing their family to write a check to pay off an injured suitor.