Page 74 of Undertow

“Congrats,” I say, pouring myself a glass of wine.

She slips the ring on her finger and holds out her hand to admire it. “What do you think? Perfect, right?”

“I’d hope so since you picked it out.”

She lifts her shoulder with a smug smile. “I have good taste.”

I shake my head, studying the mounds of food I won’t eat after all. Not with the way my stomach is twisting inside me.

“Why?” I ask, looking at her for the first time. “Why me? You could have anyone. Why hunt the one person who doesn’t want this?”

The mood settles in the wake of my plea. I don’t like the desperation in my voice, but I’m too exhausted, too sanded down to live this life anymore.

She leans back in her chair, scanning me with the covetous glee of a wolf finally sinking its teeth into the fox’s neck.

“Because you were the only one I couldn’t have.”

My stomach drops as I pull my gaze away. My fists clench around the edges of my chair.

“All you had to do was give in, Shaw. Had you surrendered your pride, maybe I would have lost interest. Now…” She shrugs with a cool smile.Now I own you too.

After pushing up from the chair, she circles the corner of the table to approach me. Her gaze locks on my white knucklesstill clenched around the seat before drifting to my face. Her expression turns almost sympathetic, which I hate more than any of the other looks she throws at me.

Don’t you fucking pity me.

Air siphons from the room as she lifts her leg to straddle me. With her short, tight dress riding up her thighs, her exposed center settles against my dick. I hate that my body instinctively reacts to her advances, despite the protests of my brain and my heart. My stomach grinds at her pleased grin as she frames my face with her hands and leans close.

“Yes, Roman Shaw,” she whispers against my lips. “Iwillmarry you.”

Her kiss is rough and demanding, her fingers snaking into my hair when I don’t respond. My resistance only seems to encourage her more, and fury rages through me at her smug expression when she pulls away. Hands still locked in my hair, she tugs hard, and I hiss in a breath at the burn.

My gaze lands on hers, and I shudder at the darkness emanating from her depths. It’s familiar and grotesque, same as her father. The kind of shadow that preys on the light.

“I can’t make you love me.” She rolls her hips once, twice, and again, until I’m hard and fuming—exactly what she wants. “But Icanmake sure you never get to love anyone else.”

With that, she releases me, hops up from my lap, and returns to her seat like nothing happened.

“I can’t wait to start looking at dresses! September second, right, baby? It’s soon, of course, but we will have lots of help with the arrangements. No need to worry.” Her fake excitement scares me more than the direct threat from a moment ago.

I glare at her, absorbing her cruel smile as she confirms everything I suspected.

She’s known about this for a while.

She will do everything she can to punish me for my resistance.

Worst of all, I am neither fox nor duck. Wall nor wolf.

This broken world has made me everyone and no one, proving again and again and again that I am…

Nothing.

15

FRACTURED HEART BEATING

My chest is tight and aching by the time I get back to Julia’s house. With the violence in The Shack, the living nightmare with Scarlett, the rushed timeline that will be impossible to overcome, it’s too much too soon when I wasn’t prepared for any of it.

My focus has been slipping. My guard down as my walls crumble with each passing second. I’m losing control and I just want to disappear. I just want…