Page 31 of Bared Betrayal

It’s not just anger emanating from him. There’s something else there hidden underneath the fury. A blazing heat. A sinister possession.And I’m suddenly overcome with a need to keep on digging until it unleashes.

His hand encloses my throat, and I’m now hyperaware of how good his hatred feels against my skin. The bite of his fingers. The darkness in his eyes. His unbridled rage.

This is madness.

“Why are you marrying my son?”

“Because I love him.”

The sound of his malicious laughter hits the walls. “Love? What the fuck do you know about love?”

“Apparently, more than you. Now, let me go.” I struggle against his crushing hold, but it’s futile as he uses his body to trap mine, wedging his thick, muscular thigh between my legs, forcing the memory of his hard body settling on top of mine into my head.

A strangled gasp rushes from my lips, and his gaze drops to my mouth. It’s a moment of pure heat, charged with something I can’t put into words. But whatever it is, it’s fucking with my head because my mind is still screaming at me to fight him while my body pleads for me to surrender. It’s electrifying, and by the way his gaze burns while focused on my lips, I’m wondering if he’s feeling it, too.

But the insanity is fleeting, and I wince as he presses his fingers against the throbbing vein in my neck.

“This is what’s going to happen,” he starts. “You’re going to break off this engagement—”

“Are you insane?”

“—and you are going to leave this fucking city. This country. This goddamn continent, and get as much distance between you and my son as humanly possible.”

“I’ll do no such thing.” I thrash against him, an invasion of my salty tears exploding on my tongue. He pushes his thigh harder against my sex, pinning me in place. He leans down and leisurely glides his tongue across my cheek, licking at my tears.

He buries his face in my neck and rasps in my ear, “Oh, yes, you will…little lamb.”

Abruptly, he lets go of me, steps away, and I sink to the floor.

“Because if you don’t, I swear to God I will fucking destroy you.”

He walks out, slamming the door shut, and I’m left on the floor—wrecked and drenched in more shame than I’ve ever felt.

I allow the guilt and shame to consume me as I lie there on the floor of the study.

What have I done?

Sebastian’s father. Gabriel King.

I cheated on my fiancé…with my future father-in-law.

Ten

KALLIE

How fucked am I?

My masked stranger is my future father-in-law. My future father-in-law is my masked stranger.

My money is on ‘I’m completely fucked.’And the odds of unfucking myself out of this situation seem as black as the coffee I’m holding.

I have no idea how long I cried on Elenor’s damn study floor last night. But after Gabriel left, I couldn’t gather the strength to get up. My mind kept toppling over the same question.

How could I be so stupid?

That night wasn’t supposed to be anything more than me trying to silence the goddamn screams in my head, to stop the constant crawling under my skin that never seemed to go away. It wasn’t supposed to be anything other than one night. Just one fucking night. But now it’s a cluster.

Sebastian found me in his grandmother’s study. I used the excuse of having too much champagne, which he believed because he was nowhere near sober. Turns out his father ruined the night for both of us, leaving one drunk out of his mind and the other crying on the goddamn floor.