Page 59

MARISELA

A s good as it felt, as much control as I regained, it wasn’t enough. It was never enough. It was something I would have to come to accept. That part of my life, how much I enjoyed my sexuality, it was over.

Truth be told, it was probably for the best. It meant I could stay focused, instead of being so lust drunk on a man I was supposed to be avoiding. It meant I maintained the upper hand when it came to my fiancé and his brother.

That didn’t mean I was dead. It also didn’t mean I didn’t appreciate the way Adrian whimpered for me.

The way he looked at me whenever I dropped to my knees and stared up at him through my lashes.

How he clawed and begged. It was a different kind of satisfaction.

An indulgence I enjoyed as the wedding date crept closer and closer.

Until it was nearly here. Less than twenty-four hours and I would wear the burden of a ring that would lock a chain around my ankle at the same time it offered me the key.

I’d gotten it all down on paper. I wasn’t so dumb as to take Tate for his word.

A prenup as well as a contractional agreement that gave me forty-nine percent stake in his father’s company…

upon the old man’s demise. And gave my soon-to-be husband the right to fuck whoever he wanted, including me, as long as it didn’t affect the Prescott legacy, any of the shareholders, or the combined profits—legalese for be careful where you deposit your sperm .

With one stipulation, my virginity to seal the deal.

Something I never had any desire to keep and didn’t care if I lost anymore. The fact gratification was removed from the equation just made it that much easier to give it away to a man I could barely tolerate. In exchange for everything I would get in return.

Tomorrow was the day. I glanced around the small bridal suite, dragging a comb through my loose waves as I stared at the girl in the mirror, who appeared as anxious as she was resolute. Until a tapping had me looking towards the door.

I slipped off the seat, the hem of my nightgown clinging to my thighs as I crept closer to the sound. Wrapped my palm around the handle and started to twist before the door was already pushing forward in my direction.

“What are you doing here?” I hissed as Adrian quietly clicked the door closed behind him, his hair tussled and the sleeves of his white dress shirt rolled up to his elbows. He set a small duffle bag down on the floor by his feet, his eyes never leaving mine as he rose to his full height again.

I didn’t know how he did it. How he could appear both disheveled and relaxed at the same time. Eerily calm yet feral.

He didn’t answer me, taking two steps forward and dipping his head, his lips brushing mine.

Like he was tasting me instead of kissing me.

Like he hadn’t tasted me a million times before.

When he pulled back again, I could see how dilated his pupils were.

He was on something. Or he’d been drinking.

Maybe a mixture of both. It was hard to tell.

Adrian just had this way of keeping his guard up unless his pants were down and then I could read him like a picture book.

“You wearing that for me or him ?” Adrian quirked a brow, jutting his chin towards my silky nightgown. A pearly white against my dark hair and skin.

I rolled my eyes. “You’re being dramatic. He’s my husband. At least he’s going to be in a few hours. And you’re going to be my very platonic brother-in-law. You’re just going to have to accept that.” I shrugged, turning on the ball of my foot and throwing over a shoulder, “I have.”

“And what if I don’t?” he grunted in a way that had me turning back to look at him. Something was off. His tone, his demeanor. It was all off.

“What if you don’t what , Adrian?”

“You asked me what I was doing here. What if I told you there was a way out? A place for us to go. Without having to worry about your father, Tate, any of ?em. What would you say?”

“I would say you should probably go and find somewhere to sober up. Somewhere that’s not here.” I crossed my arms over my chest and pinned him with a glare. The man was talking nonsense. He was also mistaking whatever was going on between us for more than it was. Which was nothing.

Neither of us had the luxury of making it more than that.

“I’m not drunk, Marisela. Just shot up with enough adrenaline to take down a small horse.

Needed it in case those guards of yours put up a fight.

” He grinned. More like snarled. “They didn’t by the way.

Didn’t even know what hit ?em before the sedative was already working its way through their systems. Must have been drinking on the job. ”

I looked past Adrian towards the door again. As if I could somehow see through it and out into the hallway. I couldn’t, but I couldn’t stop myself from trying either. “What do you think is going to happen here?”

Adrian opened his mouth to speak, and I quickly cut him off. I didn’t really want him to answer anyway. I didn’t need him to. I knew what he was thinking just by looking at him.

“You honestly thought you would come in here and what? Save me? Wait until the last possible minute and then swoop in on your white horse and save me from myself? Is that really what you thought? Are you that delusional?”

He didn’t move, other than to tilt his head slightly to one side to look at me. “Some things take time, Marisela. Planning. I was never going to actually let you go through with this shit.”

“Let me?” I forced a laugh, so loud and jarring it had Adrian scowling before his mask dropped back in place again.

“Who are you to let me do anything? This is my decision. One that I didn’t have a hand in making.

Not at first. But one I have come to accept is what’s best for me.

Marrying Tate, that is what’s best for me.

” I didn’t explain further. What happened between me and my husband wasn’t his brother’s business anyway.

It was like watching an animatronic power down, some sort of robot that had been overloaded and couldn’t compute. Like we were speaking foreign languages and all Adrian could hear was nonsensical chatter. Until only one concept seemed to land.

“He’s going to want to sleep with you. He’s going to want to fuck you, Marisela.” He was pacing now, my gaze bouncing towards the duffle bag just out of reach as part of me started to question the contents.

“And? You don’t think I can close my eyes and pretend I’m somewhere else for a couple of minutes? I’ve been doing it every day for my whole damn life!” I shouted back.

Adrian stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes darker than I’d ever seen them before. More black than brown, so that I felt as though I was now staring into a pair of lifeless pupils. “I’m not going to let him have you.”

“You don’t have a choice!”

“That’s where you’re wrong, princess.” Adrian growled in my direction before storming towards me. His jaw set tight and his nostrils flaring. And suddenly, he wasn’t a robot anymore. He was a beast.