Page 139 of Maddening Fixation

Then his murderous gaze returned to me, darker and more hateful than before. My heart slammed against my ribs as terror clawed up my throat, making it almost impossible to breathe.

This was the man I had quietly saved twice — the one whose life I protected when his brother tried to drown him in the lake at nineteen, and again three days ago when I dragged him to safety and stopped him from bleeding out after my father’s men shot him.

He didn’t know about the first time, and maybe he still didn’t know about the second.

But none of it mattered.

The same man now stared at me with such deep, seething hatred that it felt like he wanted to rip me apart and bury what was left nineteen feet underground.

My first day as his wife, and I could already see the endless hell stretching out before me.

The living room felt suffocatingly small.

The scent of cedar and expensive cologne wrapped around me like a noose.

“Sit.”

The command was low, cold, and laced with barely contained resentment.

I didn’t move.

Instead, I lifted my chin and met his gaze, even as terror screamed at me to obey. “No.”

One dark eyebrow lifted in warning.

“You don’t get to humiliate me at the altar in front of everyone...” My voice came out remarkably steady despite the fear gripping my lungs. “Then bring another woman into this house on what was supposed to be our wedding night... and still expect me to obey your every command like I’m your worthless servant.”

Romeo didn’t blink.

His stare only grew darker, heavier with pure, unfiltered hatred.

“We both agreed to this arrangement for one reason — to gain access to our grandparents’ inheritance,” I continued, forcing the words out. “It was a ridiculous condition they forced on us. I hadn’t even agreed to go through with this marriage. You did. You fixed the date. You planned the wedding. You left me with no real choice but to show up.”

A bitter smile tugged at my lips, though inside I was shaking. “And now, on the very first day of this marriage, you’ve done everything in your power to make sure I know exactly where I stand — beneath your heel.”

I shook my head, trying to ignore how dangerously still he had become.

“So tell me, Romeo... how much disrespect do you honestly expect one woman to endure before she refuses to take another step? Don’t stand there and speak to me as though I’m beneath you.”

I held his gaze, even as every instinct warned me I was pushing a man who could kill without remorse.

“And I never stole you from my sister.”

A bitter laugh escaped me.

“You threatened to do to my family exactly what you did to yours if I refused to show up on our wedding day. I didn’t choose this marriage any more than you did.”

Romeo’s jaw flexed hard, the muscle jumping with visible restraint.

His eyes burned with such intense loathing that it stole the air from my lungs.

This man hated me — truly, deeply hated me.

Slowly, he closed the distance between us until only a few feet separated us.

His emerald eyes were glacial, stripped of every trace of warmth.

“All these years,” he snarled, his voice a blade of ice dragged across raw flesh, “I rotted in that hellhole believing my brother hurled my sister from the eighth floor of the Flynn mansion like garbage.”