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It would be like looking into that warm window below. It would be like touching the edge of something when she wanted the whole entire thing.

He lowered his head, and his mouth touched hers.

And it was all she could do not to cry.

Chapter Ten

Mine.

The moment that he kissed her it became clear.

Mine.

What had he been thinking?

There was no other option.

She was his.

She was his, and he could not see it any other way. She would have to belong to him in every way. Because he could never let another man touch her. He could never touch somebody else while this existed inside of him.

Esme belonged to him.

She was his wife now.

His wife.

He hadn’t expected to feel changed by vows written hundreds of years ago by strangers, for other people to say to each other, people who’d had normal lives. He had thought that the vows would be so far removed from who he was and what he had experienced that they would never affect him.

He had been wrong.

So very wrong.

This had changed something. It had changed everything.

He was a man with all the money and resources the world had to offer. But these words, this moment, they had changed more than money ever had. That money ever could.

She was pregnant with his baby and now she was his wife.

It mattered.

It mattered very much.

Alex had planned the lavish reception for after the ceremony, but he just wanted to take her away.

Still, he couldn’t deny her this. She had wanted the wedding.

He only wanted her.

The entire château had been rented out for them for after the wedding—which had been a ludicrous gesture on Alex’s part, especially given that he knew this union was more about what he had demanded than anything else.

The crowd cheered for them, and he took her hand, walking with her down the aisle, and into the château. He closed the door behind them, and then he backed her up against the wall, cupping her chin in his hands. “I want you,” he said.

He was one of the richest men in the world. He could afford to spend some of his pride on this. To admit how badly he needed her. How badly he wanted this.

Oh, how he wanted her. Needed her. It was beyond anything he had ever experienced before. Beyond anything he had ever felt. Beyond what he had even thought was possible.

He had known nothing. Nothing about desire, nothing about attraction. Not until her.