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Fuck.
We drove to town in silence, and I tried to keep the grin off my face as Belle looked all around at the scenery. Big eyes and open mouth, as if she’d never seen a beautiful countryside before. Maybe she hadn’t.
I was in the dark about her past. As I thought about the bruises on her skin, my mind swarmed with unanswered questions, but I refrained from asking. It wasn’t my place to pry. After all, what mattered most to me was between her legs.
Upon reaching the town, I led Belle to a women’s clothing boutique, wasting no time. As we stepped out of the car, I noticed her tense demeanor and nervous glances at passersby as we headed toward the store. Her soft features were riddled with fear—the same fear I had spotted on the security cameras when she first trespassed in my castle. Though I tried to brush it off, a nagging sense of concern lingered within me.
I took Belle to the quiet shop, hoping she would relax a bit, but she remained on edge. Her gaze kept darting toward the windows, watching people pass by on the street. As I placed my hand on her shoulder, she jumped in fright. I knew I had to ask her about her fear, but before I could say anything, a woman interrupted us. The woman stopped in her tracks, staring at us with a mixture of shock and sympathy, as she looked at my visible burns and Belle’s less-than-perfect appearance. I rolled my eyes and stepped forward, realizing that the woman was too stunned to speak.
“Did Maxwell speak to you yesterday?” I asked as I took another step forward.
A lightbulb clicked into place, and she clasped her hands together. “Oh yes. I’m so sorry, Mr. Carrington. I didn’t know it—”
“Please. This is Belle.” I motioned with my hand.
A strained smile pulled at her lips and she extended her hand in Belle’s direction. “Welcome.”
“She’ll need a full wardrobe to span the year, and a coat,” I said, glancing at my watch. “You have two hours.”
I left Belle with the woman and headed in the direction of a shop I desperately needed to visit. The downtown area of Zermatt wasn’t that big, and small shops, along with restaurants and fancy hotels, lined the stoned paved streets. Tourists strolled along, walking in wide-eyed awe as they took in the sights. I hated peak season. I hated people, especially those who thought they had a bumper on their ass. A few minutes later, I pulled into an alleyway and stopped in front of a black door with a rose on the front. The last time I stepped into this club was four years ago, when Charlotte was alive.
Her sexual appetite was the opposite of mine, but even with simple pleasures being enough to bring her over the edge, she indulged me from time to time. I never knew if she really enjoyed my primal ways, or if she just went along with them to make me happy. The thoughts left me when the door opened, and a well-dressed man gave me a curt nod. The tailored suit let me know he’s a Kavaghan, one of the four brothers who own numerous undisclosed chains of secret society sex clubs around the world. It’s exclusivity at its finest, with only the wealthiest being allowed to play.
As I entered the lavender-lit building, a wave of adrenaline surged through me, but it quickly dissipated as guilt washed over me like a tidal wave. Since losing Charlotte, I had abandoned so many things, and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to delve back into this familiar territory. But it was necessary. Belle had awoken something deep within me, something I had buried alongside my wife, and it was clawing its way to the surface, eager to break free.
When I returned to the boutique to collect Belle, she was standing next to three racks of clothing wrapped in plastic. I lingered behind her for a minute as I took her in. She had a hard time keeping still, and her hands roamed over the wrapped clothing. If she wanted to jump up and down like a child, she suppressed the urge. The saleswoman emerged from the back, giving away my arrival, and Belle turned on her heel to face me.
As I browsed through the racks, she let out a nervous laugh, and I could feel her tension rising. She began making excuses, claiming that she didn’t really need all these clothes, and that she had gotten carried away. I paid little attention to her words; buying the entire boutique would have had no impact on my finances. After selecting some clothes, the woman handed them to me in a bag, and Belle watched silently.
“What about the rest?” Belle asked as she followed me out of the shop.
They will deliver them. Unless you think three racks of clothing will fit in my car?”
I winged a brow in her direction and opened the passenger side door for her. She settled in, and I clenched my jaw when she tossed me one of her innocent little smiles.God, I hated it.
As we made our way back to the castle, my phone chimed, reminding me of an impending meeting I dreaded attending. Glancing at the dashboard, I was confident we would arrive in good time, but our progress slowed as we encountered a stretch of road undergoing construction. Frustration bubbled up inside me as construction workers littered the roadway, placing orange cones and reducing the lanes to a single track. I released a deep growl of annoyance, wishing someone had warned me about the construction beforehand.
My impatience only grew as we sat in the traffic, so I made a sudden decision to turn the car around and take a back road that led directly to the castle. I pushed down on the accelerator, speeding down the road with little regard for the layer of snow covering it as I drove twenty over the speed limit. It wasn’t until it was too late that I realized the back roads were never salted, and under the dusting of snow was a fresh sheet of ice.
As I drove down the back road at a reckless speed, my car hit an unseen patch of ice hidden beneath the snow. Despite my frantic efforts to brake and steer, the car slid out of control toward a nearby tree. Belle’s piercing scream only matched the terror I felt as we hurtled toward the inevitable collision. In that split second before impact, a wave of regret washed over me. Then darkness descended.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, the brightness of the room and the dryness of my mouth caused a sharp pain in my head. Despite the discomfort, I attempted to look around and found myself in my bedroom, with my doctor from New York and Barclay standing on one side of the bed, while Belle stood on the other side.
“What happened?” I asked, trying to sit up. The room spun, but Barclay took my arm to assist while the doctor arranged pillows to support me.
“We were in an accident,” Belle said, her voice gentle, as if she was trying not to make my headache worse.
It came back to me, and I winced, knowing that I fucked up. My eyes scanned Belle, but she appeared uninjured. She was also wearing her new clothing. It was the first time I’d seen her in clothes that fit her right, showing off her curvy shape.
The way her jeans clung to her like a second skin made her even more delicious.
Barclay moved in with a glass of water for my parched throat while Belle and the doctor moved to the foot of my bed. They stood close together and talked in low voices. I couldn’t hear what was being said, and anger coursed through me, making my headache worse.
I hated being out of the loop, and they were right there, probably talking aboutme.
“What’s going on?” I snapped, making them both look at me.
