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It’s grandiose, larger than life, dark and cold. Just like its owner.
So this is my new gilded cage.
I used to at least have some semblance of control in my apartment, but now, Adrian has stopped pretending or making an effort for my sake. His caring attitude and the soft ways he treated me were only a façade, a preparation phase so he could get me here.
In his monster cave.
Adrian steps out before the car properly stops. I flinch at the sound of the door slamming from his side, despite arming myself with anger all the way here, despite my new resolve to ruin his life as he destroyed mine.
When he opens my door and I attempt to grab my crutch, he pulls me out in one firm yank. I try resisting him, but he throws me over his shoulder like some Neanderthal and barges inside the house. My large veil falls down his back and skims the ground. Blood rushes to my head from the position and the humiliation of being seen this way by all of his damn guards who followed us from the church.
I don’t even get to focus on my surroundings as he eats the distance in large steps as if he’s on a mission.
Twisting, I bang on his back. “Let me go!”
He doesn’t respond, not when I dig my nails into his jacket, and not even when I bite and squirm. It’s like he doesn’t feel my hits, as if they’re the rebellion of a toddler.
“Let me down!” I scream.
His hand comes down hard on my ass and I yelp as the slap echoes in the air. But my muscles don’t lock up until his sharp words pierce through my chest. “You screwed yourself over tonight, Lia, so it’ll be wise to shut the fuck up. You don’t want to test me right now.”
I go limp in his hold, and it’s not only due to his threat.
If I want to come out of this marriage unscathed—or as unscathed as possible—I need to be smart when dealing with him and pick my battles.
Adrian’s anger doesn’t seem to lessen, even after I stop struggling. If anything, his strides widen as he carries me down the hall and kicks the door of a room open, then slams it.
He places me down on the bed, and if I’m not imagining things, I’d say he was gentle so as not to hurt my leg. But of course I’m imagining things. Adrian’s caring side is merely a damn illusion that he uses for his own favor as he pleases.
What’s the use of thinking about it, when he stained my entire life with today’s wedding and everything that followed?
The pregnancy is the only thing that I don’t mourn, because I felt—and continue to feel—an instant connection with my baby. However, Adrian is far from being the model father or husband. He’s just using the child and the marriage to crush me under his thumb.
He yanks his jacket free and throws it behind him, then unbuttons his shirt, revealing his taut, muscular chest and his rippling, cut abdomen.
I look away from him because I refuse to get caught up in his physical beauty, in how attracted I actually am to him.
All of those feelings are hormonal and physical reactions. They mean nothing.
I lean on my hands on the bed, carefully maneuvering my dress and my cast on the mattress so that I’m sitting with both legs stretched out in front of me. He can show me his worst tonight, but I’ll separate my body from my mind and my heart. It’s time I wake up and see Adrian for what he truly is—an unfeeling monster.
He removes his belt and loops it around his strong hand, and when he speaks, his voice is laced with a subtle threat, “What did I tell you before we went into Sergei’s office?”
I lift my chin and purse my lips.
He steps closer, or more like, he stalks, similar to a large cat with a black soul. “What did I say, Lia?”
“I wasn’t going to let you talk about me as if I were an object and stay quiet about it. I might have lost my dream, but I haven’t lost my pride and self-worth. I won’t allow you or your stupid bosses to humiliate me.”
“Wrong answer.”
He reaches for me and I flinch back out of pure survival instinct. Everything in me tells me to escape this man, to stay as far away from him as possible. But wherever I go, he’s standing there like a permanent shadow. It’s been like this since the first time I saw him kill a man in cold blood.
Adrian wraps both hands around my waist and flips me, forcing me to lie flat on my stomach with my head on the pillow. He rips the zipper down my back and yanks the dress away, letting the white silk pool by the bed. Since it has a built-in bra, I’m in only my panties and my veil that’s now draped by my side.
When Adrian sits next to my good leg, I stare out of the corner of my eye to find him looping the wide leather around his hand a few more times. The sight liquefies my insides, both in utter fear and maddening anticipation.
“You seem to have forgotten how things go, Lia. But I’ll be happy to whip it out of you until you learn your place.”
