Page 44 of Unwillingly His

Just as I feared, I didn’t feel the warmth.

The water was hot. I could see how it pinkened my pale skin, but I couldn’t feel anything but that icy grip starting to enclose my body again.

As quickly as I could, I scrubbed my body clean of his touch, hoping that ridding myself of his fingerprints would somehow clear my mind of the fog of hormones and lust.

I leaned back in the water. Even if I couldn’t enjoy the warmth, I could at least enjoy the luxurious scents of the oils. The notes of vanilla, tonka bean, and jasmine floated around me, and I tried to focus on those luxurious scents. I ignored the fact that he was the one who had picked them out for me.

“Ten more minutes, miss,” the butler called from outside of the room, his accent more pronounced now that I was listening for it.

“I will be out when I am ready and not a moment before,” I responded.

Suzette may not have earned my annoyance, but the butler could deal with it. He huffed something under his breath, but I sank beneath the water so I couldn’t hear it. I needed to block him out, I needed to block everything out and think.

Lucian Manwarring wanted to marry me.

He hadn’t asked, he’d informed me.

Just like he’d informed me that my father was broke, that I was broke, and that I had to live reliant only on his goodwill.

I couldn’t believe it. I knew people with our status could easily lose fortunes. I knew people like my father could hide the loss of money for a certain amount of time, but I just couldn’t believe it.

My father was shit at keeping secrets.

Whenever he had a surprise for me or my mother, we knew something was up. Granted, he didn’t talk to us about business situations, but if he was broke, he would be worried about it, and we would know.

I didn’t understand how I was in this situation.

Could it be my fault? Should I have started working?

Or could I have done something of value instead of waiting for my life to begin once I got my inheritance?

I was twenty-six, one of the only girls in my friend group who wasn’t already married.

Maybe that was my big mistake.

Waiting around to inherit my trust. Assuming I had plenty of time to choose an influential husband who aligned with my vision of the future. One who could help me get the right charity board appointments. One with the right political connections to influence legislation. One who was willing to become a power couple for change.

When I was eighteen, I should have insisted that my father set up my own corporation. That my trust fund be transferred into my name so I had assets of my own that couldn’t be touched by anyone else.

That was always the plan, but I thought I had time. I should have had time. That time was taken from me by that drunk limo driver, and I would hate him forever.

Hating him wasn’t going to get me out of marrying a man who was literally my best friends’ father.

It wasn’t going to get me out of this situation where I was forced to sleep in his bed every night, facing the dirty things that turned my body on. That made me feel hot, euphoric, and then so dirty.

There had to be options for me.

I still had to do something, I couldn’t just sit here and let this happen.

Getting out of the tub, I stretched, letting the water slide off my body before I stepped into the cobalt blue kimono silk robe waiting for me. I wrapped it tightly around me as if that could somehow stop the chill that I was pretty sure had to be coming from within my body and went out to the bedroom.

It was blissfully empty, the entire parade of staff having left, and it looked like they were never here.

The room was immaculate.

The bed had been stripped and remade to perfection. The closet that was opposite where Lucian had grabbed his suit had been left open.

The closet was at least 15x15 feet, with a large set of drawers acting as an island in the middle of the room. The shelves and bars were full of my clothes, hat boxes tucked neatly at the very top, and even the shoes laid out in the individual little cubbies, all perfectly displayed.

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