Page 104 of Cruel Dominion

Marriage.

A child.

I couldn’t ignore how right it felt, even as nothing more than a wild imagining.

I let my eyes fall shut.

Carter brushed his thumb across my cheekbone. “Can you accept that? All of me? Even the parts that are a little less refined than you thought?”

Less refined? Those parts weren’t just less refined, they were sharp as broken glass.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “What if there’s more? What else don’t I know, Carter?”

He took my hand. “Let me show you.”

I let him lead me down the hallway to another room. It was another bedroom, with sage green walls and a huge bed covered in luxurious bedding. Crystal vases holding elegant, dried bouquets sat on every surface.

Yet another room that didn’t look at all like it’d been designed for Carter.

“I had this prepared when you came back to town.”

“And what is this?”

He guided me to a large walk-in closet and lights automatically flicked on. It was overflowing with brand new clothing. In clear drawers, there were heaps of lacy underwear and bras in a rainbow of colors. I checked the tag of the nearest summer dress and gawked at him.

“It’s my size.”

“It’s all your size, Anna. The personal shoppers at Bloomingdale’s still had everything on file. When they realized how much money I planned to spend, they were happy to give me the details.”

I quickly opened the other drawers. There were soft cotton pajamas and sets of workout clothes waiting. I opened a panel in the wall and there were rows upon rows of shoes, and another wall of purses.

To my surprise, everything wasn’t just my size, but looked like it was my taste, too.

I would have picked out any of the sundresses on display.

“You really expected me to wear this?” I gave Carter a pointed look.

“No. I didn’t expect you to wear any of it. I just wanted you to have the option. Well, options to wear whatever you liked best. And in the spirit of being possessive and fucked up, it gives me some kind of…twisted satisfaction…to be the one who clothes you and feeds you. Who gives you what you need.”

My chest tightened. The way he talked about it was almost sweet. In a totally weird fucking way.

“Come on,” he said, snatching a satin robe from a hanger to help me into it. “There’s more.”

He brought me to the next room—a home office. I quickly noted the big, sturdy desk and windows with ocean views. But once I noticed the photo leaning against the wall, everything else ceased to exist.

I took that photo of our beach. Years ago, I gave it to Carter. I expected that by now it was in a landfill somewhere, not hanging in a place of honor on his wall. I walked close to it, looking at it in wonder. There was something haunting about the moon and clouds in black and white, making the scene both peaceful and eerie. Like something bigger lurked just beyond the frame.

“I had it delivered from my downtown office yesterday. I didn’t think I’d be able to make it in for a while, and I can’t go long without seeing it.”

“You kept it. All this time, you kept it.”

“This is as big as I could get it without it getting grainy,” he said, taking a couple of steps toward me, looking down at the shot.

“But why did you bother having it developed?”

“Because you gave it to me.”

“Thank you,” I said quietly, trying to make sense of the feelings swirling inside me. There were too many. Surprise. Confusion. Pain. Grief. Worst of all…there was hope.

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