Page 132 of Mama Si's Paradise

Then one of the doors to the dining room opened, and Aster’s eyes met mine.

“Miss Hayes, Master Romin requires your presence in his office.”

All chatter between the other brides stopped instantly.

“Please join him—immediately.” Aster gave me a plastic smile, turned around and stepped out the door, closing it behind her almost soundlessly.

I turned to Lucinda, doubting my own sanity for a moment. “Did she just?—”

“Yes,” Lucinda said. “Master Romin is waiting—go. He hates to be left waiting.”

Fuck. Me.

“Move, Fall, dear,” said Vera from the other side. “You know the way.”

I did know the way.

And I did move, but reality didn’t feel very real as I walked all the way to the first tower all by myself. No guards, no other brides, just me.

Romin wanted to seejust me.

The doors to his office seemed to just pop up in front of me out of thin air—how the hell did I get here so fast?!—and the guard didn’t even give me a second to get myself together before opening them.

The next moment, Grey filled my vision and my legs stopped working, my body frozen in place right in the doorway.

Fuck, Grey was coming toward me, and he was bloody—again.

This time a tiny bit of blood was coming out of the corner of his lips, and his dark grey shirt was torn, his left sleeve completely shredded like someone had clawed at the fabric. I could see the curves of his biceps through the tears perfectly fine, and I might have stared for a moment there. That’s why I noticed his skin was dirty again, and thin raw marks sliced their way around those thick arms here and there. His hair was all over the place, muddy as well, same as his dark wash jeans, but at least the denim wasn’t torn anywhere that I could see.

Was it the cougar? Was he fuckingwrestlingwith that beast in his tower?

Curiosity burned me like wildfire.

His eyes, though. The way his pupils dilated at the sight of me, like he was just as surprised to see me there as I was to see him. His step didn’t even falter. He didn’t freeze in place like me. He wasn’t limping at all like he had been doing last night, and that just shocked me. How the hell had he healed so fast? That wasn’t even twenty-four hours!

Inside the office, Romin was talking to someone else—I imagined the other brothers, but Grey was on his way out.

Grey was right in front of me in the blink of an eye.

Shit, shit, shit—move!

“Good evening, Fall.”

There I went, doubting my sanity again.

I squinted my eyes, trying to figure out if I’dreallymade the whole thing up last night.

“Can you not hear me?” he said, and the corner of his lips, that same one that was bleeding, curled up. As in,in a smile.On Grey’s face.

“You’re not limping,” I muttered, then cleared my throat. “And, yes, good evening, Grey.”

That’s when I realized—I called himGreylast night, too, and he didn’t correct me. I was supposed to address them asMasterbefore their names, yet he didn’t say a single thing, except…

“You look beautiful tonight.”

I was struck speechless for so long healmost smiledagain.

My cheeks were on fire when I remembered what I had on.

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