Page 8 of Love on the Run

Cold dread seeps deep into my bones. This whole love makes you weak bs again.

“So, I make you weak?”

A slow blink, then his gaze slides away, looking out into the garden just beyond the window. “Not anymore.”

He might as well have slapped me to the damn ground.

I look at him and it's like he’s moved on. So many thoughts spiral through my head.

“Oh,”

His gaze snaps back to me. Maybe he didn’t count on letting that slip out.

“Hana—”

I raise my hand. “No worries, I need to go get Asa ready for bed.” I keep my voice calm and light, but I know he’s not fooled. I also know he won’t make me give face with the possibilityof servants or the family overhearing us. I back-pedal halfway across the room before hurrying away from him.

So, Kana wasn’t the only deception. My brain screams as I pull the door closed with a soft click.

He’s bored with me.

He doesn’t love me anymore.

Strong arms pick me up, dragging me back to the present. To my nightmare, as my monster pulls me close to his chest and stalks out of our son’s room.

SEVEN

BAD TO THE BONE

Akchiro

“Ahh…” Flower gasps when I toss her little ass onto our bed. Watching her roll twice before she stops the tumble, sitting up in the most delightful dishevelment makes me almost want to smile if not for the searing anger I feel at the current moment, not to mention the need to fuck her into submission.

I can feel her slipping from me. I don’t like that. She’s mine. She’ll always be mine. She needs to realize it. I need to feel it.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to prove, Akchiro.” The way she says my name–with acid dripping from each syllable is like a blade being taken to my flesh.

She straightens her silk kimono styled robe, righting herself with as much dignity as she can muster. She has her hair tied into two long, tightly twisted ponytails. Her eyes are on fire, but I can still see the slight tremble of her lips.

“I don’t have to prove anything, Flower. It seems you need reminding of exactly who I am.” I pull the black silk long-sleeved Henley over my head, tossing it on the upholstered bench at the end of our bed.

“You’re supposed to be my husband, Asa’s father, not some monster who locks up young women, but maybe being with us is too boring for you, so you needed a spark of excitement.”

I stop cold at the implications of her words.

“Are you saying I used her in some way?”

She flinches. Not from me shouting. No. My words are like silk, but they cut through the room like a viper in grass honed on its prey.

“You kept it a dirty little secret.” Words, a hiss. Her breasts rising rapidly. Her almond toned skin flushes peach high on her cheekbones. Eyes turning liquid with unsuppressed rage, challenge me; try and convict me with one dismissive glare.

I will have none of it. “You know who the fuck I am. You knew when you married me. Don’t try to act like you don’t know the man who you’ve given yourself to. The only one who will ever know you.”

She rolls her eyes like “whatever” then slides her gaze, her mouth kicking up in what I can only determine in a “wanna bet” type of smirk.

My mind trips back to the night that changed our world and shattered our bliss three years ago. For an entire year after seeing her hugging Marchellis at an event hosted by my company’s charity division, I raged. I burned everything down looking for her; thinking she’d ran off with him. I tracked him like a wolf, only to realize he’d taken a leave of absence from his position with his NBA team to help his friend, FADE, the infamous rap mogul, recover from a near fatal gunshot wound. I thought I’d hit a dead end. There’d been no sightings of him and a new love interest.

I’d almost given up when I saw an article about FADE’s family and the unusual names they all had. My attention was drawn to the sisters, named Willow and Flower. It was then that I knew her name was not Ellington, as she led me to believe,but Carrington. Taking this information, I decided to punish her, taking away everything she loved all that mattered to her because she had taken everything from me—herself.

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