Page 101 of Seduced By Contract

I see him tempering the water, testing it. His brow is furrowed, and he looks focused.

"It doesn't need to be cold. Just warm to lukewarm."

He turns off the water valve. "I changed my mind. Let's shower instead. I don't want to take any risks."

The way he says it—much more so than the words—makes my heart bleed. It's as if he's afraid something is going to happen to me or the baby. As if we are his oxygen.

No matter how much he tries to hide it, he is suffering, and I have no clue why.

I take off my clothes in record time, and then, hand-in-hand, we step into the spray.

He hugs me tight.

"What’s going on?" I ask.

"How much do you love me?"

"Don't you know yet?"

"I need to hear it."

"Beyond measure, Zeus. As it always has been between the two of us. There is no measure for how crazy I am about you."

He holds my face and stares at me for a long time. "I made Emerson Gordon commit suicide today."

I smile, thinking it's a metaphor, but when I see that his face is serious, I turn off the shower and get towels for both of us.

After we dry off, we go back to the room and, naked, lie down on the bed.

"Tell me what happened."

"Aren't you horrified?"

"Whatever led you to this, I know there was a serious reason behind it."

"The bastard killed my mother."

"What?"

He lies back on the bed, his face looking exhausted.

When he starts telling me the story, I have to sit down. The horror it causes me is so great that I have to hold myself back from vomiting.

"I don't even know who I hate more," I say, but then I correct myself: "That miserable Emerson, for sure. I hope he spends eternity burning in hell. But we’d already established that he was a monster, if we take into account that he ordered Adriel to be killed. Now I wonder about your grandparents, your mother's parents. How could they? How did they have the courage to turn their backs on their own daughter to protect their family name and heritage?"

"I don't know, Madison, but they did, and all I can think about is how my mother suffered and blamed herself for what happened."

"And then there’s that bitch of a cousin."

"Yes." He sits up but doesn't touch me. "Don't you despise me for what I did?"

"No. I would have done the same."

"But you told me not to hold a grudge."

"When I said that, I was thinking of your mother. As for Gordon, you wouldn't be human if you didn't hate him, Zeus."

“I didn't just drive him to suicide, Madison. I watched him die, and I would do it again."

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