Page 10 of Breaking the Annulment

Aurelia bunched the sheet up and covered herself bit by bit as she slid off Michalis and sat up. Shame and something darker twisted inside her. She’d let him claim a physical right that sealed their marriage beyond any legal loophole. “No. This was a mistake. All we’ve done is complicate things.”

Michalis sat up, eyes locking onto hers with a fierce, possessive spark. “What we’ve done is consummate our marriage,” he said softly, brushing a thumb across her partedlips. “I am not a technicality you can toss aside with a piece of paper.”

“Wait. This is all about your ego?” she whispered, angry tear suddenly pricking her eyes. “You’re willing to ruin my life––our lives––to save yourego?”

He looked at her without a shred of remorse. “No one’s life is being ruined, and until you can see that, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you from running again.” He tucked her hair behind her ear. “I won’t apologize for that.”

She swallowed hard, staggering upright on shaky legs, yanking the sheet around her. “I don’t know who I hate more right now––you, or me.” she said, her voice cracking with the effort to hold back her tears.

He stood, unwilling to have a confrontation lying down. He’d known it would come, as soon as she was thinking rationally again and realized the true consequences.

“We both know there’s more than hate here, Aurelia,” he murmured, putting his discarded pants back on. “Annulment was never an option for us. All I did was make you see it.”

Shame burned her cheeks. She took a step back, hugging herself. “Then I want a divorce. Last night doesn’t change anything.”

“Yes, it does,” Michalis said firmly. “No divorce. No running back to him… I won’t let you go.”

She shook her head, too upset to say anything more. All of her plans lay shattered at her feet, and she had no one to blame but herself and her traitorous body.

“I’m going to take a shower. You can join me if you want, or you can run back to the guest bedroom. I’m willing to give you room to breathe, Aurelia, time to fully process what I said, but make no mistake, I meant every word––we’ve consummated our marriage. You are my wife, and I will never let you go.”

She stared at his retreating back, almost numb. She didn’t need to look to know there was blood on the sheets––and in the water. Fool that she was, she had trapped herself in a cage with a predatory shark; only this time, there was no legal loophole from which to escape. She was now married to Michalis in every sense of the word.

As he disappeared through the bathroom door, she slumped back onto the edge of the bed and wrapped her arms around herself. Her mind spun with fear, guilt, and an unshakable awareness of the intense passion they’d just shared. Even if her mind could block out what she’d done, her body was all too willing to remind her. She was tender and sore down there, and if that wasn’t damning enough, her inner thighs still had traces of dried blood and semen on them. She’d wanted an annulment… but in a single, scorching encounter, she’d lost that option; allowed a virtual stranger to punch her V-card.

Despite what Michalis said, she could still try to run, but then what about David? He was in love with her, wanted to get married and start a family. She wanted those things, too––it was the whole reason she’d come out of hiding after seven years. How could she tell him what she’d done? How would he ever be able to forgive her? How, when she couldn’t forgive herself?Oh god, what if I get pregnant from last night?

Tears slipped free as she realized how entangled she’d become in Michalis Giannopoulos’s darkness in less than twenty-four hours—and how the line between hate and need might be far thinner than she’d ever imagined.

Late Sunday night

Aurelia woketo moonlight spilling across her bed. For a heartbeat, she forgot why her body ached. Then the events of the morning slammed into her: their confrontation, the collision of tempers, and the heat that had flared out of control.

She’d run back to her room and cried until her eyes were puffy and swollen and her head was pounding. Then she took a long, hot bath. The rest of the day, she’d stayed in her room, refusing to come out, even for meals, alternating between fits of rage and bouts of crying. Emotionally exhausted, she’d finally collapsed onto the bed around 11:00 pm.

She sat up slowly, pressing the back of her hand to her mouth. The bedroom lights were off, leaving only the glow from the window to illuminate Michalis’s imposing silhouette. He stood against the far wall, half-dressed, as if he’d been pacing. Waiting.

Her cheeks burned with anger and a swirl of confused shame. “What are you doing in here?” she demanded, voice raw.

Michalis turned, crossing his arms. “I was making sure you didn’t try to slip away the moment the house was quiet.”

She let out a hollow laugh. She gestured at the rumpled sheets, at her disheveled state. Each movement reminding her of the intimacy they’d shared. “Can’t exactly sneak out while I’m…dressed like this.”

She’d never felt so sore—or so ashamed––because the moment she heard his deep voice, the moment she recognized him in the shadows, her raw, tender flesh began to pulse and throb, as if in happy recognition, reminding her that this was the man who had done this to her, the one who invaded her sacred temple, took possession of her, teased her, stroked her, made her feelsoooogood.

Oh, yes, that tender part of her was very aware of who, and where, he was. And she was telling the other traitorous girls all about it. They were perking right up. Aurelia crossed her armsin front of her, not wanting Michalis to see how much he was affecting her.

A beat of charged silence stretched her nerves to the breaking point. Finally, Michalis stepped closer, the tension in his gaze crackling. “Does that mean you’re considering it? Are you planning to run back to him the moment my back is turned?” It wasn’t a question; it was an accusation, his voice harsh with mingled disbelief and possession. “Will you tell him how I made you scream my name?”

Heat scorched her cheeks. “My personal life is none of your business.”

He scoffed, eyes flicking to her bare legs, half-covered by the tangled sheets. “You’re my wife. Everything about you is my business.”

Her hands twisted nervously around the sheets. “We both know this…farce of a marriage was never real. One night of sex isn’t going to change that.”

“No?” he asked, voice dropping. “Because I recall you clawing my shoulders like you wanted to sink into me and never let go. Feels pretty real to me.”

She swallowed a scathing reply, fury mixing with mortification. “It was a mistake. I thought you said you would give me time…David—” Her words faltered, shame rushing up at the reminder that she’d given her first time to Michalis Giannopoulos instead of David, in an act of raw, angry passion.

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