Page 74 of Vengeful Vows

Unable to watch him watching me, I avert my eyes.

“Now turn around, and spread your legs as wide as you can, then hold your ankles.”

Each thing he demands is more obscene than the last.

But this? I can’t be that exposed to him. “No.”

“Oh you’ll show me all your secrets, Bella,” he vows. “You can do so willingly or not.” He shrugs. “I don’t care either way.” He makes a show of unfastening his bow tie and holding it in front of me. “What’s it to be? Shall I secure you in the position that I want while I explore you?”

He’s a monster. The monster who will haunt my every night.

“Make your choice.”

Knowing he will make good on his threat and use clothing as bondage if necessary, I step out of the puddle of white my gown has created.

I tell myself he’s seen me already. This can’t be any worse than the way he was licking me a few minutes ago.

But it is different. Horrifyingly so.

He grabs hold of my butt cheeks and parts them so he can see my ass as well as my pussy.

“I love the way you are so wet already.”

And I hate that my body betrays me to him.

“So pretty.”

He strokes me, plays with me, makes me yearn for him again. I despise him as much as I desire him.

“I have to have you.”

As if he hasn’t turned my world inside out, he helps me to stand.

“Get on the bed.”

My heart stops as the moment becomes more real.

But if we get this over with, we can go to the reception, and I won’t have the dreaded wedding night still in front of me.

I hurry across the room and dive beneath the covers.

He laughs, and the sound is slightly chilling. As he’s already proven, there’s no way to hide from him.

His gaze on me, he shrugs out of his tuxedo jacket and tosses it on a nearby chair, on top of his bow tie.

As he removes his cuff links, green gemstones seemingly blink in the light filtering in through the window.

Those, along with the studs from his shirt, are dropped onto a nightstand.

“Look at me.”

I’d prefer not to.

In fact, I’d be fine if he blindfolded me.

With a shrug, his shirt is gone, and I gasp. He’s all hard, defined muscle without an ounce of fat anywhere, but there are nicks and scars all over his body, proving he hasn’t had an easy life.

And won’t in the future either, I remind myself. Though I’d like to believe what he’s told me previously, that the Moretti family are businesspeople, his body says otherwise.

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