They seeped in.
Like poison.
Like filth.
My breath hitched, and my fingers clenched so tightly around the porcelain that I feared it would shatter.
The room suddenly felt too small, the walls creeping closer, the air growing thick, suffocating, and unbearable.
“Once we are wed, you will learn to obey and serve my purposes,” Winston continued, his breath foul as it slithered across my skin.
He leaned in.
His lips puckered and were grotesque.
A thing pretending to be a man.
My stomach twisted—a violent churn of revulsion and panic.
I recoiled, my hand flying to his chest, a feeble, trembling barrier against the inevitable horror of him.
He laughed.
Low.Dark.Possessive.
“You’ll learn your place,” he murmured, his fingers tightening around my wrist, his grip a promise of torment to come.
“You’ll serve your purpose, and in time…”
A pause.A leer.A cruel smirk slithered across his lips.
“You’ll come to enjoy it.”
The words coiled around my spine like a vice, bile rising in my throat.
I wanted to scream.To run.
To erase the feel of his touch.
But I sat.Trapped.Frozen.
And Lord Winston smiled.
“Don’t bother resisting,” he sneered, leaning in closer.“You’re mine now.There’s no escape from that.”
A knock at the door fractured the moment, shattering the silence.
The butler entered—his expression carefully schooled into indifference, but not before I caught the brief flicker of something else.Alarm.
“You are needed at once in the east wing, my lord,” he announced, his voice cutting through the thick air like a scalpel.
Lord Winston’s grip lingered for a heartbeat too long before he released me, his bony fingers trailing across my wrist like the legs of a spider retreating to its web.
“I don’t want you to leave,” he said, his displeasure barely concealed beneath the strained civility in his voice.His milky eyes locked onto mine, the unspoken command clear.“Look around.Make yourself at home.”
Then, turning to the butler with a conspiratorial tilt, he added, “Mr.Pemberton, please show Lady Alexander around.Make her feel… comfortable.In the areas of the house deemed suitable.”
Their gazes met.
