“Ocean, this is—” My train of thought vanished into thin air. My ovaries whined at the sight of Christian looking down at his lipstick-stained finger with a sadistic smirk.
In complete shock and utter stillness, I watched him turn to Ocean and extend that same, red-stained hand. “Christian Hayes, herhusband.”
My body deflated the same way a hot air balloon did the moment it settled down at the end of the night. Just like the activity itself, Christian’s kiss was entertainment—a show of possessiveness and misogyny.
He used me to show the room I was his possession and his to control. There were tabloids of us wondering why we hadn’t gone for a honeymoon, why we were back to work like we hadn’t gotten married, and this was it.
In front of the higher society, Christian forced a performance of love onto me, and I took it like the idiot I was.
He truly wasn’t any better than Harry and the other board members.
Kissing me was a sign of how putty I was in his arms. That with him behind me, no scandal would harm or tarnish his name.
Whistles coming from different areas in the room snapped me out of my thoughts and I started moving without missing a beat.
“Excuse me,” the world came rushing back in a wave of slumbering haze. People morphed back into their separate selves instead of the blurring collage they collapsed into when Christian kissed me.
They stared, they whispered, some smiled.
I didn’t have the time to analyse their reactions when my own body tumbled over heated waves of anger and anguish.
He kissed me for them, not for himself.
I’d been so good, staying away from Christian and keeping my mouth shut. It was hard doing all of that when all I wanted was to be in his arms.
The seven years that separated us hadn’t mattered when we were together in the present.
Love didn’t mean you couldn't be angry or hurt, and his words killed me. I fell to my knees, cried until my tear ducts ran dry, and forced myself to jam the pieces of my cracked chest together.
My legs moved until I was out into a long hallway.
“Adelaide,” his voice quickly caught up behind me. I didn’t stop. Didn’t turn back. Continued walking with no destination but to get away from him as soon as I could.
There, clearing into vision, appeared an exit door at the very end of the hallway. I quickened my pace despite hearing Christian call out my name again.
“Adelaide, stop.”
He didn’t sound too happy.
Well, guess what? That made the two of us.
My palm curved around the door handle when I was dragged by his strong yet slackened hold on my upper arm.
“Let go of me,” I spoke through gritted teeth. Christian whipped me around to face him, tightening his grip. “If you don’t let me, go, I’ll scream.”
His cheek was pressed against mine, breathing so heavily that I had to pause to let him take the rest of my air.
Quiet and deadly, “Shut up.”
My jaw dropped.
How dare he speak to me like that?
Christian dragged me into an empty room.
Quickly taking in the ballroom style hall, I was shoved against the closed door.
Hands on either side of my head, Christian stared downlike a bull ready to attack.
