t of the club's

b away the image of his friends' shocked faces, trying to shove the words he'd just spoken back down his own thr

emerge, pulled the Mayb

e was

urs, a portrait of anxious devotion. She rushed forward, her b

runk. You shoul

ey saw her. Kian let out a low, contemptuous laugh. It was barely au

ckets and smiled a tight, humorless smile. "Well, look at

smoothed it back into a mask of worried innocence.

suasive. She opened the back door of the Maybach and l

ter if nothing happened. The image alone-Euan Corbett's car parked outside her building all night-wo

. He was malleable. She reached up, her fingers brushing his chest, m

s snapp

h exhaustion and fury, but they

way. The movement wa

cted at the driver. He didn't look at Aleah

ned Aleah standing alone on the sidewalk, the express

ted her offer. He just knew he had to go back to the penthouse. Some invisible, irrational tether

thouse door clicked open with

door open and

ere sh

way, wrapped in a single, stark white bath towel. She had retreated to the shower again, as if trying to scrub the very memory of the evening off her s

d pure. U

n's hands on her, slammed back into his mind with the force of a physical b

ight of him, his clothes rumpled, his eyes burning with a dangerous light

vement was all it took.

contempt. He took a step toward her, his presence dominating the s

s words snapped something inside her. Th

ng with ice, "but I'm still cleaner than you are, walking in

his wasn't the pliable, agreeable woman he had married. This was a st

aze d

saw it. A small, ugly, reddish-purple b

grabbed her in his sleep-addled state. He

, it was a love bite

He dropped to one knee, his hand shooting out an

a ragged, animalistic rasp. "Is this

kle. She cried out, trying to pull her leg bac

me! You'r

oke the last thre

p an arm around her waist. In one fluid, violent motion, h

in the air. A scream tore from her throat, raw and terrified. She pound

ey and his expensive cologne fi

Not to the guest ro

ng for the m

ess terror, Cornelia knew the nightma