MasukShare
002
Terakhir Diperbarui:
2025-04-29 21:56:39Serena point of View:
I laugh. it's the wrong reaction - I know that. But it escapes before I can stop it, dry and bitter and sharp enough to slice through the silence between us. "Financee?" I echo. " That's your game? You spend a quarter million on a hostage and call it romance?" he doesn't blink. Doesn't Flinch. Doesn't smile. "I didn't buy you for romance." "The what the hell-" "I bought you because I need you" He says it so plainly.. Like it's a transaction. like I'm a handbag, or a forged signature, or a weapon. I take a step back, toward the door. my breath is shallow now. I feel the cold of the marble floor through the thin slip dress they forced on me. "I don't know who you think I am," I say slowly, "But you've made a mistake." He follows. Leisurely. like a predator who knows the prey can't escape. "oh, I know exactly who you are, " he says. "Serena vale. Art student. NYU. Raised in Maine. changed your last name five years ago after your father was caught in an ethics scandal with the Bureau." My blood turns to ice. "no one knows that." "I do." He stops in front of me again, titling his head, studying me like I'm a puzzle piece that finally snapped into place. "I've been watching you for weeks," He murmurs. "why?" I whisper. Damien looks past me then, towards the painting above the fireplace - the one of the woman who looked like me. "because you're not the first woman who's worn that face" he says. I follow his gaze. "she's my dead fiancee, " he says. "Killed in a car bombing meant for me. and until I met you, I thought I'd buried her twice." something ugly twists in my chest. he thinks I'm her. or some ghost of her. But there's something else behind his words- something colder. "You Said you need me," I say carefully. "Not that you want me. So tell me- what's the catch?" he nods once , like I've passed some silent test. "My family is fractured," he says. "There are whispers that I'm unfit to lead. That I've gone soft. I need to appear settled Grounded. controlled." "A fake engagement," I say, my voice low. "To buy time," he replies. "untill I can finish cleaning up the mess my father left behind. you'll stay here. you'll wear the ring. you'll smile at the parties. And In return-" "In return?" I snap " you're holding me here like I'm your prisoner." "I could have bought someone else," he says. "someone who wouldn't ask questions. who'd obey." "Then why didn't you?" He steps closer. "Because I need someone convincing. someone strong enough to lie with their eyes." A pause then- "You've lied before, haven't you Serena?" I freeze. He knows. Not everything - but enough to see the cracks I'm my surface. "I don't lie, ", I say flatly. " I survive" His lisp curve. The first real expression I've seen on his face. "That'll do." he turns away, walks to the side table and open a velvet box. inside is a ring. not delicate. Not romantic. it's bold. platinum. Heavy. like a shackle.. He holds it out "I'll give you choice," he says. "you can leave..I'll send you back to where you came from. But if you walk away, you walk away knowing the people that took you will find you again - Only next time I ain't be the one bidding." I frowned. "You're threatening me" "I'm giving you reality," he replies. "or you can stay. wear the ring. Be my fiancee. play the part. three months. Then you walk away with enough money to disappear forever." "And in the meantime?" I ask. " Do I sleep In your bed too?" His gaze darkens. "No, not unless you want to." I hate that I feel a flicker of heat where there should only be rage. he walks towards me again, holding out the ring. "I don't need your love, " he says. " I need you performance." my hands shake. because I know I should run. but I also know he's right. if I leave now, the ones who took me will find me. or sell me again or worse. and maybe .. just maybe .. staying gives me time to access information. because Damien Alaric might think he's the one using me but I have secret too. like the fact that I know what his family did. that I know who he really is. and that I didn't just stumble into this world by accident. I came here for a reason vengeance. so I look him in the eyes. and then I slide the ring onto my finger. and I smile. "congratulations," I say. " you're engaged to the devil's daughter."
Bab terbaru
Bound To The Devil's Heir 087
Damien's point of View I’ve seen death in every form.Gunshot wounds that gushed like rivers.Men begging with their last breath.Bodies we buried at dawn because the night was too dangerous to dig graves.I’ve seen blood, betrayal, and the arrogance of men who thought they could outsmart me.But I’ve never seen anything like this.Never seen anything as disarming as terrifying as the tiny girl sleeping on Serena’s chest.My daughter.My blood.My heartbeat outside my body.Hours had passed since Serena finally drifted into exhausted sleep, but I couldn’t force my legs to move from the spot beside the bed. My daughter’s tiny breaths were the only sound in the dim room, soft and shaky, like she was still learning how to exist in this world.Serena’s hand rested protectively over her back, fingers curled lightly, her other hand still wrapped in mine even in sleep. She was exhausted, pale, but more beautiful than anything human beings had a right to be.She had given me everything I d
Bound To The Devil's Heir 086
Serena's point of View I always imagined birth would feel like a storm loud, violent, impossible to survive.But when it finally happened… it didn’t begin like thunder.It began quietly.It was past 3AM when a sharp, deep ache pulled me out of sleep. At first I thought it was the usual discomfort eight months of pregnancy teaches you to expect random pains at the worst hours. But when the second wave hit, rolling from my back to my belly with a force that made my breath catch, I knew.This was different.This was real.I pushed up on my elbows, groaning softly. “Damien…”He woke instantly. He always did. Even in sleep he hovered close to me, one arm draped over my waist, his breath warm against my neck. The moment he heard my voice tight and strained he sat up straight.“What’s wrong?” His hand cupped my cheek, eyes sharp despite the darkness.“I… I think,” I exhaled shakily as another contraction tightened my stomach, “I think it’s time.”He froze.Not in fear.In awe.His mouth p
Bound To The Devil's Heir 085
Four Months LaterSerena’s POVI never thought “home” could smell like fresh paint, vanilla candles, and Damien’s cologne all mixed together. But that’s exactly what this place was our place.Four months had passed since the world had turned itself inside out, since blood and betrayal had given way to something I still didn’t quite understand. In those months, the mansion that once felt like a fortress had become a memory, and Damien had done something I never expected from a man like him: he moved us.Not to another mansion heavy with shadows and old ghosts, but here to a house filled with windows and sunlight, a place where the curtains billowed when the breeze came through and where the floorboards creaked in ways that somehow felt alive.I padded barefoot down the wide hallway that morning, my hand instinctively resting on the slight curve of my belly. Four months. I could hardly believe it. Sometimes, when I looked at myself in the mirror, I still expected to see only the girl
Bound To The Devil's Heir 084
Damien's point of View Serena slept as if the world could not touch her hair splayed over the pillow, lashes soft against her cheek, shoulders rising and falling with steady breaths. For a long minute I simply watched her: a shape that had become the impossible center of my world.There are moments when a man knows the line he cannot uncross and moments when he knows there is nothing left but to march over it. I had crossed more lines than I could remember. Tonight I made the last kind of decision a man like me must sometimes make: I chose an end.I left the room before dawn, dressing in black and silence. My men were waiting where they always were a dozen shadows who took my orders without the pause of a conscience. They were tired; they were loyal. I gave them what they needed: a simple plan and the permission to finish what I had started.“Emilia,” I said when I stepped into the warehouse. My voice was steady like the steel that lined these walls. The folder lay on the table be
Bound To The Devil's Heir 083
Serena's point of View His mouth was still on mine when the world began to fall away. The war, the blood, the mansion, Matthias, even my old dreams of freedom it all dissolved under the weight of his hands on my skin.I had never felt Damien like this before. Not as a captor. Not as a monster. But as a man. A man trembling under my touch, a man who had built walls so high around himself he had forgotten how to climb down. And now, here he was, shattering them, brick by brick, under my lips.When he pulled back, his forehead still pressed to mine, his eyes searched mine as if for permission. He didn’t speak, but I felt the question in the tremor of his fingers at my waist.I answered by sliding my hands up his chest, my fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt, and whispering, “Don’t stop.”A sound escaped him, low and rough, somewhere between a groan and a prayer. He bent his head and kissed me again, slower this time, deeper. His hands moved up my back, then down, tracing the
Bound To The Devil's Heir 082
Serena's point of View The silence after Damien’s words stretched so long I thought it might consume us both.He stood there, tall, broad shouldered, the firelight catching the sharp planes of his face. For once, he didn’t look like the heir to an empire, the ruthless man everyone whispered about. For once, he didn’t look like the monster who had taken me, bound me to him, forced me into a life I never asked for.He just looked broken.“After Matthias is gone,” he had said, voice rough, raw, almost shaking, “and after Emilia is dealt with you’ll leave. You’ll go far from me. Somewhere I’ll never touch you again.”He meant it. I could see it in the way his eyes dropped, in the way his hand flexed at his side like he wanted to reach for me but didn’t dare. It was a death sentence spoken quietly not for me, but for him.My throat tightened. I should have felt relieved. Freedom had been all I wanted since the night he bought me, dragged me into his gilded cage, branded me as his. I’d
Anda juga akan menyukai
Mafia Men V - Marco's Vengeance
Janedoewritings113.8K DibacaMafia King's Innocent Bride
Snowmonn99.3K DibacaMy Tormentor
Bunnykoo132.7K DibacaThe Italian Bride of the Mafia King
Maginator203.8K DibacaLove Amidst Shadows: A Mafia Romance Story
Iris. W612 DibacaCANA'S SIN
Oma Magnus347 DibacaRejected: Dangerous solace in the masked stranger
Diamond beauty 171 DibacaThe Mafia King’s Bride; He’s danger. She’s revenge
Nini281 Dibaca
