Mag-log inCORINNE“I’ll castrate you if you try to be gentle with me,” I snapped back, my chest heaving as I struggled for air.This is supposed to be a quick fix, just something to sweat through and get it over with, but Lucian was taking his goddamn sweet time. And for the love of everything good and bad, I have no idea why he’s hellbent on delaying the inevitab— That thought was cut short when his large hands clamped down to grab my hips and with a surge of raw strength, he effortlessly flipped me over on my back. Air punches out of my lungs as I gasped and futilely tried to focus on the domineering man now towering over me.I push up on my elbows to drag my eyes over him without permission. His robe hangs open just enough to expose his chest while keeping his cock hidden behind the dark fabric.I watched as he hungrily took me in with his eyes scanning every inch of my naked skin like he’s looking for a place to start a fire on me. All what his undivided attention did was to make my pussy
LUCIANI stared at the infuriating woman sitting on the floor in front of me, trying to decide if I’d actually heard her right.Her hazel eyes were fixed on mine with a lethal brand of determination that I found myself leaning into; because if she so much as look at me with even the tiniest bit of pity, I would’ve torn the entire house apart.But that isn’t what I’m even supposed to be focusing on right now.I slowly fisted my bandaged hand, the fresh gauze tightening against my split skin. “What?”“Use my body to forget her,” she repeated.There was no tremor in her voice, no uncertainty, no hesitation to give me an out.Fuck.This wasn’t the trajectory I’d imagined for the night.I’d been sitting on that bed and scrolling through my phone, when I hit a photo from our honeymoon in Positano. In the shot, Elena is laughing with her head tilted back and her hand resting on my chest as if I were her entire world.I’d stared at that digital ghost in a daze imagining how boldly she’d been
CORINNE“Lucian…”He didn’t turn. I’m not even sure he heard me.My eyes swept over the ruined bathroom that currently looks like a storm had passed through the small space. Bottles littered the floor, some bursted open with their contents spilling across the tiles and his phone lay among the mess, the screen completely shattered. The mirror…God.The mirror had been smashed in multiple places, cracks spreading across it like spiderwebs and thin streaks of blood slowly dragged down the glass.My body shook violently as I finally looked at the man standing in the center of the carnage. Lucian lifelessly stood there in a black bathrobe, water still clinging to his skin and his hands hung limp at his sides but the knuckles on one hand were split and bloodied.I forced myself to take a step into the glass-strewn room. “Lucian.”He didn’t react immediately.I’m so close to shaking him back to his senses. “Lucian!”When he finally faced me, damp dark strands of hair fell over his face but t
CORINNE“The crew are headed back to New York. You wanna join them?” he asked, coming to stand beside me.I didn’t even think before replying. “And miss out on watching you bawl your heartbreak out? No way in hell.”The words left my mouth and—Oh my God.Out of everything I could’ve said…I chose that?This is a man who just found out his entire marriage might have been built on lies, but my own internal defense mechanisms decided that now is the perfect time to misfire.And while my situation with Nathan was nowhere near that deep—I at least hadn’t signed a marriage license with the scum—I don’t have enough strength to deal with my own mess, let alone his.“Good to know you’re happy to feed off my misery,” he said, his face a chilling mask of indifference that made my stomach twist with guilt.He turned and headed toward the house, and I trailed behind him like a remorseful virgin ghost.This place is…insane. The house sat right above the water, all wood and glass and stone, like it
LUCIANI don’t know what I’m thinking, but the thought of going back to the Brooklyn right now was physically revolting. There are traces of Elena in my house that I can’t bear to be around and if I decide to go to my parents’, Mom will notice and she’ll hound me for explanations I don’t have the energy nor answers to give.I needed silence and space to let the noise in my head die down, and somehow I don’t mind that Corinne is beside me like a silent witness to my ruin.“Let’s go to Aurelia Isle instead.”“Sir…?” the captain asked with slight uncertainty, like he wasn’t expecting the sudden detour.Me too; I wasn’t expecting the detour.I kept my eyes on the horizon outside the tarmac. “How long will it take?”He checked his tablet, fingers flying over the flight management system. “We’ll need an extra forty-five minutes to reroute and clear airspace, but once the tower clears us, we’ll be good to go.”“Get to it then.”He nodded and retreated to the cockpit. As I climbed the stairs
LUCIANOn the flight here, I had the whole thing mapped out in my head.I’llmeet the source, grill them about Nathan, poke into the hidden accounts and then crush everyone involvedin this scheme.That was the plan or rather, that had been the plan.The first problem I met was Corinne.Finding her heretripped me up. If I’m guessing right, she’s either part of whatever this was and came to cover their tracks, or she somehow got ahead of me and followed the lead on her own.Neither option worked in her favor.So I decided to make her sit through the meeting, hoping that watching me tear the truth out of the
LUCIAN“I need you,” she whispered.Absolutely not.But I found myself asking instead. “What are you talking about.”She shook her head again and again, like she was trying to shake the thought loose as mascara dragged in uneven black trails down her cheeks. “I didn’t do it,” she said thickly. “I s
LUCIAN“You…” she squinted at me like my face was an unsolved problem, lips twisting as she searched for the insult she wanted, “you ruined my life.”That was enough to make me turn fully toward her because that wasn’t drunk nonsense, that was accusation.“What exactly do you mean by that?” I asked
12 hours agoLUCIAN“I fucking hate you,” the words dragged behind one another like they weighed too much for her mouth to carry. “All you… rich… assh—” She stopped, frowned like the syllables had wandered off on her, then continued. “—assholes. Every. Single. One of you.”The insult lost momentum
CORINNESomething was making noise.Not loud enough to fully register, just enough to claw its way into my sleep and ruin it. The insistent sound kept tugging at me, over and over, until I shifted beneath the covers with a groan.Grrrrghhh… grrrrghhh.My hand slid across the bed, clumsy and half-as







