MasukTheir mouths met again, and the resistance Amber had shown only moments earlier began weakening.Confusion began fighting against the attraction she had desperately tried to deny.She knew she should push him away, especially after everything that had happened between them, but her body seemed unwilling to obey the warning screaming inside her mind.“Oliver.” She said, trying to pull away. “Oliver, no.” Her both hands resting on his chest.Her palms remained against his chest, but there was no longer the same force behind them. He slowly pulled back, giving her enough space to breathe while studying her face with an expression that carried far too much confidence for her comfort.“You're fighting me because you can't admit you want me too.” He said, and she turned her face away.Amber's jaw tightened as she looked towards the side, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing whether his words had touched something she was struggling to hide.Oliver watched her quietly for several
Oliver dropped Amber onto his bed. The force of their landing sank them into the mattress, leaving her momentarily breathless and disoriented.Before she could gather herself, he caught both her wrists and pushed them above her head, holding them firmly against the mattress.His body leaned over hers as he lowered his face, kissing her cheek first, then her temple, before moving towards her lips deliberately. Amber twisted beneath him, struggling against his grip while her breathing became uneven, anger and panic mixing inside her chest as she fought for freedom.“You dog!” She cursed, struggling to set loose.Oliver ignored the insult at first, his attention fixed on her as one hand slowly moved down towards the edge of her gown.His fingers had barely reached the fabric when his eyes suddenly caught the tears sliding silently from the corners of Amber’s eyes.Something in his expression changed immediately, and the confidence disappeared from his face as he stopped and stared at h
Amber kept struggling until she was finally able to push him away, her whole body tensing with the last burst of effort it took to break free.It was almost too late because that was just the moment Elizabeth and Edward appeared in that same location in the hallway, their footsteps finally catching up to the sound Amber had heard drawing closer only seconds earlier.Amber jumped down from the table quickly, wiping her lips with the back of her hand, her heart hammering in short, uneven bursts like a child caught stealing meat straight out of the soup pot before anyone in the house woke up."Oliver, Amber, what are you doing here?" Elizabeth asked as she approached them, her eyes narrowing slightly even as her tone stayed carefully neutral."Grandma asked Oliver to take me home." Amber replied, trying hard to hide the tremor still running just beneath her voice, her hands smoothing quickly at the front of her gown.Oliver nodded, smiling quietly to himself, entirely unbothered by how c
"Yes, I am." Amber started saying, her voice breaking under the weight of everything crashing through her mind at once. "I'm engaged to your brother. This is inappropriate! If anyone finds out, I'm dead."Yet all her pleadings and explanations were falling on deaf ears, her words seeming to slide right past him without ever quite landing anywhere that mattered to him at all.Oliver continued smiling and bringing his lips to her neck. Be was entirely unbothered by the panic threading through her voice, as though her fear were simply another texture of the moment he intended to enjoy."Look, I'm grateful that you let me save your grandma earlier, but please I'm begging you." she pleaded, shifting away from him as best she could against the edge of the table pinning her in place. "Just let me go."His lips moved to take hers but she turned her face aside at the last second, her heart hammering fast against her ribs as she strained to keep some sliver of distance between them.The hallwa
The old woman chuckled. "Oliver, you're so full of it." she said teasingly to him, shaking her head slightly as she reached for her water glass.She was clearly enjoying the easy banter between the two of them far more than she was willing to admit out loud.There was something almost girlish in the way her eyes crinkled at the corners whenever her grandson teased her back, as though age hadn't managed to touch that particular part of her at all.She turned to Amber next, her expression softening into something warmer, gentler, the kind of look reserved only for people she'd already decided belonged somewhere close to her heart. "Come back tomorrow and have lunch with me." she said, patting the empty seat beside her as though already looking forward to the company long before the morning even arrived."Of course, Grandma." Amber replied happily, the word settling easier on her tongue with every use, no longer feeling quite so borrowed as it had earlier that afternoon. "But it's late.
The other three women's eyebrows furrowed in shock at what was about to happen. Elizabeth turned sharply to the old woman, her composure slipping for just a moment before she caught it and smoothed it carefully back into place.'Something's off.' The words escaped in whispers inside her, her mind already racing through every possible reason her mother-in-law would want the two of them alone. 'This little bitch is really biting more than she can chew.'She turned to Amber, her eyes filled with venom, the earlier humiliation of the afternoon still sitting fresh and unforgiven behind her carefully arranged face.Everything about the day had gone wrong in ways she hadn't planned for, and now, watching Madame Winchester single out Amber and Oliver together, she felt the last threads of her control slipping further from her grasp.Slowly, everyone began to stand and leave the dining room, chairs scraping softly against the polished floor as the staff quietly moved in to clear away the rema







