5

Sloane's POV

Two days later, the door opened. Two maids stood in the doorway with Kaelan Thorne right behind them.

My gaze went straight from their faces to their hands, checking for trays, for bowls, for anything that meant food. That was all they ever brought me.

Food and water. Morning and night.

They forced me to eat so I would not collapse. Strength was the only thing they seemed interested in keeping alive in me.

For the past two days I have been treated like nothing but a criminal. As if it was my fault that Lark decided to elope with someone else. As if I had planned every second of this nightmare just so I could escape my parents.

I thought swapping places would free me. I thought it would be a way out. Instead I had dug my own grave and climbed inside it.

“Wash her up,” Kaelan said. His voice was cold, flat, the same tone he used when he ordered the servants around. “And make sure you feed her very well.”

The words did not shake me. The worst had already happened.

He had taken my virginity like it belonged to him, ruthlessly, without softness or care. Whatever else he wanted to do, he could do it. There was nothing left for him to break that he had not already broken.

The maids grabbed my arms and hauled me up. My lips trembled. My thighs shook with every step.

My body still smelled of blood and sex. I stank even to myself. The scent clung to my skin, to the sheets, to the air in that locked room.

We reached the bathing chamber. Kaelan did not follow and I was glad. The last thing I needed was his eyes on me while they cleaned the evidence of what he had done.

The maids worked in silence. They stripped the filthy shift from my body and guided me into the tub.

Hot water closed over my skin. I let them do everything. The scrubbing. The washing. The rinsing. They washed between my legs with the same efficiency they used on my arms and back, as if my body was just another piece of furniture that needed to be made presentable.

I did not fight them, because there was no point in fighting them, it's not their fault.

In a few minutes they were done, they dried me and dressed me in the clothes set aside for the daughter-in-law of the Thorne family.

Yellow was the color the Thorne wives wore. A full yellow gown that clung and flowed at the same time.

They twisted my hair into a neat bun, smoothed light makeup over my face until I looked beautiful like someone who belonged here.

Kaelan entered the room. The maids bowed at once and left without a word, closing the door behind them.

He crossed the space between us in a few long strides. His hand closed around my waist and pulled me against him.

I gasped. My lips parted on the sharp intake of breath.

“Until I find Lark,” he said, voice low and hard, “you will take her place in everything she was supposed to be in my life.”

“Lark?” I smirked, the sound bitter even to my own ears. “She ran off with her lover. Meanwhile you’re here ruining me for someone who doesn’t even care about you.”

His brows rose. “Really?”

I was even surprised by the words that came out of my mouth.

But it had been building for two days. The isolation. The forced meals. The way everyone looked at me like I was the villain in a story I never asked to be part of. I could not hold it in any longer.

“Yes, Kaelan. No matter what you do, it won’t change what has happened. Just accept that we’re married and…”

“Shut your mouth, you bitch.”

He yelled straight into my face. My heart slammed against my ribs.

“You stole her place at the altar. Now you’re here lying to me that she ran off with someone else. I’m very certain you made her run so you could take her place.”

I shook my head hard enough that the carefully styled bun tugged at my scalp. “What would I gain from that? I told her not to do it. I warned her. She didn’t listen!”

“You could have stopped her. But no, you wanted me so badly that you had to have me.”

A short, bitter laugh escaped me. Kaelan was not even my type. What exactly did he think of himself? As if the entire world revolved around him and every woman alive was desperate to climb into his bed.

He lifted me like I weighed nothing and dropped me onto the bed. The yellow gown pooled around my thighs.

What the fuck was he doing?

“From your expression,” he said, looking down at me, “you want to act like you didn’t want me badly.”

“I never wanted you, Kaelan. Marrying you was because I was forced to replace my sister…”

I never got to finish the sentence.

He dragged the gown up my body in one rough motion. His eyes never left mine. I did not want him.

My mind screamed at it. But my body was a traitor, it was reacting to every touch.

My thighs trembled at the first brush of his hands. He kissed the inside of one thigh, then the other, parting them with steady pressure.

I tried to close them and he simply lifted one of my legs higher and held it there.

“Open your legs, don’t make me repeat myself.”

I opened them quickly. I did not even think about it. My head fell back against the mattress as his hands moved higher, pushing the fabric of my undergarments aside until there was nothing left between his gaze and my freshly shaved skin.

“You claim you’ve never wanted me…” His fingers brushed over me, slow and deliberate.

A sound tried to rise in my throat. I swallowed it down. I would not give him the satisfaction of knowing how my body reacted.

Without warning he lowered his head and buried his tongue inside me, licking into me like a man who has been starved for days.

Fuck! I don't know but I think I'm gonna pee!