Chapter 36 ALLESIA ༒༺❦༻༒ Where I anticipated force and dominance, there was instead a slow, deliberate pressure, nothing like what I'd expected walking through that door tonight. Still commanding, but not brutal. I stood frozen against the door, my dress pooled at my feet, waiting for the storm I knew would come, bracing myself the way you brace for a blow you've already decided you deserve, even after everything he'd said to reassure me otherwise. But it didn't. Russel's fingers traced my jawline with surprising gentleness, then traveled down my neck to my collarbone. I shivered, not from cold but from the unexpected tenderness in his touch, a tenderness I had absolutely no idea what to do with. "Breathe, Allesia," he murmured against my lips. "You look like you're about to face a firing squad." I exhaled, not realizing I'd been holding my breath. "I'm just... I don't know what to expect." That, at least, was honest. Nothing about tonight had gone the way I'd braced myself fo
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