All Chapters of MY CRUEL PROTECTOR : Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

100 Chapters

Chapter 1: The Taste of Copper

POV RUBYThe smell of oil and turpentine used to be my safe place. It was the scent of history, of things that stayed still while the world outside spun too fast. But that night, in the basement of the gallery's restoration lab, the air turned metallic. It tasted like copper. It tasted like blood.My back was pressed against the cold brick wall and my fingers dug into the hem of my silk dress until I heard the crack of the seams breaking. Barely ten feet away from me, through the slit in the heavy velvet curtains, life was draining from a man's eyes.I didn't know who the victim was. I only knew the man holding the silenced pistol. He was someone I had seen in the society pages: a philanthropist, a donor to the gallery. A monster who was now wiping a bloodstain from his designer shoe with the same indifference with which one brushes off a piece of lint.Thwip.The sound was disgustingly silent. A choked cough of air, and then the thud of a body hitting the polished marble. My breath c

Chapter 2: The Predator's Game

POV RUBYThe interior of the SUV felt like a luxury cell, permeated with Nevan's scent: an intoxicating mixture of expensive tobacco, rain, and something deeper, something purely masculine that turned my stomach in a way I refused to admit. I sat as far away from him as possible, pressed against the door, watching the raindrops slide down the tinted glass as if they were crystal tears."It won't do you any good to try to melt into the door, Ruby," his voice broke the silence, low and raspy, laden with an amusement that made me clench my teeth. "I don't bite. Unless you ask me to, of course."I turned my head sharply, giving him my most contemptuous look."You're a maniac. You kidnapped me, tied me up, and now you're mocking me. You disgust me, Nevan. Every time you touch me, I feel like I need to shower with bleach."Nevan let out a soft laugh, a sound that vibrated in the air and, much to my chagrin, sent a treacherous shiver down my spine. It wasn't an evil laugh, but that of someon

Chapter 3: The Cage

POV RUBYThe air inside the cabin was cold and stale, with a smell of damp wood and neglect. Nevan didn't bother to offer me his hand when I got out of the car. He just looked at me, a silent command in his icy eyes. I obeyed, my muscles still tense from the confrontation in the car. I felt like a newly captured animal, disoriented and defensive.The interior was spartan, a single large room that served as a living room, kitchen, and bedroom. In one corner was a single bed with a thin mattress; in the other, a wood-burning stove that looked like something out of a horror story. The windows were covered by heavy curtains of dark fabric, making the cabin feel like a box sealed off from the outside world."Sit down," Nevan said, pointing to a rustic wooden chair next to the stove. His voice brooked no argument.I didn't move. I stood in the center of the room, my eyes scanning every corner, looking for an exit, a weakness. Were there cameras here too? Would they see me break down?"Is th

Chapter 4: The Edge of Temptation

POV RUBYThe silence in the cabin was a physical presence, heavy and electric. Nevan had sat down by the fire again, but this time he wasn't cleaning his gun. He was just watching me. His steel-blue eyes scanned every inch of my body under my gray T-shirt, lingering on my bare legs with a fixity that made me feel as if he were undressing me with his gaze.I tried to ignore him. I lay down on the narrow bed, turning my back to him, but every hair on the back of my neck stood on end. I couldn't stop thinking about the camera, about his hands on my chin, about the way his scent seemed to have seeped into my pores. Desire was a dull, wet throbbing between my thighs, a shameful secret burning inside me.I waited for the fire to die down. I waited for his breathing to become rhythmic. When the only sound was the crackling of dying wood, I moved.My bare feet made no sound on the wooden floorboards. I approached the table where I had left the car keys. They weren't just keys; they were my fr

Chapter 5: The Predator's Trail

POV RUBYI woke up to the sound of the steel door closing from outside. The morning chill seeped through the cracks in the cabin, and the fire in the stove was now just a pile of gray, dying ashes. Nevan was gone. Probably patrolling the perimeter, or hunting, or simply leaving me alone with the echo of my own unfulfilled desire.I sat up in bed, rubbing my arms. I could still feel the warmth of his hands on my waist, the pressure of his body against mine. My belly still throbbed with shameful wetness. I hated myself for it. I hated myself for being an art restorer who knew how to appreciate beauty in broken canvases, and for beginning to find it in a man who was pure rubble and violence.I couldn't stay still. Curiosity, mixed with growing paranoia, forced me to get up. If Nevan wasn't here, now was the time.I started with his tactical bag, but it was locked with a biometric code. I went to the small kitchen, rummaging through drawers in the hope of finding something other than tin

Chapter 6: Flesh and Ashes

POV RUBYThe night had turned into a hungry beast scratching at the walls of the cabin. Nevan hadn't returned at his usual time, and the silence of the mountain was beginning to weigh on my shoulders like a layer of lead. I caught myself pacing back and forth, clutching the gray T-shirt he had given me in my hands. It still smelled like him: a mixture of tobacco, cold, and that particular masculine scent that was becoming addictive to me. I hated the way my pulse quickened with every creak of the wood, and I hated myself even more for worrying about my captor.Then I heard it. A thud against the door. It wasn't a code, nor a triumphant entrance. It was the dead weight of a body collapsing against the wood.I threw the door open, completely ignoring my own safety rules and the fear that Julian Vane might be on the other side. Nevan fell forward, landing on his knees on the cedar floor. He was soaked, but not just from the rain. The thick, iron-heavy smell of blood filled the small room

Chapter 7: Scars of War

POV RUBYThe silence that followed our kiss was almost more violent than the confrontation itself. Nevan remained leaning against the wall, his torso bare and his freshly stitched wound throbbing under the dim light of the stove. I took a few steps back, rubbing my lips with the back of my hand, trying to erase the sensation of his mouth, but it was useless; the taste of him was etched on my palate.My hands were still stained with his blood. I went to the small sink and let the cold water run over my fingers. The red liquid swirled down the drain, disappearing, but the sensation of his skin under my fingertips did not wash away with the water."Are you going to be like this all night, Ruby?" he asked. His voice was now a low murmur, tired but with that edge of authority that never left him. "Staring at the water as if it will give you the answers you don't dare to ask?"I turned off the tap and turned around. He had stood up with obvious effort, gritting his teeth to keep from groani

Chapter 8: The Weight of a Crown of Shadows

POV RUBYThe SUV devoured miles of asphalt and gravel as we ventured into an area of Ireland that didn't appear in tourist brochures. Here, the trees were denser and the hills seemed to hide secrets that no one dared to unearth. Nevan drove in tense silence, his right hand resting heavily on my thigh. Despite my attempts to brush it away at the beginning of the trip, now its warmth felt like a necessary mark, an anchor amid the chaos that was my life."Why are you staring at me so much, Ruby?" he asked without taking his eyes off the road. His voice had that hint of superiority that set my blood boiling. Are you trying to memorize my features before I throw you to the lions, or have you finally accepted that you can't stop wanting me?""You're an egomaniac," I replied, feigning disgust that crumbled with every mile. "I'm just trying to understand how a man like you ended up living like an animal in a cabin. You don't fit in anywhere, Nevan."He let out a dark laugh and squeezed my thi

Chapter 9 : The Queen's Bath (and the Tyrant's Eye)

POV RUBY Silas, the man in the impeccable suit, guided me through the labyrinth of marble and dark paintings. Each step echoed in the opulent silence of the mansion, and every member of staff who crossed our path lowered their gaze, a gesture of submission that reminded me again and again who Nevan was and, by extension, who I was now in this place. I was not the guest; I was the Boss's property. He led me to a suite on the second floor that was larger than my entire apartment in Dublin. The walls were lined with silk, the bed was huge and four-postered, and the windows looked out onto a winter garden that was lost in the fog. It was a golden prison, a cage too beautiful to be real. "The Lady," Silas began, his voice formal and icy, "has ordered a bath to be prepared and fresh clothes. The Chief will not return until the council meeting is over. Do not leave the suite without his permission. "The Lady." The title echoed in my head like a mockery. Did they consider me his wife? His

Chapter 10: The Price of Innocence

POV RUBYI emerged from the bathroom with trembling legs, wrapped in the cream-colored silk robe that felt like a sinful caress on my still-damp skin. Nevan's master bedroom was an extension of his own personality: vast, dark, and decorated with an elegance that bordered on military. The shadows of the velvet curtains were cast over the four-poster bed, and the only sound was the crackling of the wood in the black marble fireplace.He stood there, next to the bay window, looking out over the mansion's grounds with a cut-glass goblet in his hand. He was no longer wearing the silk shirt; he had left it open, revealing the white bandage I had placed over his wound, now slightly stained with red. Hearing my footsteps, he turned with the slowness of a predator who knows his prey has nowhere to run."You took your time, Ruby," he said, his raspy voice cutting through the air like a knife. His eyes scanned my body from top to bottom, lingering on the neckline of my robe. "It suits you better

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