Billionaire Boss? Nah, Just A Possessive Husband! のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 211 - チャプター 220

The door to the suite clicked open.Roy came in, looking like he’d drawn the short straw for an early start.I turned from the balcony, where I’d been watching the morning mist cling to the fells. ‘What was wrong with her?’He blinked, confused for a moment. ‘Who, sir?’‘Hyacinth. Last night.’‘Oh, that.’ Roy stretched and stifled a yawn. ‘Nothing serious. Just a bit of stomach trouble, indigestion. I gave her the appropriate meds.’I said nothing.So, just seeing me had been enough to upset her stomach. The thought was a dull, persistent ache. I’d been too eager, too direct in the lift. I’d thought the distance and the shock of the encounter might work in my favour, but it seemed I’d only succeeded in making her physically ill.I took a drink from the water glass in my hand and leaned back in the chair. I had misjudged the situation.Roy hovered, looking uncharacteristically hesitant, as if he was weighing up whether to share something.‘What is it?’ I asked.‘Well, when I came back a

Galina’s face was even more beautiful in person than it was on Instagram, which was frankly offensive.Even reflected in the smudged glass of a jam cabinet, she had that luminous, well-rested glow of someone who’d never had a parking fine, let alone a police record.My lips were still moving, telling Josh some bland fact about Portia’s university days, but my ears were pinned backwards, laser-focused on the table behind me.Lochlan’s voice was calm, polite. ‘Miss Croft.’He said it in his usual, measured tone. Not the warm, intimate voice you’d use for a girlfriend.Then again, I realised with a sour pang, even when he’d said my name, it had often been with that same detached, perfectly enunciated calm.Maybe that was just his default setting, for soulmates and strangers alike.Galina’s reply was a rush of sound, like a cheerful, colourful bird had landed in the staid restaurant. ‘Look, I’ll confess. I did follow you up here. But it’s not as creepy as it sounds, I promise! My father pr

My eyes dropped to his mouth.A wicked, vivid fantasy flashed: leaning in, biting that perfect lower lip hard enough to leave a mark, a brand. I could picture Galina Croft’s cheerful smile faltering at the sight of it.The thought was profoundly satisfying.But then I pictured Roy’s kind, gossipy eyes, and Kai’s discreet, knowing glance.I was many things, but I wasn’t cruel enough to send him back to his subordinates with a love bite on his mouth.I was, apparently, a kind soul. Who knew?‘Alright,’ I murmured, my gaze drifting lower. ‘I’ll collect.’I reached up, one hand resting lightly on his shoulder for balance. I let my lips brush the air near his, feeling him go perfectly still, before I descended.My mouth found the strong, vulnerable line of his Adam’s apple. I opened my lips, letting the heat of my breath wash over his skin for a second before my teeth closed.I’d intended it as a punishment. A petty, physical ‘see how you like it’.But the sound that vibrated against my lip

The genuine pain that flashed across Nicky’s face was instant and raw. It was the look of a wound that had never healed, just scabbed over thinly.‘Yes,’ she whispered, her fingers tracing the rim of her glass. ‘After that… nothing was the same. I left. Everything changed.’I leaned forward slightly, keeping my voice soft, non-accusatory. ‘Nicky, I know there were… things about Benji’s disappearance that didn’t add up. Things that maybe you didn’t feel you could tell the police back then. But you could tell us now. No one else has to know.’At the mention of the police, Nicky’s face underwent a terrifying transformation. All the softness, the tentative trust, drained away.The colour leached from her skin, leaving her as pale as the clay on her shelves. Her hand flew to her throat. Her eyes, wide and suddenly flooded with a fear that was more than a decade years old, darted between us, seeing not potential buyers, but a terrible, revisited threat.‘Why… why come to me…’ she stammered,

Her hand went to her scar, tracing it with shaking fingers.‘The two guys, they dragged me into another room, a bedroom. I don’t… I don’t really want to say what happened in there. When it was over, it was dark. They dumped me by the roadside. I couldn’t walk. A man driving past found me and took me to hospital. And after that… Benji was just gone. I don’t know what happened in that house after they took me away. I tried to tell, I did. But before I could even speak to my parents, someone came to see me. A man. He said if I talked to the police, or the school, or anyone, they wouldn’t just make me disappear. They’d do my whole family. So I shut up. I left school. And it’s my fault. If Benji hadn’t come for me, if he’d just left me there…’She couldn’t finish. The guilt consumed her, leaving her crying in great, heaving sobs that seemed to tear her frail body apart.Portia and I exchanged a look over Nicky’s bowed head. The miserable picture was coming into a sickening sort of focus.So