Todos os capítulos de I Signed a Marriage Contract, Not a Love Triangle: Capítulo 41 - Capítulo 50

Irene had been sitting in the laundromat for forty-three minutes and had not checked the time once.Usually, laundry meant checking how many minutes she had before she needed to run home, change clothes, eat something standing up, and leave for another shift. Today, she had nowhere to be, and she had brought a bag of chips.She sat in one of the plastic chairs with her legs stretched out, an old college shirt hanging loosely over black leggings, her hair twisted into a messy knot. Three dryers turned behind her while a video on her phone counted down the ten creepiest things caught on security cameras.Number seven was a figure standing at the end of somebody’s hallway at three in the morning.Irene ate another chip.“Fake.”The narrator disagreed dramatically, and she disagreed with him back.This was apparently what free time looked like.She had to admit the marriage money was making parts of her life easier. Rent wasn’t sitting in the back of Irene’s mind. Amanda’s rehab was paid.

Kael started walking toward them, and Ares watched at the same time Irene did. His hand stayed at the small of her back.Across the ballroom, Rowe said something to Kael that Irene couldn’t hear. Kael handed his untouched drink to one of the lycans behind him and kept coming.Rowe followed half a step behind.The other two stayed where they were, which Irene appreciated. Four lycans approaching at once would have made the whole thing feel less like a conversation and more like a confrontation.The room had already felt charged or tense since the lycans arrived. Although nobody announced anything, nobody moved dramatically out of the way. Vampires were apparently too well bred for that. They simply stopped standing in certain places.A gap had slowly opened between the lycan delegation and the section where Ares stood. Conversations collected closer to the walls. People who had been wandering through the center of the room suddenly discovered very important reasons to remain beside tab

Ares did not say a word about Kael for the rest of the gala.That was worse.Irene had expected something the second she stepped back into the ballroom. A comment. A question. Maybe one of his very controlled insults somehow sounded more threatening because he delivered them without raising his voice.Instead, Ares looked at her neck once.Then he looked at Kael.For the next hour, Ares was perfectly normal.Perfectly polite.Perfectly Lord Valcieri.When she spoke to him, his replies were short. Physical contact stayed limited to what the room expected to see.Irene still waited for him to say something about the balcony.He did not, but at one point, she turned her head while someone spoke beside her and caught Ares staring directly at the place Kael had kissed.His eyes stayed there for half a second.Then he looked away and continued the conversation as though he had not just mentally considered murder.Each time his gaze rested there for a second too long before he looked away an

Irene was already wet by the time her hand slid under her shirt.She had meant to keep it simple. One hand between her legs, the other braced on the mattress, get it over with and finally sleep. That was the plan. Instead, her fingers found her nipple almost without thinking, rolling it until it tightened, and the low pull of it went straight down.“This is ridiculous,” she muttered at the ceiling.She was slick before she had even properly started. The first slow circle over her clit made her hips shift against the sheets.She bit the inside of her cheek and kept going, annoyed at how easy it was, annoyed at the fact that her body had been wound this tight and was now cooperating the second she gave it any attention.“I can’t believe I’m actually doing this,” she said under her breath. “Because he told me to. Like I’m following orders from a vampire now.”It still wasn’t enough.She rubbed harder, chasing the pressure, but something in her body kept asking for more weight, more frict

“Ares is waiting for you in his study.”Irene stopped halfway up the stairs.She had been back at the estate for less than twenty minutes, still had convenience-store air on her clothes, and had been looking forward to exactly three things: a shower, checking on Mr. Mustard, and getting into bed.Apparently she had aimed too high.“Did he say why?”“No,” Lena said.So Irene changed direction and headed for the study.Ares was behind his desk when she entered, reading something on paper because phones remained one of the few modern inventions he seemed to dislike.He looked up.“You’re late.”“Really none of your business, but…I was working.”“I know. And I make it my business to know everything about you, dear wife.”“And that’s becoming one of your less charming qualities.”Ares put the paper down. “A rival Coven has made inquiries about you.”That wiped the rest of her complaint away. “What kind of inquiries?”“Your background. Our marriage. How long we knew each other before the we