<b>Chapter </b><b>91 </b>


    Alexander


    Business to handle. Right.


    The truth was, I’d made up the excuse because I needed to get away from E before I did something stupid again.


    Dancing with her under the moonlight had been torture of the sweetest kind. The way she’d felt in my arms, the rose in her hair, <b>the </b>utter adoration in her eyes every time she looked up at me.


    And that kiss. Goddess, that kiss at the banquet.


    My wolf had gone absolutely feral when E had pulled me down to her mouth. The taste of her, the way she’d responded to me, the little sound she’d made when I’d kissed her back… It had taken every ounce of self–control I possessed not to carry her out of that ballroom and straight to our bed.


    I wanted to strip that midnight blue gown off her body and worship every inch of her skin. I wanted to mark her again, deeper this time, until there was no question who she belonged to. I wanted to bury myself inside of her and make her mine in every way possible.


    But I couldn’t. Not yet.


    Not until I knew for certain whether she was a spy sent by her family to destroy me..


    Gabriel’s letter had been eating away at me for days now. E’s family had definitely orchestrated my parents‘ deaths–I had concrete proof of that now. And whether E knew or not, one thing was abundantly clear: they had sent her here as a tool to manipte me.


    What if she was exactly what Gabriel suspected–a perfectly trained weapon designed to make me fall in love with her?


    What if she did know and all of this was just a beautiful lie.


    The thought made my chest hurt, but I couldn’t ignore the possibility. My parents had been killed by E’s family. I couldn’t risk letting the same thing happen to myself, or worse, if I opened myself up to her too easily.


    So instead of following E upstairs and showing her exactly how much I wanted her, I’d locked myself in my office with a bottle of whiskey and tried to drown out my wolf’s increasingly desperate demands.


    The whiskey wasn’t helping much.


    I poured another ss and stared at the amber liquid, trying to focus on the way it caught the firelight in a desperate attempt to stop thinking about the way she had looked at me tonight.


    Like she might actually care about me.


    But that could all be part of the act, couldn’t it? If her family had trained her from childhood to y this role, she’d be good at making me believe whatever they wanted me to believe.


    I knocked back the whiskey and immediately poured another.


    Hours passed. The bottle grew lighter. My head grew fuzzier, but the ache in my chest only got worse.


    By the time I finally stumbled upstairs, the mansion was quiet and dark. E would be asleep by now, curled up in our bed wearing one of those silk nightgowns that drove me insane.


    But as I approached the door, I noticed a sliver of buttery light spilling across the corridor floor from inside. I heard E’s soft voiceing from within.


    “Goddess fucking dammit…”


    She sounded awfully frustrated.


    MOJI CO


    The door was cracked open just enough for me to see inside, so I quietly crept over and peered through<b>, </b>just to see what was going on.


    E was standing in front of the mirror, still in that midnight blue gown, but she was twisted around trying to reach theces of her corset. Her hair had fallen loose from its elegant updo, tumbling in waves down her back, and the sight of all that dark silk against her pale skin made my mouth go <b>dry </b>


    She was struggling with the corset fastenings, her face scrunched up as she tried to contort her arms behind her back to reach theces. Every time she stretched, the bodice of her dress pulled tight across her breasts in an all–too–delicious way, but it was the obvious frustration in her movements <b>that </b>really caught my attention.


    “Come on,” she muttered, twisting further and wincing. “Stupid thing.”


    I took a step back, figuring I should probably leave instead of watching her undress like a creep. But the way she was struggling made me feel like an asshole for leaving. She had clearly been struggling with the corset by herself all this time. I couldn’t just walk away when she obviously needed help.


    Before I could second–guess myself, I pushed the door open and stepped into the room.


    “Need help?”


    E spun around, eyes going wide. A flush crept up her neck.


    “Alexander. I thought you were… I thought you had business.”


    “I did. It’s finished.” The lie came easily. “You look like you’re having trouble.”


    She nced back at the mirror, then at me, uncertainty written all across her face. Finally, she sighed. “I can’t reach theces. They’re too high up


    “Turn around.”


    She slowly turned to face the mirror, moving her hair over her shoulder and presenting her back to me. Her pale skin and the sight of the beautifui nap of her neck practically made my mouth water.


    I stepped closer, close enough to smell the lingering scent of roses in her hair and the faint vani of her perfume. My fingers found the top of theces, and I began working them loose, one eyelet at a time.


    E was perfectly still as I worked, but I could see her watching me in the mirror.


    “There,” I said quietly as the first few inches ofcing came free. “Better?”


    She nodded, but when she reached behind her to continue on her own, her arms still didn’t reach.


    So I continued working my way down, my knuckles asionally brushing against the smooth skin of her back through the gaps in thecing. Eachce was fucking torture. My wolf howled in my mind, begging me to take her right then and there, and it was hell trying to hold him back and focus on the


    task.


    Halfway down, the corset began to loosen significantly. The bodice of her dress sagged slightly, revealing more of that perfect skin.


    My fingers had started to tremble slightly. Just a few more eyelets and she’d be able to step out of the corset entirely.


    It would be so easy to slide my hands around her waist, to turn her in my arms and kiss her the way I’d been wanting to all night. To peel that dress off her body and carry her to bed.


    She was my mate. My wife. The mother of my child. I had every right to touch her, to im her, to make love to her until neither of us could think straight.


    But I also had every reason to doubt her.


    My hands stilled on thest set ofces. In the mirror, I could see E’s face, flushed and expectant, lips slightly parted. With a deep inhale, <i>her </i>breasts strained against the top of her bodice, and…


    Dammit.


    13:20 <b>Mon</b>, 25 AUD COPE


    1 loosened the finalces and stepped back, sping my hands behind me to keep myself from touching her.


    “There. You should be able to manage the rest.”


    E blinked, as ifing out of a trance. “Thank you.”


    I turned around, giving her privacy to slip out of the dress. Behind me, I heard the whisper


    Root.


    of silk against skin, then the soft rustle of fabric hitting <b>the </b>


    Goddess fucking damn me straight to Hell, I thought, biting the inside of my cheek. She was undressed. Probably in somecy negligee or something Or perhaps just panties and nothing else.


    But no matter how much I wanted to turn around, I kept my eyes fixed on the window until I heard her footsteps cross the room. The bathroom door clicked shut, and a momentter, the shower turned on.


    Only then did allow myself to move, sinking onto the edge of the bed and burying my face in my hands.


    This was going to kill me.


    AD