Smirking, I lean in to drop my voice seductively, preparing to goad her further. “Haven’t you heard,Cattiva? You and I are getting married tomorrow. After that, what’s mine is yours.”
For the first time, Sora doesn’t even try to hide her disgust as she tilts her chin up in fierce defiance, and I wonder if I’ve finally pushed her past her limit. I’ll admit it’s been harder than I anticipated.
“You are such a pig,” she hisses, brushing past me as she storms from the room.
I follow her with my eyes, and when I catch my father’s sharp gaze, I know I’ll have to go after her to ‘smooth things over’. That’s fine. If I need to, I can give her one last push.
Tugging on the lapels of my jacket to straighten it, I stay several paces behind, walking casually so it won’t be obvious that we’re leaving the party at the same time.
The sharp sound of Sora’s steps on the marble floor tells me where she’s going before I catch sight of her rounding the corner at the far end of the hall.
She’s moving quickly for a woman in heels.
Still, I manage to catch up to her before she can close the guest bathroom door.
“What are you doing?” she gasps as I grab the wood and force my way inside.
Closing the door behind us, I round on her as I cage her against it with my arms.
Electric heat sparks between us as my face comes within inches of hers and her ragged breaths wash over me.
Sora glares up into my eyes, and the sweet scents of peach and jasmine tease my nose, inviting me closer.
“You can’t be in here with me,” she hisses, her voice starting to quaver.
“As your husband, I’ll have the right to do whatever I want with you,” I assure her, the thought flooding me with arousal, even though I’m giving my best effort to convince her to break off the engagement. “After tomorrow, you’ll be little more than my property, so you might as well get used to the idea.”
“Maybe so, but notyet. If someone saw us?—”
“You really think anyone’s going to make a scene about it? In less than twenty-four hours, you’ll be my wife. What does it matter to anyone if I have a taste now?” I breathe.
“Don’t even think about touching me after what you just did,” she warns, her onyx eyes flashing with a resentment more potent than anything she’s cast my way before—even after I sent her swimming in the fountain.
“And what did I just do?” I goad, leaning in to crowd her.
Being this close to her is intoxicating.
The errant thought blindsides me as my senses launch into overdrive.
Heat radiates from Sora’s slight frame, warming the narrow space between us. I can feel the door vibrating beneath my palms as she trembles against it, but I can’t tell if it’s with fear or anger.
An overwhelming desire to touch her floods my body, an urge to pull her into my arms and calm her shaking.
God, I want her.
The need hits me so unexpectedly that for a second, I lose track of our conversation, my motivations, the reason I’m torturing her.
I lose track of everything but the overwhelming craving to taste her lips, painted vixen-red to match her provocative dress—a dress that, on any other woman, would probably look perfectly modest.
But somehow, Sora makes it ravishing until all I want to do is tear it off her.
“You just slept with another woman,” she spits. “The night before our wedding.You’re not eventryingto be discreet about your lack of faithfulness.”
I’m not prepared for the pain in her eyes—a potent cocktail of rejection and betrayal that I hadn’t anticipated in my bride. Not after the way I’ve treated her.
I’ve given Sora every reason to hate me, to walk away and call off this farcical wedding.
But she hasn’t, and as her eyes shine with unshed tears, I can’t let her continue to believe I was with another woman.
