By the time I reach the suite, I’m wound so tight I feel like I might snap.
She’s in the bedroom.
Walking barefoot across the rug, fiery hair loose down her back, wearing sheer lingerie that leaves very little to the imagination. She doesn’t look at me. Doesn’t acknowledge my presence. Just moves around the room like I’m furniture.
I stop in the doorway and watch her.
It hits me all over again—how effortlessly she owns space. How she’s changed, yet somehow become even more herself. I don’t recognize this woman fully, and that terrifies me.
She goes to the vanity and begins wiping off her lipstick, her expression calm, distant. Like none of tonight touched her.
A memory crashes into me without warning—my mouth on hers, her body arching into mine, the sound she made when she forgot to be careful last night.
I clench my jaw hard enough that it aches.
“Don’t ever do that again, Sienna.”
She pauses. Then slowly lifts her eyes to meet mine in the mirror.
“Do what?”
“Dance like that.”
She turns fully, facing me now, eyes sharp. “I’ll dance however I want.”
“This isn’t a debate.”
She lets out a quiet laugh, humorless. “Just because I’m married to you doesn’t make me your property, Sebastian. I’m not owned. I have free will.”
I step closer. “Your free will is going to get someone killed.”
Her brows lift. “You better not kill anyone on my behalf.”
That does it.
I stalk into the room, stopping just short of her. “The next time you dance like that in public and a man puts his hands on you, I won’t be responsible for what happens.”
Her chin tilts up. Defiant. Unafraid.
“I’ll cut off his hand,” I say quietly. “And he won’t look at anything ever again.”
For a second, it looks like she’s about to unleash everything she’s been holding back. Anger. Fury. Something sharp and old.
Then she chooses silence.
She turns away from me and grabs a serum from the vanity like I’m no longer worth the effort.
And somehow, that hurts more than if she’d screamed.
I stand there, breathing hard, staring at her back, knowing one thing with absolute certainty: This marriage is going to destroy us slowly.
I force calm into my voice. “Who were you talking to outside?”
She doesn’t turn. “No one.”
“Try again.”
She sets the serum down on the vanity with deliberate care. “You don’t get to interrogate me, Sebastian.”
