Page 26 of His Eternal Claim

She opens the wardrobe, pulls out a dress.

Ivory silk. Delicate embroidery cascading like frost over the fabric.

“Wear this,” she says, her tone light, almost cheerful now. “You’ll look beautiful.”

My stomach sinks.

“Where are we going?”

She glances at me over her shoulder, that same serene smile in place.

“We’re not going anywhere,” she says. “They’re already here.”

A cold chill goes through me.

“They?”

Her smile widens.

“Yes, Selene.” She steps closer, cupping my face again, her thumb brushing over my lips. “It’s time you meet your family and everyone.”

Family.

My voice comes out barely above a whisper.

“Everyone?”

Her eyes gleam. “Yes. Everyone who matters.”

I stare at her before nodding.

“Very well.” I swallow. “Do I meet them now?”

“At dinner. I’ll introduce them to you. And believe me, they all are looking forward to meeting you.” Her hand caresses my cheek. “Till then, have some rest. I’ll send someone with breakfast.”

Chapter 11

Venom

THE MAESTRO | Past

The scent of this place is all wrong. It’s sterile, smelling of lemon polish and the cloying, expensive perfume of the woman sitting across from me. It’s not the scent of jasmine and rain. It’s not her.

Two weeks.

It’s been fourteen days since she ran out of this room, leaving the air stale in her wake. Fourteen days since I last tasted the salt of her skin, since the frantic, silken heat of her core pressed against my palms.

The image of her burns on the back of my eyelids, her hair fanned out across the table, her eyes wide with a terror that I put there.

I haven’t slept.

Every time I close my eyes, I feel the phantom weight of her wrists in my hands.

I smell the rot of my own desperation and the floral musk of her arousal that I forced to the surface.

I am a man haunted by a ghost I created.

I am ruined, and I am ruining everything I touch.