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“If that’s how you feel, then God help your real wife someday. How will she be useful to you?”
He arches a dark brow. “Careful, Cora—or I may start to think you’re jealous.”
I laugh a bit too suddenly for it to sound real. “Why on earth would I be jealous?”
He walks around me, forcing me to spin like a top to keep him in my line of sight. “Maybe my father wasn’t so far off. Maybe, when all is said and done, you’ll be sad to leave the comforts I’ve provided.”
I gasp. “I’m not some gold-digger! I work for my own money and I make my own way in life. I don’t need a husband. I don’t need you or anyone else taking care of me.”
His head tilts to one side, assessing me. “Good. Because I won’t be your husband. This deal isn’t the two of us playing House. I’m going to put up with you as long as I have to until I figure out who is coming after my family. Then you’ll be gone and we’ll both be free.”
“I won’t stay here if you think you get to control my entire life. I’m not your little whore.”
He’s in front of me before I even realized he moved. His chest is pressed to mine, and he’s looking down his nose at me, rage rolling off of him in hot, violent waves. “You agreed to the job and you'll do it. You'll do it if I have to drag you back here screaming every day. You'll do it if I have to cuff you to my side every second of every hour. You'll do it if it hurts, if it feels good, if you love it, if you hate it—I don't give a damn, Cora. No matter what happens, you are going todo as I say.”
My hands tremble at my side. I clench them into fists so he doesn’t see them shaking.
“I am your boss, your judge, jury, and executioner,” he snarls. “I am the sun around which your world revolves. Do you understand?”
At the party, I caught glimpses of a man I recognized. Someone who was forced to play a role against his will. Someone who had to bow to the whims and wishes of his family and forfeit his own desires.
That man is gone. Or maybe he never existed.
Maybe, like me, Ivan was wearing a mask the night we met. And maybe the monster beneath is worse than anything I could’ve imagined.
But if he thinks that means I’ll submit to him, he’s very fucking wrong.
“What are you going to do?” I spit. “Kill me?”
Without even a second of hesitation, Ivan leans in. I feel his hot breath on my face. “It wouldn’t be the first time.”
Before I can find the words, he storms out of my room and slams the door closed.
31
IVAN
Breathe.I need to breathe.
Or else I’m going to fucking explode.
My chest is tight. Rage crawls up my throat and tenses across my shoulders. Worst of all, my cock is achingly, infuriatingly hard.
“Fuck.”
Cora St. Clair is a nuisance. Her arguing gets in the way of me doing what needs to be done to save her damned life.
It also makes me want her far more than I ought to.
She was right—the women who usually want me don’t have a thought in their pretty heads. They are lifeless dolls who have been born and bred to obey. They don’t cause a scene or stir up trouble. The only dream they have for themselves is to marry rich and live easy.
But Cora is fire and sass. She fights back. I want to stoke the heat inside of her, not douse the flames.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a choice. Because I don’t need a queen.
I need a pawn.
“That went really well,” I hear from behind me. I turn and see Yasha coming up the back stairwell. “You two are the picture of wedded bliss. The definition of holy matrimony.”
