Scars Of His Ruthless Contract Pregnancy

prismatic shard reflecting a different angle of her forced smile. She kept her hands folded in her lap, fin

ing his lower lip. He reached across the table, his hand hovering

clinking against crystal. The cold numbed h

eight of his gaze like oil sliding down her skin. The salmon o

lasped behind his back. When the heavy mahogany doors swung open, a gust of N

he could claim a migraine and escape to the subway, to her

saw the

l coat. Italian leather shoes that struck the marble with a sound like judgment. Her heart

ew the set of those should

anes of his face-Elek's face, but harder, carved from something colder than marble. The sa

, the surface rippling in concentric circles that matched the chao

e didn't look at Arthur. He didn't look at the room. His gaze pinned her

puffing with indignation that smelled of expensive colo

ied the weight of a warning in this city. He opened his mouth, trying to salvage some semblance of pride, but under Jasper's glacial stare, the words die

e between them collapsed. She could smell him-antiseptic and something darker, so

id, each word precise as a scalpe

lass

d across her lap, soaking the cheap polyester skirt she'd bought for this date, the one that was supposed to help her ma

se

pping her windpipe. She couldn't get air. The room tilted, the

He might have been discussing a stranger, a patient

rgans," he continued. "Liver, spleen. He's

at neighboring tables. She didn't care. She grabbed her bag, the strap digging into her shou

sed around

and his palm still fit the same, still burned the same, still triggered the same cascade of neural fireworks in h

t g

voice, rising unsteadily from his chair.

r. They didn't touch Arthur. They didn't need to. They simply s

lling her forward like a leash. She tripped on her wet skirt, caught herself, he

und his. The maî

exhaust and distant rain. Her hair whipped across her eyes, blinding her. She couldn't see the stre

to the back of her neck, not gentle, not cruel-simply efficient,

bag tumbling to the floor. The door

confused and already forgetting her. The Maybach pulled into traffic. The divider between fr

e hospital in the opposite direction, her son dying in a sterile room she couldn't reach, and the man beside