Scars Of Betrayal: Her Spectacular Comeback

N

if it belonged to someone else. A spike of pain shot through her skull-sharp, blinding, splitt

ma

never touched. The scent of stale liquor and someone else's sweat filled her nostrils, turning her stomach. A wave of nausea churned vio

ghs like a restraint. The zipper at her back was pulled halfway down, exposing t

raw a full breath. Her chest heaved, but the air felt t

a trap. Her body hit the padded headboard with a dull thud. Her fing

t at the sl

way fr

ed open his eyes, confusion clouding his features before a slow,

easy

e heavy, double doors of

ed. The sound of splintering wood echo

ood silhouetted

presence sucked all the air from the room. His eyes, the color of a stormy sea, bypassed her completely. They did not look at her

jaw twitched. That

al weight pressing down on Cornelia's chest, making it impo

ed. I was drugged." The effects of whatever she'd been given were still clinging to her, making her tongue feel thick and her limbs heavy. She s

finally f

of his shoe. Disgust. Pure, undiluted disgust that stripped her bare more effectively than any state of undress. He

if he did, they were nothin

mov

oorway, the next he was across the room. He grabbed Rick by

wet thud. A floor-to-ceiling lamp beside the wall crashed to

reached for his arm, for the rigid muscle of his bicep. "He'

d off him as if her touch were contamination. The force of the rejection sent her stum

las she despised, of managing his charitable foundations while he traveled, of smiling through the endless, lonely night

e back of his hand. He looked at Euan's murderous face and his survival

loud enough to carry. "She came onto me at the bar. Said she was s

The lie was so absurd, so grotesquely false, t

he looked

wore in the boardroom right before a hostile takeover. The look of absolute, cold certainty

suffocating stillness took its place. Her breath, which had been coming in ragged ga

n flipped inside her, plunging

, something else flickered

loor as if staged for a photograph. She looked at the kicked-in door, splintered and dramatic, the kind

It was a setup. A clumsy, brut

was th

the hallway, followed by the low, urgent

ity is on their way. The pres

tors. They moved with quiet efficiency, positioning themselves on either side of the entrance, their broad shoulders filling the frame.

pe, any hope of be

y of a CEO whose prize possession had been publicly tarnished were at war in his f

who

edding vows, spoken in the hallowed halls of St. Patrick's Cathedral. In sickness and in health. He was looking at her now as if she were a disease. She remembered the night she had stayed u

e of it

her husband's silent, imposing security team and the man himself, who loomed over her like

ying calm of abso