Nina

“My lord,” the guard announced, snapping to attention at the door. “She has arrived.”

“Come in.”

He dragged me inside and shoved me aside.

“Lucas,” I whispered, voice trembling. “The guard—”

“Playing disobedient again, I see,” Lucas cut in, rising from the bed. His casual dismissal of the guard’s brutality felt like a knife through my heart.

“I’m not... He...” The words died in my throat as I caught Lucas’s stare. Where I’d once seen lust, now ...