The Widow's Price: Owned By Adrien

kles turned the color of bone. She was the widow. The intruder. The charity case Clark Holden had picked up from the gutter and tried to polish into a diamond before h

nk t

ned to see her sister, Chloe, holding out a crystal flute of c

ressing the glass into Aurora's hand. "Everyone

en less. She downed the liquid in one burning gulp. It tasted sharp, metall

said, her smile not

ter, the room

like liquid lead. The faces of the guests-Clark's business partners, his judgmental aunt Eleanor, the vultures fro

three men she didn't know were watching her. One licked

t

It screamed over the ro

ick Persian rug. She needed a door. Any door. She pushed throug

eone hissed. "Drun

y under her sweat-slicked palm. The second-floor corridor

ed up from the bottom of the

e this-disoriented, flushed, weak-it would be the end.

the nearest h

the next

cked on the s

the end of the hall. The handle turned. She slipped insi

le

e afternoon sun. The air here was different. It didn't smell o

r. The heat in her body was unbearable now. It felt like her skin was too tight for her flesh

ic

sharp, violent

darkness. Blue at the b

r Zippo. The light traveled up, revealing a jawline sharp enoug

it between his lips. He wasn't surprised. He wasn't alarmed. He looked

r tongue felt swollen. A whim

weight pressing against her feverish skin. He snapped the lighter

hut. Op

the handl

y," Chloe's voice was mu

at the man in the chair,

n sto

y grace of a large cat. In two strides, he crossed

eaned down, his face inches from hers. She could feel the cold radiatin

le jiggl

ing the lapels of his suit jacket. She didn't know who he was. The drugs had

voice was a low rumble t

tside hesitated,

short-lived. The drug surged again, a tidal wave of sensation. She pressed herself c

chin, his fingers strong and unyie

me," he c

allowing the irises. She couldn't focus.

the name falling from

thing cold and violent sparked in his eyes, a brief glimpse of the monster beneath the suit.

aid, his voice a low